Commentary for Exodus 16:5

והיה משנה AND IT SHALL BE DOUBLE — for today and for tomorrow.

והכינו את אשר, even after having prepared the food from the raw manna it will still be twice the quantity it had been on the previous days. It will not shrink in the course of preparation. The reason G’d speaks of והכינו, “they will prepare it,” is to encourage the people to prepare for the Sabbath by observing it with delicacies, especially tasty food. They should concentrate on all this on the Sabbath eve.

והכינו את אשר יביאו, "and they shall prepare that which they shall bring in, etc." The "bringing of the manna into the camp was in itself part of the process called "preparation." They had to do this on Friday so as not to violate the Sabbath by bringing the manna into the camp on that day. This is why Moses phrased the Sabbath legislation as including: "let no one go outside his place" (i.e. the camp, verse 29).

והכינו, they are to prepare (ahead of time, on the Friday) by baking, cooking, or whatever, their needs for the Sabbath as outlined in verse 23.

והיה ביום הששי והכינו, “it will be on the sixth day when they prepare, etc.” This was the sixth day after the manna had started falling, as well as the sixth day of the week. It had begun to fall on the first day of the week as we explained on verse 1.

As they usually gathered. . . Rashi is answering the question: Why is it “twice as much”? Perhaps this amount normally comes down [on Friday]. Rashi answers: It is “twice as much” when compared to what they usually gathered each day. In other words, it was not twice as much as they gathered the whole week — which would be ten omers — as the verse seems to imply.

"and it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they shall bring": From here it is derived that one makes an eruv on the eve of a festival for the Sabbath. (Exodus 16:5) "and it shall be mem-shin-nun-heh": bread that is "meshuneh" (different). You say, bread that is different, but perhaps (the intent is) bread that is double (mishneh)? (this is not so, for) (Ibid. 22) "two omers for each one" (on the sixth day) already speaks of bread that is double. How, then, am I to understand "bread that is mem-shin-nun-heh"? As bread that is "meshuneh" ("different"). How so? Each day it was one omer; on the Sabbath, two. Each day it was aromatic; on the Sabbath, more so. Each day it was gilt-like; on the Sabbath, more so.

V. 5. והכינו את אשר יביאו , sie werden in dem Heimgebrachten gar keine größere Quantität erblicken und es wie gewöhnlich für den Bedarf des Tages zubereiten, und dann wird es sich als ein doppeltes Quantum herausstellen. In diesen beiden Versen kündigt somit Gott Mosche an, was auch ohne Murren des Volkes geschehen wäre, dass ihm täglich nur das Tägliche gegeben werden solle, um es an das zu Gott für das sogenannte kleine tägliche Leben aufblickende Vertrauen und an das Bewusstsein zu gewöhnen, dass jeder Mensch und jede Menschenhütte ein besonderes Augenmerk der göttlichen Waltung sei, und durch die doppelte Spende am sechsten Tage, dass Gott auch für das durch die besonderen Anforderungen seines Gesetzes erzeugte jüdische Bedürfnis zu sorgen wisse.

והכינו את אשר יביאו, “let them prepare (for the morrow) that which they shall bring home. The word והכינו does not only mean: “to prepare,” but also to conceal after having prepared something for presenting it at a later date. We find this expression in Genesis 37,25, when the brothers of Joseph, already in his private residence after having been invited for lunch, arranged the gift they had brought with them from their father before revealing it when he came into the house.

משנה DOUBLE of what they were accustomed to collect on each day of the other days of the week. I say that the words, אשר יביאו והיה משנה “what they bring shall be double”, imply that after they have brought it home they will find it double in measure of what they had been gathering and measuring each day. This is the force of: “they collected double bread” (v. 22) — when it was collected it was found by them to be double food, and this is the meaning of (v. 29), “therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days”: He gives you a blessing — old French foison, — abundance in the house that you may fill the Omer twice, as bread for two days.

והיה משנה, it will prove to be double even though you have found and brought home a single omer per person in your tent. On the sixth day of the week they will find twice the amount.