Commento su Esodo 16:14

ותעל שכבת הטל וגו׳ AND WHEN THE LAYER OF DEW WENT UP etc. — When the sun rose the dew which was lying upon the Manna ascended sunward, as is the manner of dew — that it ascends sunward; even if you were to fill an egg-shell with dew and close up its opening and place it in the sun, it (the egg-shell with the dew in it) will rise of its own accord into the air, (in consequence of the tendency of the dew to rise upwards). — But our Rabbis explained that these words imply that the dew rose from the ground into the air. — When the layer of dew went up the Manna became visible, and they looked, (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 20; Shemot Rabbah 38:4) והנה על המדבר דק AND BEHOLD, UPON THE SURFACE OF THE DESERT there was etc.

DAK’ (A FINE) ‘MECHUSPAS’ (PEELED THING). In the opinion of Onkelos, [who translated the word mechuspas as meaning “peeled,” the word] is associated with the expressions: ‘machsoph’ (streaks making bare) the white;³⁸¹Genesis 30:37. ‘chasaph has hem’ (the Eternal hath made bare) His holy arm.³⁸²Isaiah 52:10. The letter sin [in the words machsoph and chasaph] is interchanged for the letter samach [in the word mechuspas], and the second root-letter of the verb [chasaph]³⁸³“The second root-letter of the verb.” Literally: “the ayin of the verb.” Following the theory of Dunash ben Labrat, the great Hebrew grammarian of the tenth century, we call the three letters of the root of any verb by the names of the three letters of the Hebrew ‘po’al’ (verb) [which is spelled pei, ayin and lamed]. Thus the first letter of any verb is called the pei of the verb, the second is called the ayin, the third is called the lamed. In the verb chasaph before us, the second root-letter is the sin or its interchange, the samach, as explained in the text. In the word mechuspas, the samach appears twice. This then is the meaning of Ramban’s saying, “and the ayin (second letter) of the verb is doubled.” is doubled, [thus making it mechuspas].

והנה על פני המדבר, kernels in the shape and texture of very fine crystals as described in Numbers 11,7 כזרע גז הוא, similar to the seeds of Gad.