출애굽기 16:1의 주석

בחמשה עשר יום ON THE FIFTEENTH DAY — The day of this encampment is specially mentioned because on that day there came to an end the cake (provisions) they had brought with them from Egypt and they now needed the Manna, thus informing us that of the remains of the dough they had prepared in Egypt (cf. Rashi on Exodus 12:33) they ate sixty-one meals. For the Manna fell for them on the sixteenth day of Iyar, which was the first day of the week, just as is stated in the Treatise Shabbat 87b.

AND THEY TOOK THEIR JOURNEY FROM ELIM, AND ALL THE CONGREGATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL CAME UNTO THE WILDERNESS OF SIN. Scripture speaks briefly here, for when they journeyed from Elim, they pitched by the Red Sea, and they journeyed from the Red Sea, and they pitched in the wilderness of Sin,²⁷⁷Numbers 33:10-11. since this great wilderness extended from Elim to Sinai. Thus, when they travelled from Elim, they camped beside the Red Sea in that wilderness. Then they journeyed from the edge of the sea and entered into the midst of the wilderness, making the stages of Dophkah and Alush,²⁷⁸Ibid., Verses 12-13. See Ramban further at beginning of Seder Yithro (Note 25) for how this explanation affects a major problem in Torah exegesis as to when Jethro came, i.e., before or after the Giving of the Torah. and then they journeyed from Alush, which is in the wilderness of Sinai, and they pitched in Rephidim.²⁷⁹Ibid., Verse 14.
In the opinion of our Rabbis,²⁸⁰Shemoth Rabbah 25:5. the manna began falling in Alush. When the Israelites saw that they were journeying and camping in the wilderness — in Dophkah and Alush — and had not come out of it, they became frightened and began murmuring. This is the meaning of the verse, And they murmured… in the wilderness,²⁸¹Verse 2. for they had not murmured when they came there but only after they were there in the wilderness [for an extended period of time].

בחמשה עשר יום לחודש השני, this was the day when they ran out of the unleavened bread they had flung over their shoulders as dough when they left Egypt.

ויסעו מאלים...אל מדבר סין, this is what Jeremiah had in mind when he spoke of G’d remembering fondly how Israel had followed Him into the inhospitable desert (Jeremiah 2,2).

ויסעו מאלים ויבואו...מדבר סין,”they journeyed from Eylim….and they arrived in the desert of Sin.” Nachmanides writes that the Torah in this instance uses a form of abbreviation, seeing that when they departed from Eylim they had been at a location on the shores of the Sea of Reeds, and they now moved inland to the desert of Sin. The desert of Sin is a large desert extending from the sea until the edge of the desert of Sinai. There were several stations where the Israelites made camp on the way, which, however, were not mentioned at this point. [only in Numbers Ed.] According to a tradition mentioned by our sages, the manna fist descended when the Israelites were encamped at Alush, the second stop in the desert of Sin. The need for the manna was triggered by the fact that at Alush they encamped already for a second time without making any noticeable progress toward their ultimate objective. As a result, the people expressed their dissatisfaction. By describing the people’s complaint as occurring במדבר, the Torah hints that they did not complain on arrival at the first station in the desert, but at a later stage.

בחמשה עשר יום לחודש השני, “on the fifteenth day of the second month, etc.” this was the month of Iyar; the verse teaches by inference that the dough the Israelites had slung over their shoulders (Exodus 12,39) and which had turned into unleavened cakes had lasted them for a whole month. On the night of the 15-16th of Iyar they still ate from that, whereas on the 16th of Iyar during the day the first installment of manna descended from heaven. In that particular year the 16th of Iyar occurred on Sunday (first day after the Sabbath). This is why the Torah (verse 22) writes that on the sixth day they collected a double-portion. It was the sixth day after the manna had started to descend (compare Mechilta Yayissa section 1).

Sixty one meals. . . There were sixteen days of Nisan and fifteen days of Iyar until the manna first descended. This makes sixty-two meals. However, they ate their first meal in Egypt on the night of the fifteenth, and went out that morning.

(Exodus 16:1) "And they journeyed from Eilim, and they came … on the fifteenth day of the second month of their going out from the land of Egypt": Why is "day" mentioned? We are hereby apprised that on that day Sabbath fell out, it having recurred from the six days of creation until the giving of Torah to Israel. Variantly: "on the fifteenth day of the second month": Why is "day" mentioned? To know on which day the Torah was given to Israel. (Rosh Chodesh of the) Nissan on which Israel left Egypt fell out on the fifth day of the week. Nissan was a complete month (thirty days, so that Rosh Chodesh) Iyyar fell out on the Sabbath. Iyyar was a defective month (twenty-nine days, so that Rosh Chodesh) Sivan fell out on the first day of the week. And it is written (Numbers 33:3) "On the morrow of the Pesach, the children of Israel went out," and (here) "on the fifteenth day of the second month," and (Exodus 19:1) "On the third month of the exodus of the children of Israel, they came to the desert of Sinai," whence it is derived (that the sixth day of their encampment was on the third month (Sivan), on the sixth day of the month, on the eve of the Sabbath, (and the Torah was given the next day, Sabbath [viz. Shabbath 87b-88a]). Variantly: "on the fifteenth day of the second month": Why is the day mentioned? To know on which day the manna descended for Israel. Israel ate from the wafer that they took out of Egypt for thirty-one days, viz. (Exodus 12:39) "And they baked the dough which they had taken out of Egypt, etc.", and (here) "on the fifteenth day of the second month of their going out from the land of Egypt." And what is written at its side (Ibid. 5)? "Behold, I shall rain down for you bread from heaven," (the wafer having sufficed for thirty-one days, from the fifteenth of Nissan until the sixteenth of Iyyar.) R. Shila says: It sufficed for sixty-one meals.

Kap. 16. V. 1. In dieser Erzählung von V. 1 — 10 wechseln die Ausdrücke: כל עדת בני ישראל ,כל בני ישראל ,בני ישראל wohl nicht ohne Grund. כל עדת בני ישראל begreift die jüdische Gesamtheit in ihrer höchsten Bedeutung, als die durch ihre gemeinsame Bestimmung vereinigte Gesamtheit. Es ist die zur Gottesgemeine bestimmte Gesamtheit, und indem dieses Prädikat gleich hier am Eingang hervorgehoben wird, sind wir vorbereitet, dass hier Begebenheiten berichtet werden, die das Interesse der Gesamtbestimmung der jüdischen Gesamtheit in hohem Grade berühren. Es wird uns daher auch ganz genau die Örtlichkeit und das Datum angegeben. Es war gerade ein Monat nach ihrer Befreiung und sie standen am 15. des zweiten Monats nach ihrem Auszuge aus Mizrajim, das sie am 15. des ersten Monats verlassen hatten. Es war wieder ein fünfzehnter, allein anderer Art, ein "Peßach katon" nach dem Peßach gadol ( — trat ja auch später der Abend zum 15. Ijar subsidiarisch für den Abend zum 15. Nissan ein, Bamidbar 9, 11 — ). Es galt nicht dem Brechen äußerer Fesseln, nicht dem Aufbau und der Rettung der Häuser aus Knechtschaft und Tod, sondern der Freimachung des Geistes und des Gemütes von den Fesseln der Sorge um die leibliche Nahrung durch Unterstellung der individuellen und Familienexistenz unter die Gottesherrschaft und Gottesleitung im Schabbat. Denn nichts Geringeres, als die durch eine vierzigjährige ununterbrochene Wundererfahrung eingeführte und eingelebte, die ganze Judenheit und das ganze Judentum tragende Institution des Schabbats, wird hier bekundet. Wenn das Peßach die jüdischen Häuser für Gott aufgebaut, so hat der Schabbat die jüdischen Häuser für Gott erhalten.

ויבאו כל עדת בני ישראל, “the entire community of Israel arrived, etc.” the unusual formulation is meant to emphasise that since the departure from Egypt until this point not a single Israelite who had left Egypt was found missing.

THE WILDERNESS OF SIN WHICH IS BETWEEN ELIM AND SINAI. The reason for this [geographic description] is to distinguish between this wilderness of Sin and the other wilderness, Tzin, written with the letter tzade, where the Israelites came in the fortieth year [of their stay in the wilderness] and Miriam died there.²⁸²Numbers 20:1. This is why Scripture mentions there, And they pitched in the wilderness of Tzin — the same is Kadesh,²⁸³Ibid., 33:36. in order to differentiate it [from the wilderness of Sin mentioned here].

Which was on the first day of the week. . . [Rashi knows this] because it is written, “Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day” from when it began to descend “is Shabbos, there will be none on that day” (16:26). Re”m asks: Our verse shows that the fifteenth of Iyar, when they traveled from Eilim to the desert of Sin, was Shabbos. [For the manna started to fall the next morning, on Sunday]. But were they not commanded already at Marah to keep Shabbos [and certain other mitzvos? If so, how could they carry their possessions, and go beyond the Shabbos boundary? Re”m] answers: Perhaps the fifteenth of the month mentioned in our verse is when they arrived, but they actually journeyed on Friday the fourteenth. (See the Nachalas Yaakov regarding this.)

בחמשה עשר יום לחודש השני “on the fifteenth day of the second month.” We had learned already that the first day of the month of Nissan during which the people left Egypt had occurred on a Thursday. It follows that the 15th day of Iyar the day on which they arrived at the desert of Sin must have been a Sabbath. They used this fact to complain to Moses by wishing they had rather died in Egypt than have had to face the problems they had to contend with [since having become a “free” people. Ed.] Moses reassured them that as soon as the Sabbath was over they would be provided with meat to eat, and that on the following morning they would be given manna. [It had been the day on which the dough/matzot they had taken with them had run out. Ed.] The Talmud in Shabbat folio 87, states that they had left Refidim on a Sabbath, even though they had been given the basic laws of the Sabbath at Marah. [One opinion there claims that the restriction of travelling more than 2000 cubits on the Sabbath away from an inhabited area, was not yet applicable. Ed.]