Chasidut do Wyjścia 16:28
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר יְהוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה עַד־אָ֙נָה֙ מֵֽאַנְתֶּ֔ם לִשְׁמֹ֥ר מִצְוֺתַ֖י וְתוֹרֹתָֽי׃
I rzekł Wiekuisty do Mojżesza: "Dopókiż będziecie się wzdragali przestrzegać przykazań i nauk Moich?
Kedushat Levi
Exodus 16,28.G’d said to Moses: “‘how long will you refuse to observe My commandments and My teachings?”
Pertaining to this verse [which sounds as if G’d accuses Moses, personally, of not observing His commandments, Ed.] Rashi,; says (based on the Talmud in Baba Kamma 92) that sometimes when a farmer wishes to uproot a weed growing too close to a cabbage, he inadvertently uproots the cabbage at the same time. What the Talmud has in mind is that sometimes keeping company with the wicked will result in the innocent becoming afflicted with the fallout of the afflictions that the wicked will be struck with.
In order to understand how our sages dared to explain this verse by attributing to G’d that He would hold Moses responsible for keeping company with the wicked when Moses had been appointed as the leader of the Israelites against his will, and only after arguing about his being unsuitable for such a task for seven days, we may have to refer to another comment by Rashi on 16,22: ויבאו כל נשיאי העדה ויגידו למשה, “the princes of the entire congregation came to tell Moses.” [the fact that a double portion of manna had descended on the camp on the eve of the Sabbath. Ed.] On this verse Rashi writes that the fact that the princes had been taken by surprise is proof that Moses had not told anyone of G’d’s command that this would occur on the Sabbath eve. G’d had told Moses about this already in verse 5 of our chapter, but Moses had withheld this information, part of which was that the people should prepare their food for the Sabbath. Rashi says there that Moses was punished in our verse for withholding this information from the people, so that he is lumped together with them as guilty of not observing G’d’s commandments. In other words, Moses was punished for not warning the people in good time how to prepare for the Sabbath, seeing that there were numerous tasks that could not be performed on the Sabbath, including cooking, baking, etc.
It is clear then that Moses was punished for not telling the people immediately about the Sabbath at the end of the week. Nonetheless, we need to understand how this failure to tell the people about the Sabbath and there being no manna on that day was such a serious act of omission that it warranted such a punishment. Would the fact that the people had known about the absence of manna a few days earlier have made such a difference that all of them would have stayed in their tents without testing if indeed there was no manna on that day?
We have read in a book called sefer yereyim, the book for the truly reverent Jews, that every commandment requires preparation before it can be performed properly, i.e. at the best possible level. One needs to purify oneself in thought and deed before setting out to perform the commandment. The reason is that by preparing oneself for the performance of the commandment one demonstrates that one is happy to have the opportunity to perform this commandment. It shows G’d that one looks forward to the opportunity to perform the mitzvah. Having prepared oneself for performing the commandment ensures that one will do so meticulously. One’s heart and soul will be part of the act of performance.
Pertaining to this verse [which sounds as if G’d accuses Moses, personally, of not observing His commandments, Ed.] Rashi,; says (based on the Talmud in Baba Kamma 92) that sometimes when a farmer wishes to uproot a weed growing too close to a cabbage, he inadvertently uproots the cabbage at the same time. What the Talmud has in mind is that sometimes keeping company with the wicked will result in the innocent becoming afflicted with the fallout of the afflictions that the wicked will be struck with.
In order to understand how our sages dared to explain this verse by attributing to G’d that He would hold Moses responsible for keeping company with the wicked when Moses had been appointed as the leader of the Israelites against his will, and only after arguing about his being unsuitable for such a task for seven days, we may have to refer to another comment by Rashi on 16,22: ויבאו כל נשיאי העדה ויגידו למשה, “the princes of the entire congregation came to tell Moses.” [the fact that a double portion of manna had descended on the camp on the eve of the Sabbath. Ed.] On this verse Rashi writes that the fact that the princes had been taken by surprise is proof that Moses had not told anyone of G’d’s command that this would occur on the Sabbath eve. G’d had told Moses about this already in verse 5 of our chapter, but Moses had withheld this information, part of which was that the people should prepare their food for the Sabbath. Rashi says there that Moses was punished in our verse for withholding this information from the people, so that he is lumped together with them as guilty of not observing G’d’s commandments. In other words, Moses was punished for not warning the people in good time how to prepare for the Sabbath, seeing that there were numerous tasks that could not be performed on the Sabbath, including cooking, baking, etc.
It is clear then that Moses was punished for not telling the people immediately about the Sabbath at the end of the week. Nonetheless, we need to understand how this failure to tell the people about the Sabbath and there being no manna on that day was such a serious act of omission that it warranted such a punishment. Would the fact that the people had known about the absence of manna a few days earlier have made such a difference that all of them would have stayed in their tents without testing if indeed there was no manna on that day?
We have read in a book called sefer yereyim, the book for the truly reverent Jews, that every commandment requires preparation before it can be performed properly, i.e. at the best possible level. One needs to purify oneself in thought and deed before setting out to perform the commandment. The reason is that by preparing oneself for the performance of the commandment one demonstrates that one is happy to have the opportunity to perform this commandment. It shows G’d that one looks forward to the opportunity to perform the mitzvah. Having prepared oneself for performing the commandment ensures that one will do so meticulously. One’s heart and soul will be part of the act of performance.
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