Komentarz do Wyjścia 16:35

ארבעים שנה FORTY YEARS — But was not this period short of thirty days, since it was on the sixteenth of Iyar that the Manna fell for them for the first time and on the fifteenth of Nisan that it ceased, as it is said, (Joshua 5:12) “And the Manna ceased on the morrow”? (cf. the preceding verse which speaks of the day when they ate unleavened bread). But this tells us that in the cakes that Israel had brought out of Egypt and which they ate from the 15th of Nisan to the 16th of Iyar after they left Egypt they experienced the taste of Manna (so that the 40 years mentioned here as those during which they ate Manna may be regarded as complete) (Kiddushin 38a).

אכלו את המן, in lieu of bread made from wheat or other cereals. The Israelites themselves testified to this in Numbers 11,6 when they said (complainingly) בלתי אל המן עינינו, “all we have to look at is the manna.”

את המן אכלו ארבעים שנה, they ate the manna for forty years. There is a good reason why the Torah refers twice to the Israelites eating manna for forty years. Once the people entered the Holy Land they ate manna which had been stored in their vessels, whereas up to the time they crossed the river Jordan they ate manna which had come from heaven on that same day. We have no difficulty in understanding that the longer something of celestial origin remains in our atmosphere, our domain, the more terrestrial it became in nature. The Torah therefore was forced to mention that the manna which the Israelites ate in the desert was in a class by itself. In Kidushin 38 the Talmud asks: "how can the Torah speak about the Israelites eating manna for forty years? They did not receive the first portion of manna until 30 days after the Exodus! The answer given is that their cakes (the unleavened bread they took out of Egypt) tasted like manna.

אל קצה ארץ כנען, compare Joshua 5,12 where the cessation of the manna is described as occurring on the day following the Passover, three days after crossing of the river Jordan.

עד בואם אל ארץ נושבת, “until they arrived in the land they would inhabit.” The part of the desert the Israelites were walking through had not been home to anyone, ever. They ate manna until they crossed the river Jordan when they found part of the new barley harvest and could make bread from it. Actually, the last portion of manna lasted the Israelites until they made camp at Gilgal, at the border of the land of Canaan.

For on the fifteenth day of Iyar. . . You might ask: Did not Rashi explain before in v. 1 that the manna first descended on the sixteenth? The answer is: There Rashi meant the beginning of the sixteenth. And here he means at the end of the fifteenth, for he is counting the night after the previous day, because the manna descended right away on the sixteenth before morning.

(Exodus 16:35) "And the children of Israel ate the manna for forty years": R. Yehoshua says: for forty days they ate the manna after the death of Moses. How so? Moses died on the seventh of Adar (when the manna ceased falling), and they ate of it (i.e., of what was left in their vessels) twenty-four days of the first Adar and sixteen of Nissan, making forty. As it is written (Joshua 5:12) "And the manna ceased (from their vessels) on the morrow" (of the first day of Pesach), and (Ibid. 11) "And they ate of the old corn of the land on the morrow of the Pesach, matzoth and parched corn." R. Eliezer Hamodai says: They ate the manna for seventy days after the death of Moses. How so? Moses died on the seventh of Adar, and they ate of it (i.e., of what was left in their vessels) twenty-four days of the first Adar and thirty of the second Adar, that year being intercalated, and sixteen of Nissan, making seventy days, viz. "And the manna ceased (from their vessels) on the morrow." R. Yossi says: Israel ate the manna for fifty-four years, forty years in the lifetime of Moses and fourteen years after his death, it being written "And the children of Israel ate the manna for forty years until they came to an inhabited land." Let this not be written, for it is already written (Ibid.) "until they came to the edge of the land of Canaan." __ The reference is to the fourteen years that they ate it after the death of Moses — the seven years of conquest and the seven years of apportionment. R. Yehoshua says: When Miriam died, the well was removed, and it was restored in the merit of Moses and Aaron. When Aaron died, the pillar of cloud was removed, and both (the well and the pillar) were restored in the merit of Moses. When Moses died, all were removed and were not restored. And the tzirah (the hornet swarm, viz. (Exodus 23:28) did not cross the Jordan with them, (it having obtained in the merit of Moses). (Exodus 16:36) "And the omer is one-tenth of an ephah": And how much is one-tenth of an ephah? Seven quarters of a kav and something more. How much is that? A fifth of a quarter of a kav.

V. 35. Es wird erst berichtet, dass Israels Söhne sich von Manna genährt haben und dieses ihnen vollständige Nahrung gewährte, so lange sie dessen bedurften, d. h. so lange sie in unbebautem Lande waren. Sodann: dass sie bis zum wirklichen Eintritt in das verheißene Land Kanaan, also im Anblicke des verheißenen Landes, noch Manna aßen, somit unmittelbar von der Mannanahrung zum Genuss des Erträgnisses dieses Landes übergingen, ihnen somit das Erträgnis dieses ihnen nur zum Dienste Gottes verliehenen Landes "Manna" bleiben, und sie auch das Erträgnis dieses Landes als מן, als von Gott gesendete Nahrung weiter genießen sollten.

אל ארץ נושבת, to a land that was inhabited, as opposed to a desert. Compare Deuteronomy 12,7: ועברתם את הירדן וישבתם בארץ וגו', as soon as you cross the river Jordan you will dwell in a land, etc.”

אל ארץ נושבת TO A LAND INHABITED — after they had crossed the Jordan, [for that territory on the other side of the Jordan was cultivated (מְיֻשֶׁבֶת, which is regarded as the equivalent of נושבת; cf. Rashi on Genesis 36:20) and good, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 3:25) “Let me pass over, I pray thee, and see the good land that is on the other side of the Jordan”. And the translation of נושבת by Onkelos is יתבתא which means to say מיושבת, “settled”].

עד בואם אל ארץ נושבת, inhabited countries, i.e. the lands conquered from Sichon and Og on the east bank of the Jordan river. Once they had taken over these lands they also ate regular bread. [a period of possibly six months before they crossed the Jordan. Ed.]

It has occurred to me that there must be a reason why the Torah describes the eating of the first manna as אכלו את המן, whereas the second eating is described in the reverse order, i.e. את המן אכלו. I suggest that when the Torah emphasises the length of time the Israelites ate the manna, i.e. forty years, the emphasis is on the taste, i.e. the eating. Hence the Torah first mentions the word אכלו. When the Torah wishes to describe the precise time frame during which the manna fell it places the word המן in front of the word אכלו, seeing that the Israelites consumed "canned manna" for some time afterwards. It emerges that they did not eat "first rate" manna either during the first 30 days after the Exodus or during the thirty odd days after Moses' death.

אל קצה ארץ כנען UNTO THE EXTREMITY OF THE LAND OF CANAAN — at the beginning of the border before they passed over the Jordan, that is, in the plains of Moab — consequently they (these two descriptions of the locality) contradict each other! But the explanation is that in the plains of Moab, when Moses died (cf. Deuteronomy 34:1) on the seventh of Adar, the Manna really ceased to fall but they had a sufficient supply from the Manna which they had gathered on that day to last until they had brought the Omer on the sixteenth of Nisan in Canaan itself, the cultivated land, as it is said, (Joshua 5:11) “And they did eat of the produce of the land on the morrow after the Passover” (Kiddushin 38a).

את המן אכלו עד בואם אל קצה ארץ כנען, the word את, meaning “with, in addition,” alludes to the fact that they no longer ate manna exclusively. We find further confirmation of this in Joshua 5,11-12 ויאכלו מעבור הארץ ממחרת הפסח...וישבות המן ממחרת, “they ate from the produce of the land, etc.,…the manna stopped on the morrow after the Passover.”