Comentário sobre Êxodo 16:2

וילנו AND THEY MURMURED, because the bread had come to an end.

AND THE WHOLE CONGREGATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL MURMURED AGAINST MOSES. Scripture should have first narrated the nature of the complaint just as it did in Marah²⁸⁴Above 15:23-24, And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter…. And the people murmured against Moses. and Rephidim,²⁸⁵Further, 17:1-2. And they encamped in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. And the people strove with Moses. and at all other complaints — and stated here first: “and there was no flesh to eat, nor bread for them to the full, and the people were famished for bread.” Now Rashi explained that the reason Scripture specifically mentions [that the date of their arrival in the wilderness of Sin] was on the fifteenth day of the second month²⁸⁶Verse 1. is in order “to make this encampment unique. On that day, there came to an end the provision which the Israelites took along with them from Egypt, and they now needed the manna. It thus informs you that they ate sixty-one meals²⁸⁷The manna first came down on the sixteenth day of Iyar, the second month (see Verse 4), thirty-one days after the exodus. Since two meals are ordinarily eaten daily (see Verse 8), this period required sixty-two meals. The first meal, however, was taken in Egypt on the night of the fifteenth day of Nisan, thus leaving sixty-one meals, which were furnished by the provisions they brought out of Egypt. of the remains of the dough [which they had baked in Egypt on the day of the exodus].”²⁸⁸Above 12:39. [Thus far the language of Rashi.] This is a tradition received by our Rabbis,²⁸⁹Mechilta on Verse 1 here. and the reason that Scripture did not [first] explain the nature of their complaint was that it had not elaborated on this miracle which was done for them secretively, [i.e., that the remains of the dough furnished sixty-one meals]. And it is as I have already written in Seder Vayigash concerning the reason [that Scripture is disposed to be silent on hidden miracles].²⁹⁰See Vol. I, pp. 556-558.
Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote that Scripture records the date on the fifteenth day of the second month in order to explain that a month’s time had already elapsed since their departure from Egypt. In the meantime, they consumed the bread they took out of Egypt as well as their cattle, since they were a great multitude of people. This was the reason for the murmuring.
In my opinion, the reason for their complaint is to be found in the Scriptural expression, and they came… unto the wilderness of Sin.²⁸⁶Verse 1. When they came to that wilderness far away from Egypt, they began saying: “What shall we eat? What will this great wilderness into which we have come supply us with?” It may be that at first they had thought that after a few days they would come to the cities round about them. Now that a month had gone by and they found no city of habitation,²⁹¹Psalms 107:4. they said, “We will all die in the great wilderness into which we have come.” This then is the meaning of the verse, And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness, the murmuring being because of the wilderness. And so likewise the people said, for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to put to death this whole assembly by famine.²⁹²Verse 3. Thus they mentioned “the wilderness’ and “the assembly,” therein stating that a large assembly such as this will undoubtedly die of hunger in this great wilderness. The Holy One, blessed be He, hearkened unto them, and He now began to prepare a table for them in the wilderness²⁹³Psalms 78:19. until they came to a land inhabited.²⁹⁴Further, Verse 35.

וילונו כל עדת בני ישראל, “The entire community of the Children of Israel complained, etc.” Ibn Ezra writes that at Marah only a small section of the people the people had complained, the Torah writing:וילונו העם על משה, ”the people” as opposed to כל עדת בני ישראל, “the whole community of the Children of Israel,” i.e. including the elite of the people. At that point they also complained to Aaron. Nachmanides writes that actually the Torah should have written the reason for the people’s complaint, such as that there was no meat to eat, and that there was not enough bread to satisfy their needs, as the Torah had done both when they complained at Refidim and when they complained at Marah. Rashi writes that when the Torah mentions that this station occurred on the 15th day of the second month, i.e. exactly a month after their departure from Ramses, this was the day that the dough that they had brought with them from Egypt that had been baked on the way into unleavened bread, ran out. This made it superfluous for the Torah to spell out the nature of their complaint. Ibn Ezra writes that the reason why the Torah mentions the date is to inform us that already a whole month had passed since the people had left Egypt. During that entire period they had subsisted on the bread they had with them and on the meat of the large herds of cattle and sheep they had brought with them. Now they faced real deprivations. Personally, I think that the complaints were sparked by the realization of the Israelites now that they would not be marching along well-traveled routes, encountering towns and villages along the way, but they were headed deeper and deeper into an arid unpopulated desert. The word במדבר in our verse does not so much describe a specific location as the cause for their complaints. The very fact that they kept moving further and further into the desert led them to accuse Moses and Aaron that they had been brought there to die in the desert. If they had to die, they would have preferred to die in a place where they could have been buried with dignity. They spelled all this out when they said: “you have taken us out into this desert to kill this whole community by letting them starve to death.” G’d immediately listened to their complaint and set about to prepare food for them for the duration of their stay in the desert.

וילונו כל עדת בני ישראל…במדבר, The entire congregation of Israel murmured…in the desert. Their complaint was addressed to the fact that they had to wander through the desert. The route to the land of Canaan was well known and they had expected that Moses would take them along that route. G'd had His own reasons why He did not lead them along the accepted route. The Israelites believed that it was Moses' choice to lead them on this strange route through the desert.

The entire community … complained. There were several differences between this complaint and the previous one (15:24). In the earlier instance it is written that “the people” complained, referring to the masses, where as here it is written that “the entire community” complained, including the elders. On the previous occasion the complaint was directed towards Moshe alone because they believed he had the power to provide them with water through his prayers.

(Ibid. 2) "And the entire congregation of the children of Israel caviled against Moses and Aaron in the desert": R. Yehoshua says: Israel should have sought counsel from their leader (Moses) — "What shall we eat?" Instead, they caviled against Moses. R. Eliezer Hamodai says: Israel were accustomed to cavil against Moses. And not against Moses alone, but also against Aaron.

V. 2. Wir lernen zuerst das Bedürfnis einer solchen Institution in seiner ganzen Wucht kennen. כל עדת בני ישראל, die ganze, doch die edlen Keime jener großen Bestimmungsreife in sich tragende Gesamtheit fing sofort, als sie von dem nahrungsreichen Elim sich wieder in der Wüste befand, über Mosche und Aaron zu murren an. Es nützt alles nichts, die Erlösungs- und Rettungswunder in Mizrajim und im Meere samt der propädeutischen Erfahrung in Mara, alles schwindet im Anblick des drohenden Hungergespenstes für Weib und Kind, und auch in dieser Beziehung mag das Wort gelten: קשין מזונותיו של אדם יותר מקריעת ים סוף, die Nahrung des Menschen ist härter als das Auseinanderreißen des roten Meeres. Die wirkliche oder vermeintliche Gefahr des Verhungerns macht alle Grundsätze schwankend, bringt alle besseren Vorsätze zum Schweigen, und so lange der Mensch nicht, nicht von der Sorge, sondern von der Gewalt der Sorge um die leibliche Existenz erlöst ist, ist für eine durchgreifende Verwirklichung des Gottesgesetzes der Raum nicht gewonnen. Die Befreiung von dem Alp dieses Gespenstes ist jedoch nur möglich durch tiefe Einpflanzung des Bewusstseins, dass auch diese erste aller menschlichen Sorgen, die Sorge für die leibliche Existenz, nicht allein und nicht zunächst auf seinen Schultern zu ruhen hat, dass auch für dieses Ziel der Mensch nur das Seine, d. h. das, was Gott von ihm für dieses Ziel erwartet, tun könne, tun solle, der genügende Erfolg aber Gott anheim zu stellen sei, der jede Menschenseele und jedes Haus mit allen seinen hungernden Seelen und Seelchen Gegenstand seiner stets wachen, allmächtig fürsorgenden Liebe sein lässt; dass überhaupt die menschliche Tätigkeit für die Existenz nicht als ein Recht, sondern als eine Pflicht zu betrachten sei.

וילינו כל עדת, “the entire community complained;” the word: וילינו while written with the letter י after the letter ל is read as if that letter י had been the letter ו.

Here, by contrast, they complained against both Moshe and Aharon because they regretted leaving Egypt altogether. Thus the phrase, “in the desert,” indicates that they resented being in the desert.

Ohne dies Bewusstsein, so lange der Mensch sich, sich allein mit seinen beschränkten Kräften in das Joch des Strebens für das seine und der Seinen Existenz sichernde Brot geschmiedet fühlt, hat diese Sorge keine Grenzen, und nicht eben in einer Wüste, mitten in der mittel- aber auch konkurrenzreichsten sozialen Welt, kann diese Sorge dem Menschen seine Welt zur Wüste machen, kann diese Sorge nicht nur den morgenden Tag, kann die ganze Zukunft, die Zukunft der Kinder, der Enkel, dann der Urenkel und so fort umspannen zu müssen glauben und dem Menschen die rastlose und daher dann die rücksichtslose Eroberung eines immer größeren Anteils an der Welt für sich und die Seinen zur Notwendigkeit erscheinen lassen, neben welcher bald für andere Ziele und andere Zwecke kaum noch ein Raum gegeben bleibt.

In die wirkliche, nahrungsloseste Wüste führt Gott daher das künftige Volk seines Gesetzes, lässt sie dort zuerst die ganze Angst einer nahrungslosen Gegenwart und einer aussichtslosen Zukunft fühlen, lässt sie an sich, für sich und alle ihre Nachkommen, zuerst die Erfahrung machen, zu welcher Rücksichtslosigkeit die Gewalt einer solchen auch nur momentanen Lage hinzureißen vermag. War ja, wie aus dem folgenden Verse zu vermuten ist, das ganze damalige Geschlecht der Sorge für die nackte Existenz völlig entwöhnt. Als Sklaven hatte das Interesse der Herren für die Existenz ihrer Leibeignen zu sorgen gehabt, wie der Besitzer für Dasein und Kraft seines Last- und Arbeitstieres. In der Wüste fing die ganze Israelgemeine über Mosche und Aaron zu murren an.