Comentário sobre Êxodo 16:28

עד אנה מאנתם HOW LONG WILL YE REFUSE — A common proverb says: with the thorn the cabbage which is near it, is also stricken — through the wicked the good are brought into disgrace (cf. Rashi on v. 22) (Bava Kamma 92a).

עד אנה מאנתם לשמור, the rebuke included Moses; although Moses, of course, had not gone out to look for manna on the Sabbbath, who is held co-responsible for the people going out as he had withheld information concerning the Sabbath given to him already at the beginning of the week. During the intervening days Moses should have used the time to teach the people the laws concerning the Sabbath. Moses’ specific error is recorded by the Torah in verse 26 when he told the people “you will gather it for six days and on the seventh day there will not be any.” He had not told the people that they must not go out looking for it. The people did not so much rebel against G’d as against the instructions they had received from Moses, when they did not believe him, assuming that he merely did not want them to waste their time looking for something that was not there. Moses should have taught the people that even gathering up manna was considered a forbidden activity on the Sabbath, that the one doing this was considered as if he had harvested it, cut it, on the Sabbath. Not only that, he would also become guilty for transporting it from the public domain to the private domain, another one of the 39 categories of activities on the Sabbath which are disallowed.

עד אנה מאנתם, "how long are you going to refuse?" Since I have have explained (verse 22) that Moses did not commit a mistake by not telling the people earlier about the Sabbath restrictions, why did G'd include him in the people whom He accused of repeatedly refusing to keep His commandments? Our sages in Baba Kama 92 cite a proverb according to which "the good suffer with the bad." This statement seems to confirm that the fact that Moses did not tell the Israelites about the Sabbath restrictions earlier was not something which caused the Israelites to commit a sin. Nonetheless I believe G'd would not have included Moses in His accusation unless He had some complaint against Moses himself. I have taken a look at verse 29 where Moses tells the people that G'd has given them the Sabbath as a gift, and that this was the reason He provided a double portion of manna on Friday. This is also why they should stay at home on the Sabbath. The question we must answer is when did G'd inform Moses of the rules laid down in that verse? If G'd told Moses about all this after He had asked: "how long will you refuse, etc.?" then the problem is why did G'd not tell Moses sooner to inform Israel of these restrictions on the Sabbath? If G'd told Moses already several days earlier, how is it that Moses did not inform the people sooner?