Комментарий к Шмот 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?

עד אנה מאנתם, “how long will you still refuse?” Rashi explains that in the Talmud Baba Kamma 92, the sage Rava is reported to have asked Rabbah bar Meri for the origin of the popular proverb that it happens that in order to remove a thorn one has to extract the plant around it also. He was told that the source is a verse in Jeremiah [the application to our verse is that G’d addresses the entire nation, instead of the few who had not obeyed the instructions of Moses not to go looking for manna on the Sabbath. Ed.] Actually, G’d blamed Moses for not having instructed the people about the laws of the Sabbath already on the day G’d had revealed them to him. Ibn Ezra writes that G’d addressed Moses in verse 29 as if he were the representative of the whole nation. The message was that Moses should tell all the people to stay at home on the Sabbath, i.e. not to go out to collect manna that fell outside the perimeter of the camp. The apparently very restrictive language was the result of some of the people having disregarded the instructions not to look for manna on that day.

There is a proverb among common people. . . The proverb is that when thorns, weeds and vegetables grow together in a field, a bit of the good cabbage sometimes gets pulled out along with the thorns — “The cabbage is stricken with the weeds.” So too here: along with B’nei Yisrael who sinned, those who did not sin [i.e., Moshe] were also stricken. You might ask: Did Rashi not himself explain on v. 22 that the sin was attributed to Moshe because he did not tell them about the laws of [Shabbos pertaining to] the manna, until they asked? The answer is: Both factors contributed. [The proof is as follows:] if the only reason was for failing to tell them the mitzvah of Shabbos, why did Hashem not reprove him right away, rather than waiting until now? Perforce, because “the cabbage is stricken with the weeds.” And if the only reason was because “the cabbage is stricken with the weeds,” why then was Moshe singled out here and included with the wicked, rather than the other times B’nei Yisrael sinned? We therefore must conclude that both factors contributed.

(Exodus 16:28) "And the L rd said to Moses: How long will you refuse to keep, etc.": R. Yehoshua says: The Holy One Blessed be He said to Moses: Moses, say to Israel: I took you out of Egypt and I split the sea for you, and I brought down the manna for you, and I brought up the well, and I swept in the quail for you, and I fought the war with Amalek for you, and I wrought miracles and mighty acts for you — "How long will you refuse to keep My mitzvoth and My laws?" Lest you say that I have imposed too many mitzvoth upon you, this Sabbath (alone) did I charge you with at Marah to keep it, and you have not kept it! Lest you say: What reward is received by the keeper of the Sabbath? It is written (Isaiah 56:2) "Happy is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds fast to it — who keeps Sabbath not to profane it — He keeps his hand from doing all evil." We are hereby apprised that one who keeps the Sabbath is kept far from transgression.

V. 28. Wer am Schabbat gegen Gottes Willen seine Nahrung sucht, leugnet, dass überhaupt seine Nahrung von Gott gespendet werde, legt die Zuversicht an den Tag, er könne ohne Gottes Willen, ja wider Gottes Willen, sein Nahrungsziel erreichen und es sei nicht das göttliche Wohlgefallen, sondern lediglich sein Bemühen und das in dem Erreichten nach physischem Gesetze liegende Mittel, das ihn erhalte und nähre. Er brauche nur zu suchen um zu finden, zu finden um zu haben, zu haben um glücklich zu sein, von Gott sei weder das eine noch das andere bedingt. Der am Schabbat Nahrung suchende Jude kehrt damit ganz Gott und der Befolgung seines Willens den Rücken, stellt sich auf sich selbst und hat das Band mit seinem ganzen Gesetze zerrissen. Daher das Wort: עד אנה מאנתם לשמר מצותי ותורתי; denn mit חלול שבת ist überhaupt die Weigerung ausgesprochen, Gottes Gebote und Lehren zu achten. Speziell ist der Schabbat eine מצוה und eine תורה, wie jedes symbolische Gebot. Er fordert ein konkretes Tun oder Unterlassen (מצוה), um damit eine Wahrheit zu veranschaulichen und sie dem Geiste und Gemüte einzuprägen (תורה). — Wenn hier in dem Vorwurf מאנתם Mosche mit eingeschlossen erscheint, so dürfte ihm damit wohl die Andeutung gegeben worden sein, er habe vielleicht vorsorglicher das Volk vor Übertretung warnen und damit die Übertretung verhüten können. Eine solche vorbeugende Fürsorge gehört ja ganz eigentlich zu der שמירת המצות.

מצותי, “My commandments;” a) they had left over manna for the following day;b) ותורותי, “and My teachings;” they had been given the reason why the Sabbath was to be a day of rest. An example of the use of the word Torah meaning “teachings,” is found in Exodus 18,16: והודעתי את חוקי האלוקים ואת תורותיו, “and I will make known the laws and teachings of G-d.”

ותורותי, the general tenor of Sabbath observance and the reward and punishment associated with proper Sabbath observance.

I believe that here we have touched on the point where Moses erred. He thought that G'd's failure to tell him: "tell the Israelites, etc.," was reason enough for him to confirm only that part of G'd's revelation to him which the people had already found out. Thus, when the people told him their surprise at finding a double portion of manna on Friday (verse 22), Moses only confirmed the fact that he had known about this (verse 23). He did not add that the fact that a double portion of manna had fallen on that day meant that they were not to go out in search of it on the Sabbath. He was therefore indirectly responsible for some of the people going out in search of manna on the Sabbath. These people were not bent on violating G'd's commandment. They felt that since they had not been told specifically that it was forbidden to go out of the camp in search of manna (or anything else for that matter), they did not commit a wrong. As far as they were concerned the prohibition only took effect when Moses told them in verse 29 that leaving the camp on the Sabbath was forbidden. It was only after Moses' announcement that the people "rested on the seventh day" as reported in verse 30. We now understand why G'd had not exempted Moses from the accusation of: "how long are you going to refuse to observe My commandments, etc.?" As soon as Moses heard G'd's accusation and he realised that G'd had included him in it, he immediately proceeded to tell the people about the regulations pertaining to the Sabbath. All of these were the natural corollary of when G'd had told him in verse 5 "they shall prepare whatever they will bring (into the camp). I do not believe that Moses' omission constituted enough of an error for G'd to have included him in such a serious accusation as "how long will you refuse to observe My commandments?" After all, Moses had not been commanded to inform the people of these regulations. While it is true that Moses should have extrapolated from what G'd had told him and should have warned the people of what they were not to do, failure to extrapolate was certainly not something punishable. This explains then why the sages in Baba Kama felt called upon to describe Moses' inclusion in G'd's complaint as merely due to the fact that "the good suffer with the bad."

מצותי ותורותי, "My commandments and My laws." What did G'd mean when He used the plural? We find that the Israelites violated two commandments. 1) G'd told them not to leave any of the manna for the following day. Some people defied this commandment. 2) G'd told them not to go out and collect on the Sabbath. Some people went out in order to collect. As to the expression ותורותי, this too referred to two separate instructions. 1) G'd had instructed them to collect 1 Omer per member of each household, whereas the people collected more (tried to). On the Sabbath some people demonstrated that the fact G'd had already given them a double ration on Friday was not enough for them; they went out in search of more on the morrow. Had they found some they would have wound up with more than 1 Omer per head per day. 2) They did not believe G'd who had said that there would not be any manna on the Sabbath but they went out to collect, etc. There is no greater sin than not to believe either in G'd or in Moses His servant.