Комментарий к Шмот 16:31

והוא כזרע גד לבן AND IT WAS LIKE THE CORIANDER SEED, WHITE — a herb, the name of which is (in old French) coriandre; its seed is round and is not white, whilst the Manna was white. It follows therefore, that it is compared to coriander seed only in respect to its roundness — so that the meaning is: it was like coriander seed, and it was white (Yoma 75a).

וטעמו כצפיחית. Later on in Numbers 11,8 the Torah describes the taste of the manna as like לשד השמן, some kind of cake made with a lot of oil. Our Rabbis (Yuma 75) explain that to children it tasted like wafers smeared with honey, whereas to the elderly it tasted like these oily cakes.

(Exodus 16:31) "And it was like coriander seed, white ('gad')": I do not know (from this) what it was like. R. Yehoshua says: It was like coriander seed. (But then I would think:) Just as coriander seed is red, so, this. It is, therefore, written "white." R. Eliezer says: It was like "haggadah" (from "gad"), which "pulls" a person's heart. Others say: It testifies ("maggid," from "gad") about itself that it is manna, for it falls neither on Sabbath, or festival, or Yom Kippur. R. Yossi says: Just as the prophet reveals ("maggid," like "gad") what is hidden, so, did the manna reveal it. How so? (see Yoma 75a) (Exodus 16:31) "and its taste was like dough fried in honey": R. Yehoshua says: like stewed eskriti. R. Eliezer says: Like fine flour floated on a sieve and kneaded with honey. (16:32) "And Moses said: This is the thing, etc.": I might think that Aaron placed it there in the fortieth year. It is, therefore, written (Ibid. 34) "And Aaron placed it before the (ark of) testimony." When was the ark made? In the second year (of the exodus). Thus, Aaron placed it there in the second year. And this is one of the ten things created on Sabbath eve (of the creation) at twilight: the rainbow, the manna, the staff (with which the signs were performed), the writing, (the form of the letters carved on the tablets), the shamir (a miraculous stone-cutting worm), the tablets, the opening of the mouth of the earth to swallow up the wicked, the opening of the mouth of (Bilam's) ass, the grave of Moses, and the cave where Moses and Eliyahu stood. Others say: Also the vestments of the first man and the staff of Aaron, its almonds and blossoms. Seven things are concealed from the eyes of man: the day of death, the day of consolation, the depth of judgment, the source of his livelihood, what is in the heart of his neighbor, the restoration of the kingdom of the house of David, and the uprooting of the kingdom of the "liable one" (i.e., Rome).

V. 31. בית ישראל, Israel als Familie und die Träger des Familienlebens, die Frauen, nannten ihn Man: die von Gott zugeteilte Nahrung! Den Satz haben schon die ältesten "Forscher der Schriftfeinheiten", דורשי רשומות, als bedeutsam hervorgehoben. (מכילתא) דורשי רשומות אמרו בית ישראל קראו את שמו מן. Die Gewinnung und Erhaltung des durch die Mannaspende zu erzielenden Sinnes einer in Gott vertrauenden, der Gottesführung heiter frohen Genügsamkeit ist vor allem von dem Eingehen der Frauen in diese Gesinnung und von ihrer Pflege und Wartung derselben abhängig; es ist daher bedeutsam, dass eben die Frauen zuerst das Manna als Gottes jedem das ihm Zukommende und Genügende zuteilende Spende begriffen und diesen Begriff durch den Namen zur Beherzigung festhielten. — גד, dem Namen nach etwas klein Geteiltes, von גדר einschneiden, teilen, wie ברד die Hagelkörner von פרד) ברד usw) trennen.

ויקראו שמו ״מן״, “they named it “manna.” The reason was that the first time when they had put it into their mouth they had asked one another: מן הוא. (Exodus 16,15) By naming it thus they meant to say that their first reaction to it at the time had been justified, seeing that it was something no one had ever seen or tasted. Since that time the meaning of that word has been: “preparing food,” as in Daniel 1,5: וימן להם המלך דבר יום ביומו, “the King prepared food for them on a daily basis;”

כצפיחת LIKE FLAT CAKES — dough which is fried in honey. In the Mishnaic speech it is called אסקריטין (Pesachim 37a), and this is the translation of Onkelos here.

כצפיחית בדבש. Like walnuts before they have been ground when they taste sweet. In Numbers, when the Torah describes the manna as being ground in a mill or being treated in a variety of other ways, its oily taste would come to the fore. Nuts yield their oil as a result of grinding or pounding just as do olives. This is the reason why here the Torah describes וטעמו וגו', whereas in Numbers the Torah writes והיה טעמו, the word והיה alluding to the change in the taste after grinding it. That is when it began to taste more oily. כצפיחית, the letter כ at the beginning, meaning similar to, suggests that there is no other phenomenon in the universe which tasted exactly like the manna. The word צפחת מים in Samuel I 26,11 is a vessel, has nothing to do with the word צפיחית.

צפיחת. Nach den Kommentatoren ein Kuchenteig. R. Elieser erläutert es in der Mechilta: כסולת זו שהיא צפה על גבי נפה, wie das feinste Mehl, das auf dem Siebe schwebend bleibt. Die Prozedur der Mehlgewinnung aus dem Getreide geschah nämlich, wie aus Menach. 76 b. ersichtlich, so, dass die enthülsten Getreidekörner so lange in einem Siebe geschüttelt wurden, bis all der gröbere Mehlstaub (קמה) abstäubte und durch das Sieb hinunter fiel und zuletzt nur der innere, das feinste Amylon haltende Kern im Siebe zurückblieb, der dann erst gemahlen wurde. Dies Sieben hieß daher ריקוד, eigentlich Tanzenlassen der Körner im Siebe. Vielleicht heißt daher auch סלת also, verwandt mit סלד: heftig springen. Demgemäß wäre צפח (ohnehin schon verwandt mit צפה, Überzug, in צפחת, Behälter, und so auch צפח anschließen) identisch mit צפה: Überzug sein, bedecken, und hätte dieselbe Bedeutung, wie das verwandte צוף: oben aufschweben, und hätten wir in צפיחת dasselbe vor uns, was Ps. 19, 11 durch נפת צופים ausgedrückt ist, welches Sota 48 b. ebenfalls durch סלת שצפה על גבי נפה also "das Gesiebe der oben bleibenden Körner" erklärt wird.

והוא כזרע גד, “it was similar to coriander seed;” the Torah had described it in verse 14 as being thin like hoary frost; the frost referred to is distinct by not having definite dimensions, sometimes it is a thicker layer than at other times. והוא כזרע גד, “and it is like coriander seed;” seeing that the Torah had previously described the manna as also being thin, in varying degrees, it wished to compare it also to something else, so that the reader who has never seen it, and is unlikely to ever see it, can get a better mental image of it. It was like the seed of a plant known as coriander. This plant is better known as cilantro (Spanish).

גד, a round globular shaped legume, similar to the seed of coriander

דבש ist vielleicht mit דוש: dreschen, somit: heraustreiben des Innern, verwandt, und bezeichnet so den aus der Frucht gepressten Saft, wie ja auch gesetzlich סחיטה unter den Begriff דישה subsumiert wird. דבש ist in der Regel nicht Honig, sondern Fruchtsaft, und wird wohl Honig nur deshalb auch also bezeichnet, weil er ja auch nur der von den Bienen ausgesogene Blütensaft ist. Wieso דבשת auch den Kamelhöcker bezeichnet, ist dunkel. Vielleicht bezeichnet es nicht den Höcker, sondern die durch den Höcker, zumal beim Dromedar, gebildete Vertiefung, die als das "Ausgehöhlte" erscheint. Vermutlich ist es ja nicht der Höcker, sondern eben diese Vertiefung, die das Kamel zum Reit- und Lasttier geeignet macht.

כזרע, the letter כ has the semivowel sh’va, and the letter ז is vocalised with a segol.

לבן, Coriander seed is not white, whereas the manna is described as such. This is why the Torah adds another description in Numbers 11,7, i.e. bdellium.

וטעמו כצפיחית בדבש, its taste resembled a wafer smeared with honey, i.e. it is eaten without further preparation. When we read elsewhere in Numbers 11,8 that its taste was like sweet cake with cream, that described its taste after it had been ground and baked.