Rashi on TanakhExodus 16

The fifteenth day. The date of this encampment is specifically mentioned because on that day they finished the[ir supply of] cake which they took out of Egypt. and [now] they needed the manna. We learn from this that from the remains of the dough they ate sixty one meals [through the 15th of Iyar] and the manna descended for them on the sixteenth day of Iyar, which was on the first day of the week as is cited in Maseches Shabbos.

They complained. Because their [supply of] bread was finished.

If only we had died. [מוּתֵנוּ means:] “that we should die.” It is not a noun as is מִיתָתֵנוּ — “our death” but rather like עֲשֹוֹתֵנוּ, חֲנוֹתֵנוּ, שׁוּבֵנוּ which mean: that we should make, that we should set up camp, that we should die. Onkelos translates it (i.e., מִי יִתֵּן מוּתֵנוּ) לְוַי דְמִיתְנָא as [he translates] לוּ מַתְנוּ [meaning:] “If only that we should die.”

Enough for each day. The food requirements for the day they shall gather on that day. They may not gather today for tomorrow’s needs.

That I may test them [to see] If they will walk [in the way of] My teaching. Whether they will keep the mitzvos dealing with it [viz.,] that they not leave any of it [overnight] and that they not go out on Shabbos to gather [it].

It will be twice as much. For today and for tomorrow.

Twice as much. As they usually gathered each day of the rest of the days of the week. I say that אֲשֶׁר יָבִיאוּ וְהָיָה מִשְׁנֶה [should be joined] [and it means:] “After they bring it [home] they will find twice as much upon measuring it over what they had been gathering and measuring every day.” This is the meaning of לָקְטוּ לֶחֶם מִשְׁנֶה: [i.e.,] upon having gathered it it was found to be a double portion of bread. This, too, is the meaning of: “Therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days.” He gives you a blessing (foison in Old French) in the house, to fill the omer twice, so as to have bread for two days.

In the evening. [עֶרֶב is] the same as לָעֶרֶב — “in the evening.”

You will know that Adonoy brought you out from the land of Egypt. “Since you said to us: ‘for you have brought us out,’ you shall [now] know that it was not we who brought [you] out but rather Adonoy Who brought you out for He will will make the quails available to you.”

And in the morning you will see. This is not a reference to the glory that is mentioned [in the verse]: “and behold the glory of Adonoy was visible in the cloud.” But this is what he said to them: “In the evening you will know that He has the power in His hand to give you your desires and [though] He will give [you] meat He will not give it to you with a bright countenance for you asked for something improperly, and on a full stomach. But the bread for which you asked out of necessity, when it will descend in the morning you will see the glory of His bright countenance for He will bring it down to you in a loving manner: (a) in the morning, when there is time to prepare it, (b) with dew above it and dew below it as if packed in a box.

Your complaints against Adonoy. [עַל ה' is] the same as אֲשֶׁר עַל ה' that are against God.

But what are we. [I.e.,] What is our importance —

that you cause complaints against us? That you should set everyone complaining against us — your sons, your wives, your daughters, and the mixture of nationalities. It is with no choice that I am forced to explain the word תַלִּינוּ as meaning “to cause another to do” because of its dagesh and the way it is read. For if it had been the “weak” form (without a dagesh) I would have explained it in the form תִּפְעֲלוּ, as in “(וַיָּלֶן) The nation complained against Moshe.” Or if it had had a dagesh, without a letter י' [after the ל'] and would have been read: תִּלוֹנוּ, I would have explained it in the form of תִּתְלוֹנְנוּ — “you have made yourselves complainers.” But now [in the form of תַלִּינוּ] it has the meaning of: “You have caused others to complain,” as in the case of the spies [where it says]: “They caused to complain against him the entire congregation.”

Meat to eat. But not to [your] fill. The Torah, thereby, teaches proper manners — that meat should not be eaten to satiety. Why did He see fit to make the bread fall in the morning, whereas the meat [fell] in the evening? Because for bread they asked properly for it is impossible for man [to live] without bread, but for meat they asked improperly because they had an abundance of cattle. Furthermore, they could get along without meat. He therefore gave it to them at an inconvenient time [which was correspondingly] improper.

That you cause complaints against Him. [I.e., “You cause] others to do so, who hear you complain.”

Come near [before Adonoy]. To the place where the cloud will descend.

Quails. It is a kind of bird and it is very fat.

There was a layer of dew. The dew was lying on the manna. However elsewhere it says: “When the dew descended, etc. [The answer is: first] the dew descended on the earth, [then] the manna descended upon it, then the dew descended upon it and it [the manna] was as if stored in a box.

The layer of dew had risen, etc. When the sun shines then the dew which is on the manna rises towards the sun as is the way of dew to rise towards the sun. Even were you to fill an eggshell with dew and close up its opening and place it in the sun, it will, on its own, rise into the air. Our Sages explained that the dew [initially] rose from the earth into the air and when the layer of dew rose up, the manna was revealed and they saw: “and behold on the surface of the desert, etc.”

Thin. [Meaning:] a thin object.

Thin [uncovered] flakes. [מְחֻסְפָּס means:] “uncovered” and there is none like it (this word) in Scripture. It may be said that מְחֻסְפָּס [comes from the phrase] “(חֲפִיסָה) a box and a chest” which is a term that appears in Mishnah. When it was uncovered from the layer of dew, they saw there had been a thin object enclosed inside it between the two layers of dew. Onkelos translates it: מְקַלַּף (flaked) meaning: “(מַחְשֹף) the peeling of the white.”

As frost. כְּפוֹר is jelede (frost) in Old French. [Onkelos translates it] דַעֲדַק כְּגִיר, [the word גִר occurring in] כְּאַבְנֵי גִר which is a type of black color as we say regarding the “covering of the blood:” “(הַגִּיר) Black fine earth and orpiment.” [Thus Onkelos translates it:], דַּעְדַּק כְּגִיר כִּגְלִידָא עַל אַרְעָא, meaning: “It was as fine as גִּיר and lay on the ground congealed as ice. And this is the explanation of דַּק כַּכְּפֹר thinly spread yet attached as a frost. דַק in Old French is tenuis (thin), for it was encrusted with a thin crust on top. The word וּכְגִיר which Onkelos uses in his translation is an addition to the Hebrew and it has no corresponding word in the verse.

It is a food. [מָן הוּא means] “it is something prepared for food,” as in “The king (וַיְמַן) prepared for them.”

For they did not know what it was. So that they could call it by its name.

An omer. The name of a particular measure.

The number of your people. According to the number of people that a person has in his tent, shall they take an omer per head.

Some more, some less. Some gathered much, some gathered little and when they came home each person measured with an omer what he had gathered, and they found that the one who had gathered more did not have more than an omer per person in his tent, and the one who gathered less did not find less than an omer per head, and this was a great miracle that occurred with it.

Some men left [some] over. [They were] Dosson and Aviram.

It became wormy. [The word וַיָּרֻם is derived] from רִמָּה — “worm.”

And putrid. This verse is inverted for it first became putrid and then wormy, as is indicated by what is said: “It did not become putrid and it had no worms,” this is the usual manner for all things that turn wormy.

[When] the sun became hot it melted. That which remained in the field melted and turned into running streams and bucks and deer drank from it and the nations of the world captured some of them and through them had a taste of the manna, and thereby knew the praises of Israel. [The word וְנָמָס is translated by Onkelos] פָּשָׁר from the word פּוֹשְׁרִים — lukewarm water — because of the sun it became warm and turned into lukewarm liquid.

Destemprer [in Old French] similar to [what is found] in Sanhedrin at the end of the Chapter “Four deaths.”

[Lit.] They gathered double bread. In their tents they measured what they gathered and they found it to be twice as much — two omers for each one. There is a Midrash Aggadah: [לֶחֶם מִשְׁנֶה meaning:] לֶחֶם מְשׁוּנֶּה — “different bread;” on that day it changed for the better regarding its smell and its taste.

And told Moshe about it. They asked him: “What is [different about] today from other days?” From here we may learn that Moshe had yet not told them the section pertaining to Shabbos which he had been commanded to tell them: “On the sixth day [when] they prepare, etc.” Until they asked: “What is this?” He responded to them: “This is what Adonoy has said,” i.e., “that I had been commanded to tell you.” It is for this [oversight] that Scripture (God) punished him, when He said to him (i.e., addressing Moshe) “How long will you refuse [to keep My commands]?” and he (Moshe) was not excluded from the general group.

Bake what you want to bake. What you wish to bake [of the two omers] in the oven, bake today everything [you need] for two days, and whatever of it you need to cook in water, cook today. The term אֲפִיָיה — “bake,” applies to bread whereas the term בִּישּׁוּל — “cook,” to a boiled dish.

To preserve. [I.e.,] for storage.

Moshe said, “eat it today”, etc. In the morning, when they were accustomed to go out and gather the manna, they came to ask, “Shall we go out or not?” He responded to them: [אִכְלֻהוּ הַיּוֹם] [I.e.,] “That which is in your possession, eat.” In the evening they again came before him and asked him, “What about going out [now]? He answered them, “It is Shabbos today!” He then saw them worrrying lest the manna ceased, and will descend no more. He then said to them, “Today you will not find it.” Why the stress on the word “today”? “Today you will not find it, but tomorrow you will find it.”

But the seventh day is Shabbos. [Meaning:] “It is Shabbos; there will be no manna on it.” This verse comes only to add Yom Kippur and holidays.

How long will you refuse. There is a proverb among common people: “The cabbage is stricken with the weeds.” Through the wicked, the righteous are disgraced.

See. With your own eyes that God Himself warns you regarding the Shabbos, for a miracle occurs every Shabbos eve when He gives you bread for two days.

Every man must remain in his place. From here the Sages found an allusion [to the law] that there are four amos [designated] for someone who has gone out of the [Shabbos] limit: three for his body and one more to stretch his arms and legs.

[No man] may go out, etc. [An allusion to] the 2,000 amos of the Shabbos-limit. But this is not explicit [in the verse] for [the laws of] Shabbos-limits are only Rabbinic prohibitions. The main thrust of the verse was said regarding the manna gatherers.

It was like white coriander seed. A kind of herb called aliendre [in Old French] whose seed is round but not white, Whereas the manna was white. It is compared to the coriander seed only in so far its roundness is concerned. [Thus the verse is to be understood:] “It was like a coriander seed but it (the manna) is white.”

Like wafers. Dough which is fried in honey, and is called אִסְקְרִיטִין in the language of the Mishnah. This (אִסְקְרִיטִין) is Onkelos’ translation.

To preserve. For storage.

For your generations. In the days of Yirmiyahu: When Yirmiyahu would admonish them: “Why are you not involved in the study of Torah?” they would respond: “Shall we abandon our work and study the Torah?! From where will we support ourselves?” He would take out the jar of manna and say to them: “This generation! See this thing of God!” It does not say: “Hear!” but rather: “See! With this your forefathers were supported. God has many messengers to prepare sustenance for those who fear Him.”

A jar. A flask made of earthenware, as Onkelos translates it (צְלוֹחִית).

Place it before Adonoy. In front of the Ark This verse was not said until the “meeting-tent” was built but it was written here in the section dealing with the manna.

Forty years. But were they not thirty days short [of 40 years]! For on the fifteenth day of Iyar the manna descended for the the first time and on the fifteenth of Nissan it ceased, as it is said: “And the manna ceased the next day.” But [the answer is:] this indicates that in the cakes that B’nei Yisrael brought out of Egypt they tasted a manna taste.

To an inhabited land. [Until] after they crossed the Jordan. (Another version of Rashi: for that [land] which is across the Jordan is inhabited and good, As it is said: [Moshe said:] “Please, let me cross and see the good land which is on the other side of the Jordan.” Onkelos translates נוֹשָבֶת as יָתְבָתָא, he means: settled. From an old Rashi manuscript)

To the edge of the land of Canaan. At the beginning of the border, before [actually] crossing the Jordan. This refers to Arvos Moav. Consequently they contradict each other. But [the answer is:] When Moshe died in Arvos Moav on the seventh of Adar, the manna ceased and they had sufficient manna from what they gathered on that day until they brought the [korbon] Omer on the sixteenth of Nissan, as it is said: “They ate from the produce of the land on the day following the [first day of] Pesach.”

A tenth of an eiphah. The eiphah equals three Se’ahs; a se’ah is 6 kabin (3×6=18); a kab is 4 logs (18×4=72); a log is equivalent to 6 eggs (72×6=432). Consequently 1/10 of an eiphah (432/10) is equal to 43 1/5 (43.2) eggs. This is the minimum amount [of dough] that requires the separation of “challah” and for the meal offerings.