Author's note - It's a shame that Shabbos table Parsha insights like this only come to light after the Parsha! Maybe I will do a rerun post next year in time for it. In any case, enjoy!
The Torah
begins the story of the mahn with these two pasukim:
ויסעו מאילם ויבאו כל עדת בני ישראל אל מדבר סין אשר בין אילם
ובין סיני בחמשה עשר יום לחדש השני לצאתם מארץ מצרים
וילינו [וילונו] כל עדת בני ישראל על משה ועל אהרן במדבר
The first of
the pasukim merely tells us that the congregation of the children of Israel
arrived to a new venue – the Midbar of Sin – precisely on the 15th
of Iyar after they left Egypt. The second pasuk begins the story of the mahn
saying that all of them complained.
There are two
things that stand out in the first of the two pasukim:
- The emphasis
on the entire congregation reaching the new region.
- The precise date is recorded.
Then, in the
following pasuk, we are told again that it was the entire congregation that complained.
Why are these things important?
Rashi doesn’t
say anything about "the entire congregation" in either of the pasukim, but he
does talk about why we need to know the date. He writes:
On the 15th Day - The day of this encampment was articulated, because on that very day, the pastry they took out of Egypt was used up and they needed the mahn. We learn from this that they subsisted on the remnants of their dough or the remnants of the matza for 61 meals, and that the mahn fell on the 16th of Iyar. And it was a Sunday as is stated in Maseches Shabbos.
We learn from
Rashi that the reason they only now complained about their need for bread is
because this is the day the supply ran out.
The Oznayim L’Torah
from HRHG Rav Zalman Sorotzkin, ZTL, without directly referring to Rashi, seems
to have Rashi in mind when he gives an additional explanation as to why the
Torah needed to tell us the precise date. He writes:
On the 15th Day of the Second Month – The date here is mentioned to tell us that for a complete month, as long as they had remnants of their pastry that they took away from Egypt, they did not complain for lack of bread, the supply of which was constantly diminishing, and they never asked, “What will we eat tomorrow?”. It was only when the last morsel was consumed, they asked appropriately for bread even though it was not in an appropriate manner.
In other words,
the Jews always knew that at some point the food would be used up – they did
not seem to have the miracle of oil – yet they refrained from making a fuss about
it until they had no choice.
Now, Oznayim
L’Torah does take notice of the superlative “the entire congregation” in both
pasukim. In the first pasuk, he gives an explanation that, at first glance, is
not relevant to our discussion. He writes:
The Entire Congregation of the Children of Israel - The Midbar of Sin was their primary destination, in order to receive the Torah. Thus, the Torah found it proper to note that even though they first needed to transverse the big horrible desert, Midbar Shur, in which many kings had lost their armies, the entire congregation of Jews arrived at their destination and not a single casualty.
As I said,
this does not seem to play into our discussion, but it shows us that there is a meaning
to the expression. In the next pasuk, again he gives an explanation why it is important
that we are discussing the entire congregation. He writes:
The Entire Congregation of the Children of Israel – In contrast to Marah (lack of water) where only “the nation” העם complained and they only complained to Moshe (and not also to Aharon), who mobilized them against their will…but in Midbar Sin, they all felt the lack of bread and they all complained to both Moshe and Aharon…
As I looked
over these insights and put them all together, I was perplexed.
This was the
day that their bread supply ran out. Whose bread supply? Everyone’s
bread supply. Remember that at Marah where there was no water only some of the people
complained. Not all of them. But now in Midbar Sin, everybody
complained. Because everybody’s bread supply ran out. Nobody complained before
they ran out of bread (Oznayim L’Torah) and the day before, nobody complained.
Seems like yesterday,
everyone had some remnants of bread and today, everyone’s supply ran out, so
everybody complained. What a coincidence!
It seemed odd
to me that everybody had just exactly enough bread for 30 days, not more and
not less. I would assume that there were big “planners” who packed a lot of dough and small “planners” who don't think ahead and travel light, bigger families and smaller families and people
with bigger appetites who eat more and some with smaller appetites who eat
less. Different strokes for different folks.
So why should
it happen that everybody’s bread supply ran out exactly the same day?
At the table
we could only come up with two explanations: divine and natural.
The divine explanation
is that this was all orchestrated by Heaven. For those who brought less and/or
ate more and didn’t have a full month’s supply, maybe they did have a “miracle
of oil” and it just lasted 30 days. Likewise, to someone who brought a lot
and/or was not a big eater, the excess dough just “melted away” and
miraculously, it all was used up on day 30.
If this is so,
then it is just another hidden miracle that we are not told about.
The natural
explanation is that, indeed one person might have had a supply for only let’s
say 20 days, and another person was a hoarder who could make his supply last
for 40 days or more. As the month progressed, some people actually ran out of
bread, but others who still had, would share with them what they had. Finally,
at the 30-day mark, those who were able to compensate for the shortages of his
neighbor finally reached the limit.
In other
words, the supply was always uneven and, even way before the full month, some members
of the tribes were totally emptied out. They had to rely on the surplus that
another family had even though that family didn’t have a long-term plan themselves. This is not to mention the generosity of the other families.
And still,
until the 15th of Iyar, not a single person complained about the
shortage of food!
Well, with
this explanation, maybe the explanation of Oznayim L’Torah on the reason it
says Entire Congregation in the first pasuk is relevant after all. When a
nation of former slaves is willing to share their diminishing food supply so
that nobody goes without until they all need to go without, is it any wonder that they
all reached Midbar Sin after a treacherous sojourn in Midbar Shur totally
intact?
ומי כעמך
ישראל גוי אחד בארץ
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