Parshat Beshalach
by Rabbi Avi Billet
In the opening Siman of Shulchan Arukh, the Mishneh Brurah (s”k 13) comments as to why פרשת המן (the section of the Torah addressing Manna, henceforth “Mon”) is included in the back of the morning prayers in many siddurim, and why it is recommended to be said on a daily basis:
ופרשת המן כדי שיאמין שכל מזונותיו באין בהשגחה פרטית וכדכתיב המרבה לא העדיף והממעיט לא החסיר להורות שאין ריבוי ההשתדלות מועיל מאומה ואיתא בירושלמי ברכות כל האומר פרשת המן מובטח לו שלא יתמעטו מזונותיו
“Parshat HaMon is [said daily] so that a person should believe that all his food comes through God’s intent, as it says ‘Whoever took more had no extra, and whoever took less was not lacking,’ to simply demonstrate that extra effort doesn’t assist at all. [In] the Yerushalmi Berachos it says that anyone who says Parshat HaMon is guaranteed that his food will never be minimized.”
The story of the Mon seems pretty straightforward. A month after having left Egypt (16:1) the food supply had dwindled and the people were left with nothing. They complained to Moshe, recalling the endless food supply they had in Egypt, the meatpots and easily available bread.
Moshe tells them they should be complaining to God and not to Moshe and Aharon (16:8). Interestingly, Moshe also instructs Aharon to tell the Bnei Yisrael to approach Hashem, Who has heard your complaints, and then the Torah reports to us that as Aharon was speaking to them, Hashem’s glory appeared in a cloud. (16:9-10)
The mitzvoth of the Mon are given: not to have any leftovers until the morning, to collect doubles on Friday, and not to collect on Shabbos, etc.
While there are many questions we can ask, two in particular come to mind.
- It seems that the Mon came only because the people complained. Was God really intending to have them starve? (This same question can be asked about every time they complain about water?)
- What lessons are we to learn from the Mon tale today? The Torah could have simply stated that God fed the people in the wilderness (as it does in Devarim 8) without going into all the details of the tale!
To the first question, we can look in the Haggadah to find the answer! We say in the “Dayenu,” “Had He only supplied our needs in the desert for forty years and not fed us the Mon, it would have been enough.” Of course, the refrain “it would have been enough” means “it would have been enough reason for us to give thanks,” which is the ultimate message of each phase of Dayenu. But that statement indicates that God DID intend to provide our needs in the wilderness. It seems that the Mon, therefore, was a bonus. Note that “Dayenu” doesn’t reference giving us water, which means that of course God intended to provide water. The people always complained before God felt it necessary to intervene.
What were “our needs” that God was providing in the wilderness? In Devarim 2:7 Moshe tells the people, “You didn’t lack for anything.” In Devarim 8:4 Moshe reminds them that “Your garment did not wear out and your feet did not swell” for all the time in the wilderness. Earlier in our parsha, Moshe told the people at Marah that “if you do what is just in His eyes, give ear to His commandments, and observe all His decrees, then any of the diseases that I placed on Egypt I will not bring upon you, for I am Hashem your healer.”
A Chassidic teaching (recorded by Nachshoni) is that the “disease” of Egypt is the stubborn denial of Hashem’s existence, with no chance of repentance. No matter what, the people would never stubbornly refuse repentance the way Pharaoh did – they were cured of this now and forever.
Some of the commentaries on the Haggadah further explain what the “needs” of the Israelites in the wilderness were. Shibolei HaLeket mentions the protection of the Pillars of Cloud and Fire. Rashbe’tz mentions that the journey followed a path where there was edible shrubbery growing. More than enough for survival. A number of commentators noted that they had plenty of animals and plenty of money to purchase food and other supplies from the peoples they’d encounter (Orchos Chaim, Abudirham, Rashbam). So our needs, therefore were taken care of – but the people wanted MORE. They were used to Egypt providing them with their food, because that is what a master must give to his slaves, in exchange for their slave labor. They did not yet know or understand the ways of the world and how to utilize the resources they had available. Perhaps they wanted to preserve their animals for their own wealth purposes. Perhaps they wanted to save them for offerings. But they could have used them for meat! Their needs were provided.
As for our own lessons from the Mon, there are many. The Mishneh Brurah’s example noted above, is a lesson of faith and trust in the Almighty. A daily recitation is meant to train a person in the ways of Emunah, and to help a person’s ultimate lifegoal, which is to get closer and closer to God in this lifetime.
Ultimately, God said that the test of the Mon would be to see “if [Israel] will follow the ways of My Torah or not.” (16:4)
Ibn Ezra notes that the test was for the people to see that they would need God on a daily basis.
Ramban takes this a step further noting that the test was to see if they would follow God even if they only had one day’s worth of food. Most of us have a kitchen stocked with food for much more than a day, and we also know we can go to a store whenever we want. Perhaps we can imagine a different level of trust in God if the food supply line were to break, or if we had no clear source of sustenance, relying on God to provide for us on a daily basis. (See Yoma 76)
The test of the Mon can also be viewed as a test of gratitude. Do we acknowledge God’s sustaining us on a regular basis? This can be demonstrated by us through our adherence to the mitzvoth associated with saying Brachot!
There are further teachings which compare the daily dose of Mon to the daily doses of Torah that we are to bring into our regular existence. The fact that we have Torah reading 3 times a week is meant to remind us that just as a person should not go 3 days without food, a Jew should not go 3 days without Torah. Certainly the image of a daily Mon supply should remind us of God’s care for us, and His everlasting gift to us which has long outlasted the physical Mon – the Torah which speaks to us on a daily basis, if we are only listening and engaged in its study, and in extracting its practical advice for daily living.
May we be blessed to see that God is always watching over us. Even when we don’t see how He provides our needs, we should be blessed to see how what we have is enough – Dayenu. And we should be blessed to always be moving upward in our relationship with Him, as the many tests associated with the Mon and with wilderness living were to teach us about how to live life outside of Egypt and even in a wilderness, when things are unfamiliar and the direction life is heading is filled with uncertainty.
That is a tremendously powerful lesson for all time, and especially for our time.
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