Parashat Beshalach, Exod 13:17-17:16

Manna from Heaven

This week, before we begin, a Torah Puzzler: What connects this week’s reading with Parashat Bereshit, at the very beginning of the Torah? The answer, or at least my answer, will be at the end of the column.

What I intend to talk about this week is the story of the manna. There are some very unusual aspects to it that I think are worth having a look at.

First of all the Hebrew word for manna. It is (wait for it) … man מָן (say AH when you say that). This, of course, is where the English word comes from. When the Israelites first see it, in Exod 16:15, they say to each other, מָ֣ן ה֔וּא man hu — which could mean, “It’s manna!” What it means when the Israelites first say it, however, is something like “What the hell is it?” — man being a word for what, not in Hebrew, to be sure, but in Aramaic.

You have to remember that at the time when the manna was falling down out of the sky Hebrew and Aramaic were not as separate as they later became. So it's quite reasonable to show ancient Israelites saying man for what, even though that's not how you would say what is it in the later, Jerusalem-accented Hebrew that the Torah is actually written in.

“What is it?” is a pretty good name for a product that can have any flavor you like, as Jewish tradition says the manna could. There’s something interesting about the way the manna works, or at least about the first week of the manna story, which is essentially all we’re told about it. As you know, on the first day — presumably it was a Sunday although it's not entirely clear at the beginning of the story — on the first day, Moses tells them: Make sure that you don't have any of it left over by tomorrow morning.

Naturally, some of them don't pay any attention to him. What happens when they wake up the next morning? The stuff is rotten and maggots are crawling around in it and Moses gets very upset. You would think there's no need for him to get upset; after all, the people who ignored his instructions now are left with a container of maggots. Wouldn’t that be enough to make sure they’ve learned their lesson?

It’s interesting that Moses did not say, “Don't leave any over for tomorrow morning because the Lord promised there will be more.” He just said, “Don't leave any over for tomorrow.” So he's not really taking them into his confidence.

We assumed that the “first day” the manna fell was the day that is literally still called in Hebrew יום ראשון yom rishon ‘Sunday’ — because it’s clear that the “sixth day” is indeed יום שישי yom shishi ‘Friday’. It’s clear because, as you remember, however much everyone gathered they all ended up with exactly the same amount. On “the sixth day,” though, they discovered they had twice as much as they had had every day from Sunday through Thursday.

The chieftains, the leaders of each tribe, came to Moses, and the following (reconstructed) conversation ensued:

- Uh … what's going on?

- Here’s the deal.

And now we continue Moses’ remarks as actually reported in Exod 16:23.

That is what YHWH had promised. [To me, Moses, in v. 5, even though I did not bother to tell this part to you, the Israelites.] There is a super-Sabbath, sacred to YHWH, tomorrow. What you want to bake, bake now; what you want to boil, boil now; keep the leftovers stored until morning.

This, remember, is before the Ten Commandments were given; no one had yet been commanded to observe the Sabbath. As the Torah presents it to us, this seems to be a sort of trial run for the upcoming commandment.

The Israelites did as Moses commanded them. The manna didn't spoil the way it had on the other mornings. Moses told them, “Today is that Sabbath I told you about yesterday; eat what you kept, because you're not going to find any manna out in the field where you usually go to collect it.”

Naturally some people did go out to gather manna, and just as they’d been told, they didn't find any. We don't know exactly why they went out looking for manna anyway except that people 1 are creatures of habit, 2 don’t like to be told what to do, and 3 prefer to believe their own eyes.

Well, you are in a desert. Looking for manna is not like hunting for truffles. You wonder where they went, and how long it took, before they figured out that Moses was right. Long enough, at least, for YHWH to say indignantly to Moses, “How long are you going to refuse to keep my commandments and follow my instructions?”

We needn’t pursue that line of thought; as you know, the whole rest of the Torah is full of the Israelites not following God's instructions. Indeed, this very story seems to be here for the purpose of showing the Israelites to be not fulfilling Moses' commandments and not trusting in God.

What I’d like to point out, though, is simply that the leaders of the community have no idea what to do. They turn to Moses for instructions but Moses is not taking even them into his confidence, let alone the entire community. For us, the studio audience, it’s clear that this episode is a test; we overheard YHWH say this to Moses in v. 4. The Israelites, however, aren't told that they are being tested.

They're being examined to see whether they get the idea of following commandments even though there's not really any reason they should get it. Some of them, at least, don't; they have all just been freed from slavery and probably have had their fill of obeying someone else’s commands. Nonetheless, Moses and God are both very upset.

It's not easy for me to see why they should be. They could have made things clearer. We do definitely find out that the people that should be the leaders of the community are absolutely at a loss in this story, while Moses is totally in charge and keeping his cards close to his chest.

Are we to imagine that in a real situation of this kind these leaders of — counting just the men of military age — 600,000 people would be so at a loss and that Moses would not take them into his confidence? Perhaps we are, since in next week’s reading that is exactly the problem that Moses’ father-in-law Jethro shows up to solve.

Oh, yes — the Torah puzzler from the beginning of the column. I told you that at the beginning of the story the Israelites inadvertently gave manna its name by saying מן הוא man hu ‘what is it?’; and man of course became the Hebrew word for manna. But Exod 16:31 says something a little bit more interesting:

The House of Israel called its name manna.

I’m translating a bit more literally than I usually do, to match Gen 2:19, when YHWH, having created all kinds of animals and birds, brings them to the earthling he has created earlier:

And whatever the earthling would call the living creature would be its name.

In Genesis 1 it is God who gives out the names; in Genesis 2, without missing a beat, humanity takes over that responsibility. Exod 16:15, in this week’s reading, has a little fun at the Israelites’ expense, but in v. 31 they too take on the divine responsibility of giving names. They are becoming partners with God just as “Adam” did in Genesis 2 by naming the animals.

We have to assume that just as God was not merely willing but proactive in encouraging humanity to partner in creation by naming the animals, there was some aspect of our story in which he also wanted the Israelites to — excuse the cliché — “take ownership” of the manna, by naming it. That would mean they were beginning to take ownership of their situation in the desert.

Next week, we will see the Israelites taking ownership of the Ten Commandments.