The Torah’s description of the mann that fell from the sky is puzzling.
Why does it appear between the two momentous events of the splitting of the Sea of Reeds and the giving of the Torah?
The mann is also given disproportional attention in The Kuzari, both in how it appears between the revelation of the Exodus from Egypt and the events at Sinai and in the way the Jewish sage presents Israel’s worldview to the king of the Khazars.
Out of all the miracles that took place, Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi amazingly chose to focus on the mann.
Evidently, the mann comes as a response to an internal inconsistency related to Israel receiving the Torah.
Since the Torah was forced on the Hebrew nation, some might argue that it’s not a natural match for our soul(s).
As a result of this dilemma, it became necessary to test the nation prior to the Torah’s revelation, “to see if they will follow My Torah or not” (Sh’mot 16:4) – to determine if the Torah was suited to the internal character of the nation.
Moshe was told two things before the mann fell to earth:
(1) “They will gather it every single day” (16:4) – which meant that they were not allowed to leave any mann for the next day; and
(2) “on the sixth day… there will be twice as much” (16:5) – that on this day the people would gather a double portion.
Moshe announced to the people the first part, which included the prohibition to leave any mann over at the end of the day. But he did not tell them about the second part. Some people violated the prohibition and left some mann over, and “Moshe was angry at them” (16:20).
But on the sixth day, when the people were not told in advance that something different was happening, they observed the law!
“On the sixth day the people collected a double portion” (16:22), leading to a protest by the heads of the nation.
“And all the heads of the community came, and they told Moshe.” (16:22)
Moshe responded: “This is what G-d commanded.” (16:23)
The people were therefore divided into three categories with respect to the advance knowledge about the Creator’s commands:
(1) Moshe, the prophet, who was told the Divine will.
(2) The nation, which instinctively knew the Divine will.
(3) The intelligentsia, whose natural instincts were dulled, could only respond formally to explicit instructions.
We can see from all of this that Israel objects to the Creator’s commands only when given an explicit mitzvah (Tosafot teach that one who has been given a commandment is strongly enticed by his inclination to violate it).
But when the people of Israel are left to make our own choices freely, we can naturally act according to the Divine will.
As is often written in the Talmud: “Go out and see how the people behave.”
Thus, when an explicit command was given once again, “Let no man go out from his place on the seventh day” (16:29),”some people from the nation went out to collect the mann” (16:27).
This explains why it was important for the events of the mann to come before the revelation at Sinai and after the spontaneous awakening of the people to recite an epic poem that they were not commanded to sing.
It was necessary to establish the definite understanding that the Torah’s mitzvot do not contradict the internal natural instincts of those who observe them. And this naturally led to the fulfillment of the prophet’s words: “No longer will one person teach his colleague… for everybody will know Me” (Yirmiyahu 31:33).
