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‫פרשת בשלח‬
‫ מלא העומר ממנו למשמרת לדרתיכם למען יראו את הלחם אשר‬:'‫ויאמר משה זה הדבר אשר צוה ה‬
‫ קח צנצנת אחת ותן שמה‬:‫ ויאמר משה אל אהרן‬.‫האכלתי אתכם במדבר בהוצי אי אתכם מארץ מצרים‬
‫ כאשר צוה ה ' אל משה ויניחהו אהרן לפני העדת‬.‫מלא העומר מן והנח אתו לפני ה' למשמרת לדרתיכם‬
)‫לד‬- ‫ (פרק טז' לב‬.‫למשמרת‬
Moshe said, “This is the thing that Hashem has commanded: A full omer of (manna) shall be a
safekeeping for your generations, so that they will see the food with which I fed you in the
Wilderness when I took you out of Egypt.” Moshe said to Aharon, “Take one jar and put a full
omer of manna into it; place it before Hashem for a safekeeping for your generations.” As
Hashem had commanded Moshe, Aharon placed it before the Ark of Testimony for a
safekeeping.
Mefarshim find many difficulties with this series of pasukim. The Meshech Chochma notices
that in the last pasuk, we are told ‫כאשר צוה ה' אל משה‬, that Moshe was the one commanded to
set aside the manna and yet we read in the pasuk before, ‫ויאמר משה אל אהרן‬, Moshe seems to
delegate this to Aharon? Also, the first pasuk does not inform us as to where the ‫צנצנת מן‬
should be placed. Moshe tells Aharon to place the manna '‫לפני ה‬, and the next pasuk reports
that Aharon places it ‫ ?לפני העדת‬Rav Meir Simcha explains these pasukim with an approach
that fuses both the simple meaning with hidden messages and makes their sequence
convoluted but consistent and enlightening. He begins by pointing out that in our first pasuk,
Hashem appears to be giving a directive without telling us who He was commanding to set
aside the manna. Moshe, on his own, may have decided that it should be Aharon since the
‫ צנצנת מן‬would eventually be placed in the ‫אהל מועד‬, Aharon’s domain. Consistent with this, he
interprets ‫ כאשר צוה ה' אל משה‬as Hashem commanded the manna to fall on behalf of Moshebased on the .‫ גמרא תענית ט‬which says that it was because of Moshe Rabbeinu that the ‫בני‬
‫ ישראל‬received the manna throughout their sojourn in the Wilderness.
The Meshech Chochma adds a second and even broader interpretation of our pasukim which
also explains how Moshe surmised where the jar should be placed. This approach is also based
on the premise that Hashem did not specify who should separate the ‫ צנצנת מן‬and that Moshe
decided, on his own, that it should be Aharon. He takes us to :‫ה‬, ‫ כריתות‬where the ‫ברייתא‬
informs us that when the ‫ ארון הקדש‬was hidden by King Yoshiyahu (before the destruction of
the first Beis HaMikdash), “also hidden away were the jar of manna, the flask of anointing oil
and the staff of Aharon.” The Gemara tells us of three ‫ גזירות שוה‬which are used as sources for
this: The word ‫שמה‬, written both here and with regards to the ‫ ארון‬establishes a parallel
between the ‫ ארון‬and the ‫ צנצנת מן‬i.e. they must always be kept together. The concurrent use
of the word ‫ לדרתיכם‬in the pasukim of the anointing oil and the manna connects these two
items-if the jar of manna is concealed, the flask of oil must be concealed with it. Thirdly,
‫למשמרת‬, written both here and by Aharon’s staff teaches, that if the jar of manna is hidden, so
too must the staff. Although it may have been too early for Moshe to “create” his own ‫גזירה‬
‫ שוה‬, Rav Meir Simcha feels that Moshe sensed this connection between the manna and
Aharon’s staff and therefore believed that the proper place for the manna should be where the
staff would eventually be placed, ‫ ;לפני העדת‬Moshe, however, could not be more specific and
uses a more generic term, ' ‫לפני ה‬, for the Mishkan was not yet built. The Meshech Chochma
explains that our final pasuk, which begins ‫כאשר צוה ה' אל משה‬, is a reference to years later,
when Moshe would be commanded to place the staff of Aharon ‫ ;לפני העדת‬so too now, Moshe
told Aharon to place the jar of manna there. The second half of the pasuk, ‫ויניחהו אהרן לפני‬
‫ העדת למשמרת‬then is a reference to a future event, after the Mishkan was erected and Aharon
was Kohen Gadol. Rav Kupperman ‫זצ"ל‬, in his sefer on the Meshech Chochma, astutely points
out that according to this approach, the Meshech Chochma is able to nicely connect this pasuk
with the next pasuk of the manna Parsha: ‫ובני ישראל אכלו את המן ארבעים שנה עד באם אל ארץ‬
‫ארץ כנען נושבת; את המן אכלו עד באם אל קצה‬/The Children of Israel ate the manna for forty
years, until their arrival in an inhabited land; they ate the manna until their arrival at the border
of Canaan-clearly, a pasuk written as a retrospective historical comment about the miracle of
the manna.
Rav Meir Simcha also adds an inspiring idea to the Parsha of the manna. One might be
disillusioned and think that it is only to the most faithful and righteous of our people who
Hashem directs His attention and deals with in a super natural way; but the average person,
who wants to return to Hashem and devote his life to serving Him, will have to wait for such
“treatment” until he is well on his way up the ladder to being a committed '‫ירא ה‬. For this
reason, the pasuk tells us: ‫למען יראו את הלחם אשר האכלתי אתכם במדבר בהוציאי אתכם מארץ‬
‫מצרים‬- the ‫ בני ישראל‬were afforded this miraculous food well before being given and becoming
experts in the words of the Torah. Their decision to become the People of Hashem, and
Hashem knowing (and only as Hashem can know) that they were absolutely sincere, was
enough to make them worthy of it. So too implores the Meshech Chochma, we all should
understand that once we make that resolve to return to Hashem, with all the sacrifices and
challenges that we will have to face, He will be with us from the onset and will help us along in
achieving our final goal. As he so beautifully writes and is worth quoting verbatim:
‫ כי אף לא‬,"‫ בל ידאג "מאין יבוא עזרי‬,‫ כל איש אשר ידבנו לבו לקבל עליו עול דרכי השי "ת ותורתו‬,‫לכן‬
‫( לבבו‬the intention) ‫ רק מטרת‬,‫( עדיין מלבבו כל דרכי העולם ולא הורגל בתורה‬hardened) ‫הקשיח‬
‫( כי כוונתו להתאמץ במעוז‬to the One Who is aware of everyone’s secret) ‫גלוי להיודע תעלומה‬
.‫ יחלצנו ה' ולא יעזבו ויזמין פרנסתו מקודש‬,‫התורה‬
‫לזכר נשמת אבי מורי ישראל מנחם בן שלום ז"ל‬
‫ולזכר נשמת הרב יהודה בן אברהם שמחה (קופרמן) זצ"ל‬