This sheet on Exodus 16 was written by Micha Odenheimer for 929 and can also be found here
Redemption, along with the giving of the Torah, is marked by a new means of sustenance. The Israelites are lifted out of the by now seemingly inevitable economy and culture of hoarding through the story of the manna. The Sages rightly saw the manna as creating a preparatory, material basis for divine revelation. “The Torah was not given,” says the Talmud, “but to the eaters of the manna.”
What is the essential quality of manna? It is a sustenance unmediated by a human economic system. It cannot be stored or hoarded. Left overnight, it spoils, corrupts, and crawls with worms. Each and every person is charged with gathering just enough manna to eat for one day. The Torah calls this “d’var yom b’yomo”—“each day’s matter on that day” (Exod. 16:4). Pharaoh uses this very expression after imposing heavier burdens upon the Israelites after Moses’s initial intervention on behalf of the beleaguered people. There, “each day’s matter” refers to the arbitrary quota of bricks that each person was to produce—bricks for a giant storehouse (Exod. 5:13).
In the story of the manna, to emphasize the revolutionary nature of the Exodus—in which Egyptian reality is stood on its head—the phrase is used again, but this time it refers not to the gross accumulation of resources, but to the modest amount of sustenance each person needs for that particular day.
To emphasize the centrality of the manna principle in Judaism, God commands Moses, at the very end of the manna narrative, to place a jar with one omer of manna in the Ark of the Covenant, alongside the tablets of the law, in the holy of holies. In its immediacy, in the total economic equality it represents, and in its negation of accumulation and stockpiling, it repudiates those cultures in which economic and political power are centralized and conjoined through the storage of food and other forms of capital.
Seen in the light of the narrative arc stretching from Eden to the giving of manna, the meaning and direction of the economic justice legislation of the Torah becomes more readily apparent. The Torah’s purpose is to create an “anti-Egypt,” in which exploitation is not allowed free reign because land, wealth, and the means of production have not been concentrated in the hands of the few. Rather than the consolidation of land in the hands of one person, the Torah commands that the land of Israel be divided, so that each family has its own plot of land, of a size appropriate to the needs of the family. As with the manna, the principle of land distribution is, “To each according to their needs.”
As if to emphasize the nature of this society as opposite that of Egypt, the priests are the only group not allotted land; ironically, in Egypt the priests were the only group that was allowed to keep its land in the face of Joseph’s feudalization of the Egyptian economy.
What is the essential quality of manna? It is a sustenance unmediated by a human economic system. It cannot be stored or hoarded. Left overnight, it spoils, corrupts, and crawls with worms. Each and every person is charged with gathering just enough manna to eat for one day. The Torah calls this “d’var yom b’yomo”—“each day’s matter on that day” (Exod. 16:4). Pharaoh uses this very expression after imposing heavier burdens upon the Israelites after Moses’s initial intervention on behalf of the beleaguered people. There, “each day’s matter” refers to the arbitrary quota of bricks that each person was to produce—bricks for a giant storehouse (Exod. 5:13).
In the story of the manna, to emphasize the revolutionary nature of the Exodus—in which Egyptian reality is stood on its head—the phrase is used again, but this time it refers not to the gross accumulation of resources, but to the modest amount of sustenance each person needs for that particular day.
To emphasize the centrality of the manna principle in Judaism, God commands Moses, at the very end of the manna narrative, to place a jar with one omer of manna in the Ark of the Covenant, alongside the tablets of the law, in the holy of holies. In its immediacy, in the total economic equality it represents, and in its negation of accumulation and stockpiling, it repudiates those cultures in which economic and political power are centralized and conjoined through the storage of food and other forms of capital.
Seen in the light of the narrative arc stretching from Eden to the giving of manna, the meaning and direction of the economic justice legislation of the Torah becomes more readily apparent. The Torah’s purpose is to create an “anti-Egypt,” in which exploitation is not allowed free reign because land, wealth, and the means of production have not been concentrated in the hands of the few. Rather than the consolidation of land in the hands of one person, the Torah commands that the land of Israel be divided, so that each family has its own plot of land, of a size appropriate to the needs of the family. As with the manna, the principle of land distribution is, “To each according to their needs.”
As if to emphasize the nature of this society as opposite that of Egypt, the priests are the only group not allotted land; ironically, in Egypt the priests were the only group that was allowed to keep its land in the face of Joseph’s feudalization of the Egyptian economy.
Micha Odenheimer is a journalist, rabbi, and social entrepreneur, founder of Tevel b'Tzedek.
929 is the number of chapters in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, the formative text of the Jewish heritage. It is also the name of a cutting-edge project dedicated to creating a global Jewish conversation anchored in the Hebrew Bible. 929 English invites Jews everywhere to read and study Tanakh, one chapter a day, Sunday through Thursday together with a website with creative readings and pluralistic interpretations, including audio and video, by a wide range of writers, artists, rabbis, educators, scholars, students and more. As an outgrowth of the web-based platform, 929 English also offers classes, pop-up lectures, events and across North America. We invite you to learn along with us and be part of our dynamic community.
To join 929's listserv for new and dynamic content each week click here
To join 929's listserv for new and dynamic content each week click here
