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Lechem Mishneh: Maan + Maan = Two Or The Sum of Two Parts is Greater than the Whole |
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Written by Nathan Kruman
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 Though we’re in the book of Exodus, ‘numbers’ already play a huge role in our lives. (Actually, they have since day one of creation.) In the portion of Beshalach the number two
is prominent - we received a double portion (lechem mishnah) of what was later to be called maan (mannah).
Maan seems to be the most natural food ever created, perhaps the first funnelcake ever, “cake fried in honey” (Ex. 16: 31). More significantly, maan did not merely sustain our bodies, it was “food from heaven,” spiritual nourishment:
Behold – I shall rain down for you food from heaven; let the people go out and pick it and pick each day’s portion on its day so that I can test them, whether they will follow My teaching or not.” (Exodus 16:4).
What test? It seems that all things spiritual come at a price. Both Rashi and Ramban hold that the test was to only pick the portion allotted for that day and no more, which would raise the question: What will we eat on the Sabbath, when no work may be done?
The solution the Torah provides to this problem seems clear:
It happened on the sixth day that they gathered a double portion of food, two omers for each; and all the princes of the assembly came and told Moses. He said to them: “This is what Hashem had spoken; tomorrow is a rest day, a holy Sabbath to Hashem. Bake what you wish to bake and cook what you wish to cook; and whatever is left over, put away for yourselves as a safe-keeping until the morning. (Exodus 16: 22-23)
Yet if the Torah is timeless and applicable in our day, this test would seem pretty limited if it was merely about keeping the Sabbath. I would suggest a deeper significance. The Slonimer Rebbe, Rav Noach Borzinski cites the Baal Hashem Tov in the Nesivos Shalom, that this was a test of our faith that Hashem would constantly provide for us.
On one level, this may be a test for those who feel they must work on the Sabbath, yet it may also apply on a more spiritual level, particularly to those who do not work on the Sabbath. It can be difficult beyond comprehension for many to avoid talking or thinking about work on the Sabbath, or more importantly, to be free of worries about work or bills or health or relationships. Perhaps this is the nurturing power of the lechem mishnah:
See that Hashem has given you the Sabbath; that is why He gives you on the sixth day a two-day portion of bread. Let every man rest in his place; let no man leave his place on the seventh day. (Exodus 16: 29)
Further, beyond its physical and spiritual sustenance, there may be another benefit to lechem mishnah as we learn from the foods we eat on and after Pesach. We began with matzah on Pesach and were prohibited from having chametz in our possession in order to protect our joy (by subduing the yetzer harah); we followed this with maan, pure, spiritual food – free of chametz that sustained and nurtured us while on our journey; finally, the Torah we received was not only devoid of chametz, but the resulting joy defeated and constrained the yetzer harah (as it continues to do), enabling us to then bring loaves of bread as an offering on Shavuot (see Rav Simcha Leib Yosef Gad Ezra, www.thefoundationstone.org, Mitzvah 15).
Perhaps there is another significant “two” at play here - the two aspects of Shabbat: shamor (observing) and zachor (remembering). It may be that the joy brought about by our shamor and zachor serves like matzah to subdue our yetzer harah; and that the lechem mishnah that we eat operate on the level of maan to serve as the original lechem mishnah brining us complete joy on Shabbat.
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