שמות, פרק ט״ז, פסוק כ״ז

The clash between the human habit of worrying about livelihood and the divine demand for rest and trust reaches its peak on the first Sabbath the Israelites experience in the wilderness. Despite a clear promise and the miracle of receiving a double portion of food on the sixth day, a group of people chooses to violate the instructions and go out to search for provisions. The primary approach among commentators is that this action stemmed from a lack of faith, driven by a desire to test whether the words of Moses would come true and if the food would actually stop appearing on the seventh day. This event is counted as one of the ten times the Israelites tested God in the desert [תורה תמימה, ביאור יש״ר]. Other perspectives suggest their motivation was rooted in financial anxiety and greed. These individuals feared that resting from work for even one day would leave them lacking food and cause them to lose a portion of their livelihood [מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. A unique view explains that they genuinely ran out of food. Because Sabbath meals are naturally tastier and people tend to eat more, they finished their prepared portions early and worried they would not have enough [חתם סופר]. Alternatively, some explain this as a legal misunderstanding, where the people thought they were still bound by earlier laws that forbade them from resting from labor [פרדס יוסף].

The decision to go out was not merely a display of distrust, but an actual desecration of the Sabbath. Commentators point out that by doing so, the people violated the prohibition of carrying items from a private domain to a public one [חזקוני]. They also broke the rule against traveling outside the established Sabbath boundary [תורה תמימה, אלשיך]. Furthermore, they violated the prohibition of reaping, because if they had found the food, they would have detached it from its growing place [ספורנו]. On a spiritual level, stepping outside the camp of the Israelites and wandering into the distance symbolized abandoning the camp of holiness and moving toward external forces [אלשיך].

The fact that they ultimately found nothing serves as a clear testimony to their flawed intentions. Even though they did not physically gather anything, it is evident that had they found food, they would have collected it and completed the sin [אור החיים]. Coming up empty-handed perfectly illustrates the spiritual rule that only those who prepare properly beforehand will merit the blessing of the Sabbath [פרדס יוסף]. Additionally, their failure to find food hints at a deliberate attempt at sabotage. Some suggest that wicked individuals scattered leftover food on Sabbath morning to make Moses look like a liar. However, birds ate the remnants before the rest of the people arrived, resulting in them finding nothing [פרדס יוסף].

This severe breach of discipline led to a direct rebuke from God [קאסוטו]. Interestingly, this reprimand was also directed at Moses himself. He may have failed to warn the people with the necessary severity [אלשיך], or he may have forgotten to inform them in advance about the miracle of the double portion on the sixth day. This omission caused the people to mistake the double portion for a natural astrological occurrence rather than a divine miracle [שפתי כהן]. Ultimately, this event represents a massive missed historical opportunity. If the Israelites had properly and fully observed this very first Sabbath, no other nation would have ever been able to dominate them. Instead, immediately following this desecration of the Sabbath, they were attacked and forced into war with Amalek [תורה תמימה, ברכת אשר, פרדס יוסף].