A Thought on Parshas Beshlach

"...v'haya mishneh..." "...and it was double..." (16:8) The manna which sustained our people in the desert would be collected each morning. Anything leftover at night's end would disintegrate or decay. The exception was on Shabbos. The Torah tell us that a double portion was available each Friday morning to assure that the Jews had enough to last until after the Sabbath ended. We were forbidden to forage and to gather in the field on Shabbos, even to survive in that desert wilderness. Hence, manna was provided in double amounts on Friday, and miraculously, it did not rot over Friday night. There are various customs as to how we preserve this historical phenomenon in our times. We know that three meals - shalosh seudos - are arranged each Shabbos. Most people have two loaves at each of those three meals, so that at every sitting, the miracle of the double portion is commemorated. Rabbeinu Avigdor offers a different view. The Torah declares that a portion of "two omers" of manna appeared for every person on Friday, in contrast with the single omer which fell on the other six days of the week. An omer is sufficient to provide a person with two loaves, one for the morning weekday meal and one for the evening meal. This means that on Friday the double portion of manna would suffice for four loaves. That means that Friday morning each person had a single loaf for breakfast, which left three loaves to be used over the three meals of Shabbos. Following that system, in commemorating the manna phenomenon, every Friday night, a person should have three loaves on hand and eat one of them. Shabbos morning one has two left and eats one of the two. By the third meal, a single loaf would remain. So, on the basis of this accounting, Rabbeinu Avigdor reasons that at "Seuda Shlishis" we only need to have one challa. But this means that there is nothing unique about the third Shabbos meal. It is like any other weekly meal at which we have a single loaf or roll or piece of bread present. The symbolism of this meal in commemorating the manna is that we specifically have one loaf only, which is what they had left Shabbos afternoon in the desert. However, Rabbeinu Avigdor rules that there is in fact a uniqueness to Seuda Shlishis, in contrast with normal weekday meals. He rules that one should say kiddush! He holds that one must say a kiddush at every meal over the course of Shabbos. The Friday night formal kiddush is known to us. The daytime "kiddusha rabba" which the Talmud dictates is, with some scriptural preface, a simple bracha of "borei pri ha'gafen". We all say this at our second meal, which is the Shabbos daytime lunch. According to Rabbeinu Avigdor, the same kiddusha rabba should be recited again at Seuda Shlishis to distinguish it from a weekday meal. This past Shabbos and Sunday, I had the wonderful opportunity to spend some time with the Tolner Rebbe shlit'a of Jerusalem. He was in Los Angeles and I was invited to meet him. He is a great gaon and tzadik. One of the questions he asked over Shabbos was on the famous song "Menucha V'Simcha" which catalogues (if you study it) the sequence of activities which are observed every Shabbos. It gives a chronological hymn about Shabbos. Near the end, after singing about Shabbos morning prayers, the final stanza begins "B'mishneh lechem v'kiddush rabba" - with the double loaf and the kiddush blessing. The Talner Rebbe asked that surely the author should have reversed this order. It should have said, "B'kiddush rabba u'mishneh lechem" - we say the kiddush and then eat the double loaves. He mentioned that there is actually an edition which does reverse this order, although it sacrifices the rhyme which would match the subsequent words (ruach nadiva only rhymes with kiddush rabba, not with mishneh lechem). I suggested to the rebbe that with Rabbeinu Avigdor's ruling, the song makes perfect sense. The only meal where there is "mishneh lechem" according to him is the second meal, or lunchtime. That is what distinguishes lunch since evening dinner has three loaves at the table, and the third meal only has one. However, we go from "mishneh lechem" - the second meal - to Seuda Shlishis, the third meal, which only has a single loaf yet it takes its unique Shabbos quality from the fact that we recite kiddush rabba. So, the hymn first refers to "Mishneh Lechem" which is the lunchtime meal which follows morning prayers. It is the only one of the three Shabbos meals which has mishneh lechem. The next clause in the hymn, Kiddush Rabba, refers to the third meal, which is unique in that it has a kiddush even though it lacks a special combination of challos. In view of Rabbeinu Avigdor's practice, then, we have an understanding of why the unknown author of Menucha V'Simcha arranged the song with that sequence of events. Perhaps he was a Frenchman, as was Rabbeinu Avigdor. Good Shabbos. D Fox