Lead Tidbit
Bread from There & Here

This week's sedra tells us about the MN (MN = mahn = manna) which G-d
"rained" down on the people - LECHEM MIN HASHAMAYIM, bread from the Heavens. G-d had more in mind, so to speak, than feeding the people. As He said to Moshe, that the people would collect the MN daily, "in order to test them, if they will follow My Torah or not".

The MN sustained the people for almost 40 years. That translates into over 12,000 manifestations of that daily (not on Shabbat, double on Friday) miracle. Over 12,000 times, the Jewish people collected MN and enjoyed G-d's gifts and wonders. And for the 3276 years since the cessation of the MN, the Jewish people (and all other people as well) have been sustained by G-d's gift of LECHEM MIN HAARETZ, bread from the ground. That's over a million days of miracle and wonder! More subtle than the MN, perhaps, but no less miraculous. And we can say that the test, as to whether we will follow His Torah or not, is still with us. The Torah tells us that some people went out on Shabbat to collect MN, and did not find it. G-d's reaction was to ask Moshe how long will the people refuse to keep His mitzvot and Torah.

How different is it when a Jew works on Shabbat with the mistaken notion that it will increase his income?

G-d set down rules for the MN, as He does for our daily food - the laws of kashrut, special laws for produce of Eretz Yisrtael, Birkat HaMazon... and much more. He was "disappointed" with the violations then, and "pleased" with the majority compliance then.

Let's look at it this way: Rather than Lechem Mishneh on Shabbat being a commemorative of the MN, think of it as a reminder that the concept of the MN lives on all these years later. The only thing that's changed is from where G-d gives us our sustenance - from the Heavens to the Earth - both of which are His.