Or HaChaim on Exodus 16:32/אור החיים על שמות ט״ז:ל״ב

1 ויאמר משה זה הדבר אשר צוה השם, Moses said: "This is the thing which G'd has commanded, etc." Why did the Torah have to write the word דבר, thing? Furthermore, to whom did Moses address this commandment? If he addressed it to Aaron, why is it not part of verse 33 where Moses commands Aaron to fill a bottle with manna? There seems to be a duplication here.

2I believe we must understand Moses' intention as follows. "This is the thing that G'd commanded: 'fill one Omer of it.'" G'd did not say who was supposed to take the Omer of manna and fill it. G'd did not even say in which manner this Omer of manna should be taken, neither did He specify where it was to be deposited. All that emanated from G'd's mouth were the words: "fill an Omer of it." When Moses spoke to Aaron on the subject he used his own intelligence to guide him. The word למשמרת can have two meanings. We have a rule that when a word is capable of being interpreted in two ways we give equal weight to either possibility; as a result, any action that has to be undertaken in response to a commandment which is ambiguous has to satisfy the requirements of either interpretation because we are not competent to exclude either interpretation. In this instance the two possible meanings of the words are: A) to safeguard the manna which has been set aside from becoming ritually defiled; B) to safeguard it against anyone stealing it or otherwise misappropriating it. Moses secured it against possible theft by decreeing that the bottle of manna should be stored in the Holy Tabernacle; after all this was the place where other nationally important properties such as the tablets with the Ten Commandments as well as the original Torah scroll would be being kept. It was clear to Moses that the place to keep something that G'd wanted the people to see after many generations was the Temple or its equivalent. You will find later on that G'd also instructed the staff of Aaron which had flowered to be preserved in the Holy Tabernacle. The censers of the 250 men who had sided with Korach in his uprising were also kept within the precincts of the Holy Tabernacle as covers for the altar (compare Numbers 17,25, and 17,3-4). The Mechilta on our verse speculates on the material that the bottle was made of and concludes it was of a transparent nature, i.e. silica- based earthenware. When such a container made of earthenware has a tight-fitting lid, its contents are not subject to ritual impurity. When G'd had spoken about the function of the manna in the bottle being למשמרת, Moses understood this word to possess both meanings. The reason Aaron was to take the bottle and fill it was because he was a Priest who perfomed the service in the Holy Tabernacle. He would also ensure that this bottle and its contents would remain ritually pure.

3We may also follow a different approach. When Moses first heard the prophecy about the bottle of manna to be preserved for future generations, he arranged to tell the Israelites all this in its proper sequence. He then found himself unable to determine who should fill the bottle and where it was to be stored. In fact he did not know how to carry out this commandment. He then received further detailed instructions from G'd so that all his doubts were resolved. This is the reason that we find at the end of the paragraph (verse 34) that Moses did as G'd had commanded and that as a result Aaron placed the bottle in front of the Holy Ark. The reason the Torah states this detail is to tell us that Moses did not arrange the details on his own, but that just as the detail about where the bottle was to be placed had been communicated by G'd, so the other details which G'd is not on record as having spelled out were also communicated to Moses by G'd Himself.

4If we follow our first approach then the words כאשר צוה ה׳ אל משה mean that G'd considered whatever Moses decided on his own as if He Himself had directed Moses to do it.

5למשמרת לדרתיכם, "to be preserved throughout your generations." The reason the Torah speaks of the plural is that this bottle of manna would be featured twice in the future; once during the lifetime of the prophet Jeremiah, and in the still more distant future according to Mechilta 21 and Tanchuma 3 on our verse. Jeremiah used the bottle to answer the Jews who claimed that they could not devote time to Torah study as they would not then have time to earn their livelihood. He reminded them that those who study Torah would have their needs taken care of by G'd just as He had done when the Israelites were in th desert. The same would hold true in messianic times. This bottle of manna is reputed to be one of three items which the prophet Elijah will restore to the Israelites prior to the arrival of the Messiah.