"Beshalach — Part III — Manna, Shabbos, and Spiritual Discipline"

3.2 — The Test Wasn’t Hunger

When Provision Is Guaranteed, What Is Being Tested?

Parshas Beshalach is explicit about the purpose of the manna:
[לְמַעַן אֲנַסֶּנּוּ — “in order that I may test them”].
Yet the nature of this test is often misunderstood. Hunger is resolved almost immediately. The people are fed reliably and abundantly. The anxiety of starvation disappears. What remains is something subtler—and more demanding.

The test is not whether Hashem will provide. It is whether the people can restrain themselves once provision is assured.

Abarbanel: Security Exposes the Deeper Struggle

Abarbanel insists that the manna narrative reframes what a nisayon truly is. In moments of danger, obedience is reactive; fear compels compliance. But when danger recedes, inner discipline is revealed—or exposed.

With manna, Hashem removes the threat of hunger so that desire itself can be examined. The question becomes: will the people trust tomorrow to Hashem, or will they attempt to seize control today?

This explains why the Torah limits gathering even when there is no shortage:

[וְלֹא־יוֹתִירוּ מִמֶּנּוּ עַד־בֹּקֶר — “They shall not leave any of it over until morning”]

The prohibition is not about scarcity. It is about orientation.

Hoarding as Fear, Not Strategy

Those who store manna are not planning efficiently; they are responding to insecurity. Abarbanel reads hoarding as a failure to internalize freedom. Slaves store because they do not trust tomorrow. Free people must learn to rely on relationship rather than stockpile.

The Torah dramatizes this lesson when stored manna spoils:

[וַיָּרֻם תּוֹלָעִים וַיִּבְאַשׁ — “it bred worms and became foul”]

Possession replaces trust—and provision decays.

Ralbag: Obedience Without Urgency

Ralbag adds that the test of the manna is obedience without pressure. There is no immediate consequence for disobedience beyond discomfort and disappointment. This makes the test harder.

Ralbag explains that mitzvos kept only under threat do not shape character. The manna trains obedience when desire must be curbed voluntarily, without external enforcement.

Trust matures precisely when restraint is chosen freely.

Equality Without Accumulation

Another feature of the manna reinforces this lesson:

[וְהָעֹמֶר לֹא הֶעְדִּיף וְהַמַּמְעִיט לֹא הֶחְסִיר — “The one who gathered much did not have extra, and the one who gathered little did not lack”]

The Torah erases advantage gained through excess effort. Abarbanel explains that Hashem neutralizes the illusion that control produces security. Everyone receives what they need—no more, no less.

This is not communism; it is dependence training. The economy of the wilderness is not built on competition, but on trust.

Why This Test Precedes Shabbos

The discipline of restraint prepares the people for Shabbos, where gathering ceases altogether. Before they can sanctify time, they must learn to limit desire. Without this training, Shabbos would feel like deprivation rather than gift.

The manna teaches the inner skill Shabbos requires: confidence that stopping does not endanger survival.

Conclusion: Freedom Measured by Restraint

Parshas Beshalach insists that freedom is not measured by how much one can acquire, but by how much one can refrain from acquiring. The manna reveals that the real test of faith emerges not in hunger, but in abundance.

The Torah teaches that trusting Hashem is hardest when provision is secure—when the temptation to control tomorrow replaces the courage to trust it. In the wilderness, a free people learns that restraint is not loss. It is the deepest expression of confidence in a sustaining relationship.

📖 Sources

• Full sources available on the Mitzvah Minute Parshas Beshalach page under insights and commentaries.