Our tradition teaches us that on Shabbat, we are supposed to have two loaves of challah at our Shabbat dinner tables. This week's Torah portion, Beshallach, provides the reasoning for this custom. After we have crossed the Sea of Reeds to freedom, the Israelites find themselves in the wilderness complaining about the lack of food, remembering that even though they had been enslaved, they always had enough to eat in Egypt.
God speaks to Moses and lets him know that each day bread in the form of manna will rain down from the sky. The Israelites should gather their share each day. On the sixth day (Friday), when the Israelites brought what they needed home, they would find that they had double what they needed (Exodus 16:5), a portion for Friday and a second portion for Shabbat. Next, Moses and Aaron tell the Israelites, "By evening you hsall know it was the Eternal who brought you out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 16:6). Didn't they already know that it was God who had brought them out of Egypt? Apparently not. A few verses earlier, when the Israelites complain and say that they had had enough to eat in Egypt and it would have been better for them to have stayed there, they credit Moses and Aaron with having brought them into the wilderness.
The double portion of manna on Friday, which we now observe as the two loaves of challah at our Shabbat dinner tables, is meant to remind us that while Moses and Aaron helped lead us out of Egypt, it was actually God who brought us from slavery to freedom. When we sit down at our Shabbat dinner tables, or even when we eat an ordinary meal, God expects us to remember God's role in our lives. We have freedom not only because of our own actions and our own fortune, but also because of our relationship with God.
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