The story is connected to manna, the food that fell from heaven and saved the Jewish people from starvation. (EXODUS 16) According to Jewish tradition, after the exodus from Egypt, during the 40 years of wandering in the desert, some of the people tried to question Moses’ leadership and the fact that the Eternal One was expressing His will through him. Although God had decreed that manna would fall for six days but not on the Sabbath, two of Moses’ main opponents, Dathan and Abiram, slipped out of the camp at dawn on the Sabbath and scattered the manna that had been gathered the previous day in the wilderness. Their plan was that when the campers found the manna in the morning, it would prove to them that Moses was just talking nonsense and that the Eternal One was not almighty. However, the story took a different turn: suddenly, birds arrived from somewhere and pecked up the scattered manna before sunrise, so that by morning there was no trace of the deception. After this, the people found Moses’ words to be true, and thus the birds contributed to the preservation of the sanctity of the Sabbath and the authority of their leader. In memory of them, it has become a custom in many Eastern and Central European Jewish communities for the faithful to scatter seeds to the birds on Friday afternoon before reading the relevant section of the Torah, i.e., Beshalach.
Participants: Uri Asaf, András Böröcz, Judit Fischer, Gyula Július, Gergely Kósa, Orsolya Láng, Fanni Orosz, Sándor Rácmolnár, Beáta Roskó, Gábor Roskó, Zsófia Szemző, Lenke Szilágyi, Kamilla Szíj, Máté Takács, Ákos Wächter