After the splitting of the sea, the people begin to settle into their wilderness existence, and become the recipients of a daily dose of manna from heaven.

The instructions as to what this food is, how it is to be rationed, and how it is to be cooked and eaten are given piecemeal. In 16:19, Moshe tells the people not to leave any leftovers until the next day. Perhaps this was the precursor to every successful Passover program: no need to take leftovers to your room because there will always be a new helping of food the following morning.

For the second and last time, we find the people not listening to Moshe (the first was in 6:9, during the heart of slavery, before the plagues began). People leave food for the next day – and it spoils. Moshe’s reaction is to get angry at them.

It is quite understandable why they did not listen to him in Egypt. His efforts to that point had only yielded more work and more suffering. The people, exhausted from their exertions, had not the wherewithal to listen to Moshe’s promises of redemption.

In our story, however, why wouldn’t they listen? After all, if the manna from heaven is so clearly a miraculous gift, and if since the last “not listening experience” you have witnessed this man bring about ten plagues, split the sea and drown your oppressors, why wouldn’t you think there’s something to what he’s doing and saying? How could you come to ignore him completely?

Perhaps they ignored him because they were still living in a slave mentality reality. Perhaps a slave counts every morsel of food that comes his way, not believing he’ll see something good again for a long time. So even though they were told not to leave anything over, either they couldn’t help it because they were used to hoarding or they couldn’t believe that such fresh food would literally spoil in the morning.

So why did Moshe get angry? Shouldn’t he understand the mind games the people play with themselves?