After the miraculous crossing of the Yam Suf, Bnei Yisrael began their journey through the midbar. Shortly after, the nation complained of hunger and Hashem sent them angelic food from heaven: the manna. Each day, they gathered exactly what they needed.
This continued all week, until on Friday, the people discovered a double portion. They were surprised and confused, so they approached Moshe. Only then did he inform them that the following day would be a day of rest: “Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy Shabbos for Hashem. Whatever you wish to bake, bake today…”1. Moshe instructed them not to go out to collect on Shabbos because nothing would fall. This was the first time they were encountering Shabbos as lived reality.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe2 explains that the Jewish people already knew of Shabbos as an idea, a future reality they would one day be commanded to live by. Their confusion stemmed from encountering it in action before hearing it presented as a direct command.
That raises an obvious question. If Shabbos had already been introduced at Marah, why were the people only encountering it now in practice, and why did Moshe wait until the double portion to say anything?
The Ohr HaChaim3 addresses this head-on. He notes that Moshe had received a prophecy about Shabbos, but did not tell the people. He asks, How could Moshe, who received a nevuah about Shabbos, withhold it from the people?” We know, there is a well-known prohibition for a prophet to suppress prophecy4.
The Ohr HaChaim explains that Moshe wasn’t commanded to tell Bnei Yisrael about Shabbos yet. Therefore, Moshe refrained from sharing the information. He understood that Hashem wanted the people to learn about Shabbos through experience, not just words.
Rather than being told, they were meant to discover it. They would go out to collect, find double on Friday, yet not find anything on Shabbos, and thereby realize that something holy was happening. The mitzvah of Shabbos would take root in them more deeply when it was sensed and felt before being commanded. This, says the Ohr HaChaim, was Hashem’s calculation:
“They would see with their own eyes that Hashem provides double on Friday for the sake of Shabbos... and come to understand that this day was not like the others.”
Only after they noticed the double portion and approached Moshe did he say, “That is what Hashem spoke about.” And even then, he signaled that he had been told, but not commanded to inform them. It wasn’t a suppression of prophecy,it was a purposeful delay designed to create deeper emunah. The moment to tell them has now arrived.
Still, this leads to another question: If the halachos of Shabbos had not yet become fully binding, what exactly was the spiritual reality of this “early” Shabbos? What were they experiencing?
This brings us to a profound answer from Rav Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin.5
Rav Tzadok teaches a powerful idea: even though the intricate halachos of Shabbos were not yet commanded, the kedushah of Shabbos, its spiritual essence, was already accessible.
At Marah, the Jewish people experienced Shabbos as a spiritual reality rather than a list of rules. This was not a shabbos of Shamor, the guarding of Shabbos through refraining from melachah. They were able to sense Zachor, the inner dimension of Shabbos, with its light, energy, and holiness engraved directly onto their hearts.
According to Rav Tzadok, this is the foundation: first comes the experience of Shabbos, its serenity, its closeness to Hashem, and only then comes the responsibility to guard and preserve it through halachah. This explains the difference between the first and second Luchos: the first said Zachor es yom haShabbos, while the second said Shamor es yom haShabbos. Only once the soul recognizes and connects to the light of Shabbos can it truly protect it.
This introduction to Shabbos at Marah wasn’t merely a preview of halachic obligations. It was a spiritual reprogramming. As Rabbi Yitzchak Feigenbaum explains, Shabbos is deeply tied to Yetziyas Mitzrayim, not just because of historical sequence, but because of its essence. Yetziyas Mitzrayim gave us the freedom to rest, but even more, it reminded us that Hashem controls the world, performs miracles, and gifts us kedushah whether or not we’re worthy of it.
At Marah, the people were gifted a double portion, not just of manna, but of clarity. It was an invitation to experience the presence of the Shechina, the Ohr Ein Sof, before formally being commanded. Like the neshamah yeseirah we receive on Shabbos, sometimes without even realizing it, this Shabbos was planted into their hearts before it was written in stone.
So what was the Shabbos of Marah? It was a gift, a spiritual implanting of Shabbos into the collective heart of Am Yisrael. Before the mitzvah of Shabbos was formally given, its soul was already present. The people didn’t yet know the laws, but they could feel the presence of Hashem in the day. This was a foretaste of what would later become the full observance of Shabbos at Sinai.
Sometimes, we get so caught up in shemiras Shabbos, in the halachic boundaries and details, that we forget about zechiras Shabbos: remembering what Shabbos truly is. At Marah, before any formal commandments, Hashem planted Shabbos into our hearts, not as a list of restrictions, but as a gift of light and inner peace. Shabbos is more than about what we can’t do, it’s about what we can become. It’s an opportunity to reconnect to our purpose, to our people, and to Hashem.
As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote:
“Shabbat… tells us that happiness lies not in what we buy but in what we are... and that we should never allow ourselves to be so busy making a living that we have all too little time to live.”6
The Shabbos of Marah wasn’t yet halachically binding, but it was spiritually awakening. And maybe, even today, that’s where we need to begin: not by unplugging from Shabbos, but by plugging back into what it’s really about.
Shemos 16:23
Likutei Sichos, vol. 38, p. 86
Shemos 16:22
Sanhedrin 89
Pri Tzaddik, Beshalach 12
Covenant and Conversation: Exodus, p. 264
Doesn’t it say לאמור to show that Moshe had permission to repeat what Hashem told him?
Both the Ohr HaChaim and Rav Tzadok’s insights are amazing and the whole idea of us learning about Shabbos (collecting mon) by doing is an important educational model.