Kiddushin, Daf Lammed Het, Part 1
Introduction
This week s daf continues to discuss the implications of the dispute over whether the word settlement implies that the mitzvah is obligatory in any place where Israel dwells, or only in the land of Israel, after the land was conquered and settled.
בשלמא למ"ד מושב כל מקום שאתם יושבים משמע היינו דכתיב (יהושע ה, יא) ויאכלו מעבור הארץ ממחרת הפסח ממחרת הפסח אכול מעיקרא לא אכול אלמא אקרוב עומר והדר אכול
Now it goes well according to the one that holds that settlement implies wherever you live, as it is written, And they ate the produce of the land on the day after the Passover (Joshua 5:11): on the day after the Passover they ate, but not before, thus the omer was first offered and then they ate.
The word settlement is written with regard to the prohibition of eating new produce. To recall, there are two opinions as to what this word implies 1) that the mitzvah applies everywhere; 2) that the mitzvah applies only once the Israelites conquered and settled Canaan. This verse shows that they ate the new produce as soon as they entered the land, even before conquering and settling it. This proves the first interpretation.
אלא למ"ד לאחר ירושה וישיבה ניכול לאלתר
But on the view that [ settlement implies] after possession and settling, they could have eaten immediately?
According to the second view, they could have eaten the new produce even before offering the omer sacrifice, since the mitzvah does not apply until after they conquered and settled the land.
לא הוו צריכי דכתיב (שמות טז, לה) ובני ישראל אכלו את המן ארבעים שנה עד בואם אל ארץ נושבת את המן אכלו עד בואם אל קצה ארץ כנען
אי אפשר לומר עד בואם אל ארץ נושבת שכבר נאמר אל קצה ארץ כנען וא"א לומר אל קצה ארץ כנען שהרי כבר נאמר עד בואם אל ארץ נושבת הא כיצד בשבעה באדר מת משה ופסק מן מלירד והיו מסתפקין ממן שבכליהם עד ששה עשר בניסן
They did not need to, for it is written, And the children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they ate the manna, until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan. (Exodus 16:35)
Now, it is impossible to say [literally], until they came to a land inhabited, since it is also said: [until they came] to the borders of the land of Canaan; and it is also impossible to say, [until they came] to the borders of the land of Canaan, since it is also said: until they came to a land inhabited! How then [are these to be reconciled]? Moses died on the seventh of Adar and the manna ceased to descend, but they used the manna which was in their vessels until the sixteenth of Nisan.
The Israelites in the desert began to eat new produce on the sixteenth of Nisan in their first year in the land of Canaan, not because it was prohibited until this point. According to this view, the prohibition did not apply until the land was conquered and settled. They ate until this point because that s when the manna ran out. Before that date, they simply had enough manna left over.
The section here is an internal solution to a perceived contradiction between the two halves of Exodus 16:35 did they eat until they came to the borders of Canaan, or until they came to an inhabited land. The resolution is that the manna stopped descending as soon as Moses died (just as the well stopped when Miriam died). But they had enough manna stored up to last about a month and a half.