T125 PNC - Eat It Today — Three Shabbat Meals / Manna and Divine Appointment (1 seg)

The verse: 'And Moses said: Eat it today, because today is Shabbat to God; today you will not find it in the field' (Exodus 16:25, about the manna). The Rabbis derived from here (Shabbat 117b) the obligation to eat three meals on Shabbat, because the word 'today' appears three times in this verse. Each 'today' corresponds to one of the three Shabbat meals: the Friday night meal, the Shabbat day meal, and the third meal (seudah shelishit) in the afternoon. The three meals are not mere custom but a Torah-rooted mitzvah, each anchored in one of Moses's three proclamations of 'today.' The teaching here emphasizes the sanctity of all three meals: each one is a divine appointment, a moment when the spiritual nourishment of Shabbat is specifically designated to be received. Eating each of the three meals is itself an act of divine service, a fulfillment of the spiritual 'manna' of Shabbat.