Note 41 — II. OUR DUTIES. (continued 2)

It is customary to have two loaves on the table, over which the blessing ha-motsee is said. They are to remind us of the double portion of bread or manna (‏לחם משנה‎, Exod. xvi. 22) given to the Israelites in the wilderness on the sixth day because of the succeeding Sabbath-day. The cloth spread beneath the loaves, and the cover over them, represent symbolically the dew which both lay on the ground under the manna and also over it.41 The origin of this custom of covering the bread may perhaps be found in the following Talmudic law: “If a meal that has commenced on Friday afternoon is continued in the night, it must be interrupted when Sabbath comes in; a cloth is to be spread over the bread whilst the Kiddush is recited” (Babyl. Talm. Pesachim, 100a). The spreading of the cloth appears to be here merely a sign of the pause, and the distinction between the ordinary meal and that of Sabbath.42 That which was at first ordained for special cases became in course of time a general custom.43