We have been discussing the order of the Dayenus, and there is one more point that the Rebbe highlights.
In Dayenu we say:
“Ilu he’echilanu et ha-man, v’lo natan lanu et ha-Shabbos—Dayenu.”
“If Hashem had fed us the manna but had not given us Shabbos, it would have been enough.”
From this wording, it seems that the giving of the manna came before Shabbos.
However, when we look at the pesukim, the sequence appears to be the opposite.
After the splitting of the sea, the Jewish people arrived at Marah. There, the pasuk says:
“Sham sam lo chok u’mishpat, v’sham nisa’uhu”—there He established for them statute and law, and there He tested them.
Chazal explain that among the mitzvos given at Marah was Shabbos. Only later, as the Jewish people traveled further—eventually reaching Alush—they experienced the lack of food, which led to the giving of the manna.
So according to the simple reading of the pesukim, Shabbos was given before the manna.
Yet in Dayenu, the order is reversed: first the manna, and only afterward Shabbos.
The Rebbe offers two explanations:
First, the Rebbe brings an opinion from the Yerushalmi, and similarly reflected in Devarim Rabbah and hinted to in the Mechilta, that the Torah—or at least certain mitzvos—were given to the Jewish people in Alush. According to this view, the giving of Shabbos is associated with that later stage, which would align with the order in Dayenu: first the manna, then Shabbos.
Second, even according to the view that the mitzvah of Shabbos was indeed given at Marah, it is possible that Moshe Rabbeinu did not actually convey or implement the mitzvah to the Jewish people until later, when they reached Alush. In that sense, the practical giving of Shabbos—to the people as an active mitzvah—occurred after the manna.
Accordingly, the order in Dayenu is precise. It reflects not necessarily when the concept was first introduced, but when it was actually given over and experienced by the Jewish people.
Once again, the Rebbe demonstrates that what may initially appear to be out of order in the Haggadah is, upon deeper analysis, exact and carefully structured.