Devar/5769/Beha'alotcha
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< Devar | 5769
עברית
English
We remember the fish, which we were wont to eat in Egypt for nought; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic; (Num 11:5) but now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all; we have nought save this manna to look to. (ibid 6)
In the same utterance: "there is nothing at all" -- at that very moment, they mentioned God's kindness. He provided them the "manna" to sustain them in the wilderness; and despite their complaint, they lacked nothing. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell (Deut 8:4). Indeed, the Torah describes the manna as: and the taste of it was as the taste of a cake baked with oil (Deut 11:8), that is it didn't have a special flavor, but was satisfying and sustaining. However, our Sages expounded that the manna had "several flavors" (Bavli Yoma 75a) and therefore there was no basis for their complaint.
Worse than this is that they mentioned Egypt favorably: "we remember the fish". And this is the biggest rejection, that they saw God's hand: the signs and wonders, revealed and hidden miracles -- and in their hallucinatory imagination said that it was nevertheless better when they were slaves in Egypt, in the house of bondage. This is very hard to understand.
Children generally don't have the opportunity to control their destiny. They have parents and teachers who watch over them and don't permit them the freedom to do whatever they want. This is a good thing, of course: since they don't have sufficient understanding or experience to make the right decisions. But at some point the child grows and becomes an adult. He then has fewer rulers over him, and is compelled to think for himself and to choose between good and evil. The "complainers" in the wilderness truly wanted to return to bondage, to relieve themselves of the "yoke of commandments" -- because that yoke comes with free choice, and they wanted to remain children forever -- neither to receive reward nor punishment on their own merit.
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