פרשת עקב Rabbi Joseph Dweck 8/8/15

(47) because thou didst not serve the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; (48) therefore shalt thou serve thine enemy whom the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things; and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

If you wish to keep the mizvot in order to live, "remember the way..."

Or the Hebrew term le-nassoteka means "to accustom thee"; the word is used in this sense in the following passage: "She has not accustomed (nisseta) the sole of her foot to set it upon the ground" (ibid. 28:56). The meaning of the above passage would then be: "God has first trained you in the hardships of the wilderness, in order to increase your welfare when you enter the land of Canaan." It is indeed a fact that the transition from trouble to ease gives more pleasure than continual case. It is also known that the Israelites would not have been able to conquer the land and fight with its inhabitants, if they had not previously undergone the trouble and hardship of the wilderness. Scripture says in reference to this: "For God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt. But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea; and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt" (Exod. 13:17, 18). Ease destroys bravery, whilst trouble and care for food create strength; and this was [also for the Israelites] the good that ultimately came out of their wanderings in the wilderness.

(5) And the people spoke against God, and against Moses: ‘Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.’

(1) למען ענותך, this is the kind of affliction endured by people who have nothing to eat. Their lives hang by a thread each and every day.

with this rotten bread: Since the manna was absorbed into their limbs [and not excreted from their bowels], they called it rotten (Mizrachi , or cursed , according to Gur Aryeh.) They said,“This manna will eventually swell up in our stomachs.” Is there any mortal who ingests but does not excrete?- [Yoma 75b, see Rashi there]

Rabbi Yohanan would stand up before an elderly gentile, he said, "How many hardships has this person experienced!"