פרשת בהעלותך תשי"ג - תלונת ישראל

And the people were as murmurers, speaking evil in the ears of the LORD; and when the LORD heard it, His anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and devoured in the uttermost part of the camp.

And Moses heard the people weeping, family by family, every man at the door of his tent; and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly; and Moses was displeased.

but now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all; we have nought save this manna to look to.’—

אל המן עינינו OUR EYES ARE ON THIS MANNA (i. e. we see nothing but this manna) — “manna in the morning, manna in the evening!” (Sifrei Bamidbar 87)

Furthermore, with regard to the manna: The students of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai asked him: Why didn’t the manna fall for the Jewish people just once a year to take care of all their needs, instead of coming down every day? He said to them: I will give you a parable: To what does this matter compare? To a king of flesh and blood who has only one son. He granted him an allowance for food once a year and the son greeted his father only once a year, when it was time for him to receive his allowance. So he arose and granted him his food every day, and his son visited him every day. So too, in the case of the Jewish people, someone who had four or five children would be worried and say: Perhaps the manna will not fall tomorrow and we will all die of starvation. Consequently, everyone directed their hearts to their Father in heaven every day. The manna that fell each day was sufficient only for that day, so that all of the Jewish people would pray to God for food for the next day.

And Moses heard the people weeping, family by family, every man at the door of his tent; and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly; and Moses was displeased.

ויצעק העם אל משה AND THE PEOPLE CRIED UNTO MOSES — A parable! This may be compared to the case of an earthly king who was angry with his son, and the son went to a friend of his father and said to him, “Go and ask forgiveness for me from father!” (Sifrei Bamidbar 86).

Taverah is probably the name of a place where they encamped for only one day, therefore it is not mentioned in the parasha of Masey ; but it is one of the thirty places they traversed on the way from Mount Sinai to Graves-of-Lust, as I have explained [comment on Numbers 10: 31]. The connection between Taverah and Massah is that in both places the people were grumbling against — were testing, as it were — God . The reason Taverah is mentioned first, before Massah, is that at Massah nothing happened to them. Some say that Taverah is Massah, along the lines of “from the top of S̀ ә nir and Ḥermon” [Songs of Songs 4: 8]. But the correct explanation is the one I have given.

How good. The verb is in the past, as in "how my eyes brightened" (I Samuel 14:29)

הבוקר אור, became lit, as in Samuel I 14,29 ראו כי אורו עיני, “see for yourselves how my eyes have lit up.” A reference to what had occurred already. Similarly, when Bileam referred to the tents of the Jewish people with the words מה טובו אהליך יעקב, “how goodly are your tents O Yaakov,” he did not refer to something that occurred just then, but to a phenomenon which was already well known (Numbers 24,5).