Behaaloscha 2022

(4) The riffraff in their midst felt a gluttonous craving; and then the Israelites wept and said, “If only we had meat to eat! (5) We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. (6) Now our gullets are shriveled. There is nothing at all! Nothing but this manna to look to!” (7) Now the manna was like coriander seed, and in color it was like bdellium. (8) The people would go about and gather it, grind it between millstones or pound it in a mortar, boil it in a pot, and make it into cakes. It tasted like rich cream. (9) When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall upon it.

(1) אשר נאכל במצרים חנם [WE REMEMBER THE FISH] WHICH WE DID EAT IN EGYPT FOR NOTHING — If you say that they meant that the Egyptians gave them fish for nothing (without payment), then I ask, “But does it not state, (Exodus 5:18): [Go, therefore, now, and work], for there shall no straw be given you”? Now, if they did not give them straw for nothing, would they have given them fish for nothing! — What then is the force of the word חנם? It means: free from (i.e. without us having been burdened with) heavenly commands (Sifrei Bamidbar 87). (2) את הקשאים THE CUCUMBERS — R. Simeon said, “Why did the manna change its flavor into that of anything one wished (as the Midrash states) except into these vegetables here mentioned, the taste of which it appears not to have assumed since the people lusted for them? Because they are injurious to nursing mothers. So indeed people say to a woman: Do not eat garlic and onions on account of the baby. A parable! This may be compared to a king, etc. as it is related in the Sifrei Bamidbar 87. (3) הקשאים These are concombres in O. F., (English = cucumbers). (4) אבטיחים are boudekes in O. F. (English = melons). (5) החציר are leeks, porels in O. F. [The Targum renders the names of the vegetables by בוציניא etc.].

(1) WE REMEMBER THE FISH WHICH WE WERE WONT TO EAT IN EGYPT FOR NOUGHT. According to the plain meaning of Scripture [the explanation of the verse is that] the Egyptian fishermen used to put them to work to bring in the fish that they caught in their trawls and nets, and they would give them some fish [to eat], as is the custom of those that spread nets [upon the waters]. And cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic are very abundant in Egypt, for it is as a garden of herbs, and when they dug for the Egyptians in gardens and in all manner of service in the field they would eat the vegetables. Or perhaps the Israelites who were the king’s slaves doing his work would be supported by him with sparing bread and scant water, and they would be dispersed throughout the city and would enter the gardens and fields, and eat of the vegetables without leaving anything over, as the king’s servants do. And [in addition it is possible that] they would give them at the edge of the river [Nile] small fish from the king’s portion which have no market-price in Egypt, as I have explained in Seder V’eileh Shemoth. This was the complaint of the children of Israel, not the complaint of the mixed multitude [who were originally not of the stock of Israel and were not enslaved in Egypt, therefore they could not say, We remember the fish, which we were wont to eat in Egypt for nought; but after the mixed multitude fell a lusting they all] complained to Moses and demanded of him, Give us flesh, that we may eat, as Scripture mentions further on.

(1) BUT NOW OUR SOUL IS DRIED AWAY. This means that because of their many desires their temperaments had become heated and then dried up, as Onkelos translates it [“but now our soul is lusting”]. Or it may be that [they meant that] our soul is dried away because there is nothing with which to moisten it, since food produces [essential] liquids in the body which satisfy the soul. And they said, we have nought save this manna ‘to look to,’ meaning that even the food [i.e., the manna] on which we live is not in our possession so that our soul can be nourished and satisfied with it; but we desire it and look to it [i.e., we are dependent upon it] at all times, in anticipation that it will come to us; thus we have nothing at all save our hope for the manna. They thus gave expression to the known proverb: “One cannot compare a person who has bread in his basket with one who does not have bread in his basket.” Therefore Scripture tells how many qualities the manna had, stating that its taste was as the taste of a cake baked with oil, thus declaring that the souls of those who ate it did not dry up, for it [the manna] supplied the body with the [essential] liquids and kept it satisfied, and the souls of those who ate it were like a watered garden and like a spring of water.

(1) בכה למשפחתיו [THEN MOSES HEARD THE PEOPLE] WEEP THROUGHOUT THEIR FAMILIES — i.e. the members of each family gathered together and wept in order to display their discontent in public. Our Rabbis, however, said that למשפחתיו means “the people wept because of family affairs” — because of the intermarriage of blood-relaltives that had been forbidden to them (Sifrei Bamidbar 90; Yoma 75a).

Because of family matters - you must wonder, how could they be complaining now about the relations that had already been forbidden to them, and what pertinence does the issue have here? The answer is, it is not really difficult. Now, they are complaining about physical desires that the Holy One, Blessed be He separated from them, as the verse says, "We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt for free" (Numbers 11:5) - "from [the strain of] mitzvot" (cf. Rashi). They were not concerned about the mitzvot [in Egypt], and we were eating and drinking without this concern, and on top of all of this they had desires for forbidden relations, and the Holy One, Blessed be He separated them from the people. Therefore, they were now stirring up about them. This is a simple explanation.

WEEPING, FAMILY BY FAMILY. The families gathered together to cry, as they do when they mourn for the dead.

(10) Moses heard the people weeping, every clan apart, at the entrance of each tent. יהוה was very angry, and Moses was distressed. (11) And Moses said to יהוה, “Why have You dealt ill with Your servant, and why have I not enjoyed Your favor, that You have laid the burden of all this people upon me? (12) Did I produce all this people, did I engender them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a caregiver carries an infant,’ to the land that You have promised on oath to their fathers? (13) Where am I to get meat to give to all this people, when they whine before me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ (14) I cannot carry all this people by myself, for it is too much for me. (15) If You would deal thus with me, kill me rather, I beg You, and let me see no more of my wretchedness!”

ובעיני משה רע, and it was wicked in the eyes of Moses. Man is upset if something he considers his own creation does not live up to his expectations. You may find an illustration of this when the prophet Samuel is reported as having aged prematurely and died as a result of the anguish of seeing King Saul whom he had crowned not having met the challenge of wiping out Amalek. In order to save Samuel from experiencing Saul's death at the hands of the Philistines (compare Taanit 5) G'd had him die prematurely. Moses too was upset at Israel acting in a manner not befitting them. Alternatively, we may understand the words ובעיני משה רע as referring to G'd's anger. It displeased Moses that G'd had become so angry at the Israelites on this account. According to Sifri 1,95 G'd gave Moses a preview of the punishment He was going to exact from Israel on account of this misdemeanour. Moses reacted by asking G'd whether He really considered it fair to feed the Israelites meat only to let them die as a result of their eating the meat.

למה הרעות לעבדך? “Why did you appoint me against my will to lead this people out of Egypt?

כי תאמר אלי שאהו בחיקך, that You should say to me: “carry them in your bosom;” Moses implies that if he had not been commanded to carry on in his position, he would by now have quit.

מאין לי בשר?, Clearly, they know very well that I do not have any meat to give them; if so when they cry and demand “give us meat,” they as much accuse me of being able to provide them with meat but denying them their desire! This is only a crude attempt to find out if my actions as their leader have indeed been prompted by my carrying out Your command! What can I attain from You on their behalf?

“From where do I have meat to give to all these people?” (Bamidbar, 11:13)
Moshe was on the level of the Manna, as it is written (Shemot, 16:4), “God said to Moses, Behold, I will rain on you bread from Heaven.” “From Heaven,” with utmost clarity. From Moshe’s point of view, this bread was clearer and finer than all the goodness of the world. Meat means “better than bread,” for meat is expansion. Thus, when it was said (Devarim, 12:20), “when God shall expand your borders, when He spoke to you and said, you may eat meat,” from Moshe’s perspective it was not from this world at all, only from the life of the world to come. Therefore he said (Bamidbar, 11:21), “the people, among whom I am,” meaning, from where I am standing how could I give them meat? However, God gave them meat when the reign was passed to Yehoshua, for on Yehoshua’s level meat was like freedom from enslavement to the kingdom. Therefore Eldad and Meidad prophesized, “Moshe will die, Yehoshua will bring us in.” So here too the meat was like expansion into a taste of the world to come. Even when they saw that their friends were dying they did not prevent themselves from eating meat, because in one moment of clarity the world to come is worth more than all the life of this world.

For they are formally assigned to Me from among the Israelites: I have taken them for Myself in place of all the first issue of the womb, of all the male first-born of the Israelites. For every male first-born among the Israelites, human as well as beast, is Mine; I consecrated them to Myself at the time that I smote every [male] first-born in the land of Egypt.

כי לי כל בכור FOR ALL THE FIRSTBORN [OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL] ARE MINE — This means: they became Mine by strict right (lit., by the line of justice), because I protected them distinguishing between them and the firstborn of Egypt, and I took them as Mine — until they sinned by worshipping the Golden Calf, but now ואקח את הלוים I HAVE TAKEN THE LEVITES in their stead.