B'Ha'alotecha

(1) The people took to complaining bitterly before יהוה. יהוה heard and was incensed: a fire of יהוה broke out against them, ravaging the outskirts of the camp. (2) The people cried out to Moses. Moses prayed to יהוה, and the fire died down. (3) That place was named Taberah, because a fire of יהוה had broken out against them. (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. (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!” (16) Then יהוה said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy of Israel’s elders of whom you have experience as elders and officers of the people, and bring them to the Tent of Meeting and let them take their place there with you. (17) I will come down and speak with you there, and I will draw upon the spirit that is on you and put it upon them; they shall share the burden of the people with you, and you shall not bear it alone. (18) And say to the people: Purify yourselves for tomorrow and you shall eat meat, for you have kept whining before יהוה and saying, ‘If only we had meat to eat! Indeed, we were better off in Egypt!’ יהוה will give you meat and you shall eat. (19) You shall eat not one day, not two, not even five days or ten or twenty, (20) but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. For you have rejected יהוה who is among you, by whining before [God] and saying, ‘Oh, why did we ever leave Egypt!’” (21) But Moses said, “The people who are with me number six hundred thousand foot soldiers; yet You say, ‘I will give them enough meat to eat for a whole month.’ (22) Could enough flocks and herds be slaughtered to suffice them? Or could all the fish of the sea be gathered for them to suffice them?” (23) And יהוה answered Moses, “Is there a limit to יהוה’s power? You shall soon see whether what I have said happens to you or not!” (24) Moses went out and reported the words of יהוה to the people. He gathered seventy of the people’s elders and stationed them around the Tent. (25) Then, after coming down in a cloud and speaking to him, יהוה drew upon the spirit that was on him and put it upon the seventy participating elders. And when the spirit rested upon them, they spoke in ecstasy, but did not continue. (26) Two of the participants, one named Eldad and the other Medad, had remained in camp; yet the spirit rested upon them—they were among those recorded, but they had not gone out to the Tent—and they spoke in ecstasy in the camp. (27) An assistant ran out and told Moses, saying, “Eldad and Medad are acting the prophet in the camp!” (28) And Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ attendant from his youth, spoke up and said, “My lord Moses, restrain them!” (29) But Moses said to him, “Are you wrought up on my account? Would that all יהוה’s people were prophets, that יהוה put [the divine] spirit upon them!” (30) Moses then reentered the camp together with the elders of Israel. (31) A wind from יהוה started up, swept quail from the sea and strewed them over the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and about a day’s journey on that side, all around the camp, and some two cubits deep on the ground. (32) The people set to gathering quail all that day and night and all the next day—even the one who gathered least had ten ḥomer s—and they spread them out all around the camp. (33) The meat was still between their teeth, not yet chewed, when the anger of יהוה blazed forth against the people and יהוה struck the people with a very severe plague. (34) That place was named Kibroth-hattaavah, because the people who had the craving were buried there. (35) Then the people set out from Kibroth-hattaavah for Hazeroth. When they were in Hazeroth,

כמתאננים — The term מתאננים denotes [people who seek] “a pretext” — they seek a pretext how to separate themselves from following the Omnipresent. Similarly is stated in the narrative of Samson, (Judges 14:4) “for he sought a pretext (תואנה) [against the Philistines]” (Sifrei Bamidbar 85).

כמתאוננים, on account of the difficulties of the journey. They did not actually complain in their hearts as they had nothing to complain about. They only voiced complaints as a form of testing G’d.

AND THE PEOPLE WERE ‘K’MITHON’NIM.’ Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented that [the word k’mithon’nim is] “of the root aven (wickedness); similarly, the thoughts of ‘oneich’ (thy evil thoughts), for they spoke words of wickedness.” But this is not correct, for why would Scripture have concealed their sin, and not stated [clearly what it was], as it does in all other places! The correct interpretation appears to me to be that as they got further away from Mount Sinai, which was near an inhabitable settlement, and entered the great and dreadful wilderness in their first journey, they became upset and said: “What shall we do? How shall we live in this wilderness? What shall we eat and what shall we drink? How shall we endure the trouble and the suffering, and when shall we come out of here?” The word k’mithon’nim is thus related to the expression, Wherefore doth a living man ‘yithonein’ (complain), a strong man because of his sins? which is an expression indicating pain, and feeling sorry for oneself. Similarly, ben oni means “the son of my sorrow; “‘v’anu hadayagim’ (and the fishers shall lament) and all they that cast angle into the Nile shall mourn. Thus when Scripture states that they felt anxious and upset, it has thereby already mentioned and told [the nature of] their sin. It states that they were k’mithon’nim (‘as’ murmurers), meaning that they spoke in the bitterness of their soul as do people who suffer pain, and this was evil in the sight of the Eternal, since they should have followed Him with joyfnlness, and with gladness of heart by reason of the abundance of all good things which He gave them, but they behaved like people acting under duress and compulsion, murmuring and complaining about their condition. It is for this reason that He states with regard to the second [sin, or punishment], and the children of Israel also wept ‘again,’ meaning that their first sin consisted of complaining about their lack of comforts in the wilderness, and now they again did a similar thing, and they did not receive correction from the fire of G-d which devoured them.

AS MURMURERS. Mitonenim (murmurers) is related to the word aven (evil). Onekh (evil) in thy evil (onekh) thoughts (Jer. 4:14) is similar.

Wash your heart clean of wickedness,
O Jerusalem, that you may be rescued.
How long will you harbor within you
Your evil designs?

כמתאוננים, “as murmurers;” the word is related to און and עמל, “as in Jeremiah 4,14: מחשבות אונך, “your evil designs.”

(Numb. 25:1): THE PEOPLE BEGAN. Every place that THE PEOPLE is mentioned, it is an expression of shame; but every place that Israel is mentioned, it is a word of commendation. (Numb. 11:1:) NOW THE PEOPLE WERE AS MURMURERS SPEAKING EVIL IN THE {EYES} [EARS] OF THE LORD. (Numb. 21:5:) SO THE PEOPLE SPOKE AGAINST GOD AND AGAINST MOSES. (Numb. 14:11:) HOW LONG WILL THIS PEOPLE SCORN ME …: (Numb. 11:10:) MOSES (SAW] [HEARD] THE PEOPLE WEEPING FOR THEIR FAMILIES. (Numb. 14:1:) AND THAT NIGHT THE PEOPLE WEPT. (Exod. 32:1:) THE PEOPLE GATHERED TOGETHER AGAINST AARON.