Soon after the Jews crossed through the split sea in this week’s Torah portion of Beshalach, they started complaining about a lack of food, and Hashem began providing them with manna, which lasted throughout their forty-year journey in the desert. The Torah states, “They journeyed from Elim, and the entire assembly of the Children of Israel arrived in the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month from their departure from the Land of Egypt. The entire assembly of the Children of Israel complained against Moshe and Aharon in the wilderness. The Children of Israel said to them, ‘If only we had died by the hand of Hashem in the land of Egypt, as we sat by the pot of meat, when we ate bread to satiety, for you have taken us out to this wilderness to kill this entire congregation by famine.’… and Moshe said, ‘When, in the evening, Hashem gives you meat to eat and bread to satiety in the morning, as Hashem hears your complaints that you complain against Him – for what are we? – not against us are your complaints but against Hashem'” (Shemos 16:1-8)! Hashem began by giving them manna and did not punish them for complaining at that juncture.
The Moshav Zekeinim asks a question that I have been wondering about for many years: “Rabbeinu asked a major question, ‘Why weren’t they punished here for asking for meat just as they were by the Burials of Desire (Kivros Hataava)?’ The answer is that at this point they didn’t have the manna yet. But by Kivros Hataava they inappropriately asked because they already had the manna and so they were punished.” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
The episode of the Asafsuf, as those individuals were called, which means complainers, is mentioned in the Torah portion of Bihaaloscha, and took place after the Jews received the Torah and dedicated the Mishkan. The Torah there states, “The rabble (Asafsuf) that was among them cultivated a craving, and the Children of Israel wept once more, and said ‘Who will feed us meat?’… Moshe was brought into the camp, he and the elders of Israel. A wind went forth from Hashem and blew quail from the sea and spread them over the camp… The people rose up all that day and all the night and all the next day and gathered up the quail… The meat was still between their teeth, not yet chewed, when the wrath of Hashem flared against the people, and Hashem struck a very mighty blow against the people. He named that place Kivros Hataava, because there they buried the people who had been craving” (Bamidbar 11:4-35).
The Moshav Zekeinim in Bamidbar 11:4 says that the Asafsuf was testing Hashem, to see if He had the power to give them meat. The Moshav Zekeinim actually wonders about what was going through their heads; Hashem already proved in Beshalach that He could provide meat? He answers that in Beshalach they were still located near the sea, where the quail lived, so it was not as big of a deal to find quail to eat. But now that they were farther into the desert, they then thought that Hashem might not be able to provide them with meat. (Click here for Hebrew text.)
The claim of the Asafsuf is quite astonishing! How could they honestly believe that Hashem didn’t have the power to give them quail because they were more inland than the first time the Jews complained they had no meat, when they were by the seashore? After seeing Hashem’s awesome and dynamic strength, all the plagues, miracles at the sea, and already having manna coming down from Heaven and water coming out of a rock, what hesitation might anyone have that Hashem could bring birds to catch and eat more inland into the desert? Especially as we see how easy it was; He didn’t even make an outright, open miracle, but rather Hashem sent a strong gust of wind to blow the quail inland to the camp. What then was their doubt and challenge against Hashem?!
However my Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Alter Chanoch Henach Leibowitz zt”l, remarks in a shmuz on Bamidbar (2:2 found in the Chiddushei HaLev:) “We have to say that this is the power of תאוה, desire, it has the ability to completely confuse an) [even] perfected human being’s mind and bring him to believe in reasoning that has no basis to it. For the attribute of תאוה, desire (or lust) is ingrained and inborn in the heart of every flesh and blood. Hagaon Rav Yisrael Salanter zt”l already poskined, ruled, that one shouldn’t completely uproot from his heart those general attributes that are ingrained in everyone’s heart because Hashem doesn’t want to uproot them since they are part of the very essence of a human being. Rather it is incumbent upon us to suppress them when they get in the way of serving The Creator. We find that even in the heart of the most perfected human being there is this attribute of תאוה, desire. Chaza”l has also said (Vayikra Rabba 14:5), ‘Even if one would be the righteous of the righteous it’s still impossible that he won’t have just one side of sin.’ And therefore, it’s granted that the attribute of תאוה, lust, can potentially cause a righteous person to run after his desires, to cause him to stumble in severe sins and to switch in a split second from righteous to wicked.” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
We see the power of תאוה, lust, that even people on the level of the דור הדעה, those people who were so close to Hashem that Chaza”l say that even the maidservants saw a level of prophesy that not even the prophet Yechezkel was able to see, when they crossed the Red Sea. Indeed, they heard Hashem give the Torah at Mount Sinai; but if they lost control of their desires they could turn from good to evil in a split second. It must be also that the Jews here in parshas Beshalach, on some level, were questioning Hashem’s power, from the fact that the Moshav Zekeinim compares them to the Asafsuf and doesn’t answer that the Asafsuf was testing Hashem and had a lack of faith in Hashem on some level. This must mean that at this point there was some lack of faith, and their complaint was challenging the power of Hashem, even though they had just witnessed the ten plagues and the splitting of the sea. Hashem miraculously provided them with fresh water coming out of the walls of salty water while they were passing through, and fresh fruit growing from trees that sprouted from the sea floor. Still in all, their physical desires warped their minds and they complained about wanting meat, questioning whether Hashem could provide it for them. So why then weren’t they also punished? The Moshav Zekeinim said that the Asafsuf asked inappropriately, since they already had manna, food that was of perfect nutrition, sustenance, and tasted whatever they wanted it to taste like, including meat. Whereas at this point in parshas Beshalach, when they just crossed the sea, the Jews didn’t have the manna yet. But why does that difference make for a difference? Either way, they allowed their lust to overtake them, and complained and questioned their complete faith in Hashem?
We must say that Hashem excused the Jewish People when they complained the first time because, even though they allowed there תאוה, lust, on some minute level to overcome their logic and trust in Hashem, but as Rav Yisrael Salanter said, Hashem doesn’t expect or want them to be without the attribute of lust. We need to have an appetite, to keep ourselves alive and healthy to serve Hashem; they just didn’t have the proper balance and control, so when they were first begging for food, Hashem overlooked the fact that they went a bit overboard. But by the Asafsuf, they got even more carried away by their תאוה, desire for physical enjoyment, to the point that they weren’t satisfied with perfectly sufficient nourishment that sustained them in the desert and tasted like pretty much whatever they wanted it to taste like. So why complain, why test Hashem; that complaint is לא כהוגן, not normal or natural. Therefore they indeed deserved to be punished for allowing their lust to get the better of them.
We see an illustration how it’s possible to live with our physical desires, control them, and even use them to our own benefit to serve Hashem from the Yesod HaTeshuva by Rabbeinu Yona. This is in terms of a penitent, who usually has to go to opposite extremes to repent and change from his bad ways: “If he is a frail person who cannot endure difficult mortifications and fasts, he could withdraw from his appetite. He should not satisfy all his desires, neither in food or drink. So said Rabbi Avraham ben Dovid who was one of the most devout people in the world, ‘The greatest, finest, and most wondrous barrier to sin is to refrain from foods.’ This is how he explained his words, ‘Let one not refrain completely from eating meat or drinking wine, for what the Torah prohibited is enough. Rather, while one is eating and still desires to eat, let him, in honor of the Creator, set aside some of his desires, and not eat according to his appetite. This method will prevent him from sinning and remind him more than a weekly fast to love the Creator. For this is everyday, continuously, whenever he eats and whenever he drinks, to set aside part of his desire in honor of his Creator. ‘” (Click here for Hebrew text.)
We see that by having a well-balanced attitude of acknowledging one’s physical desires while also using one’s mind and logic to control them, this is the ultimate demonstration of love and commitment in serving Hashem. Its simply very difficult; but as the last mishna in Pirkei Avos says, “according to one’s efforts is one’s reward.”