Parshas Beha'aloscha
and Shavuos
613 Problems
By: Daniel Listhaus
“...We have nothing before our eyes but the manna!”
-Beha'aloscha 11:6
This week's Parsha relates the first couple of what will be a sequence of disastrous events which occurred in the desert. The Torah tells us that the people started complaining that they wanted meat. They recalled how they used to get free fish while in Egypt and how good life was there, whereas now they complained how they had nothing but the manna.
When reading these verses, a couple of questions immediately come to mind. First-of-all, life in Egypt was horrible. As a matter of fact, so many of the things we do by the Pesach Seder are actually remembrances of this. We dip the karpas in saltwater and eat maror specifically to recall the bitter lives of the exile at that point in time. So, how could it be that the Jews in the desert complained that their lives in Egypt were better? If it were a whole new generation of people who never witnessed the horrors of Egypt, then it would be quite understandable. However, we are dealing with the same people who were forced to do back-breaking labor. Did they have short-term memory loss? Did they forget what it meant to be a Jew in Egypt?
Furthermore, their complaint was not even accurate, as Rashi1 points out. The Egyptians did not even give the Jews straw with which to build, so certainly the Egyptians would not go out of their way to offer delicacies to their slaves.
If all of this does not weaken the complaint of the Jews in the desert enough, let us now introduce a well known fact about the manna – it could taste like anything! Whatever the eater had in mind for it to taste like, it would taste exactly like, as Dovid HaMelech alludes to in Tehillim2. So, what exactly was the complaint of the Jews? Things were not better in Egypt, they never got free fish or meat. And they did in fact have access in the desert to whatever food they wanted, because the manna tasted however the eater desired.
Based on the above issues, Rashi3 as well as the Medrash4 explain that the Jews wanted to rid themselves of the mitzvos. After kabbalas haTorah, and living for a while with the obligation of the mitzvos hanging over their heads, they desired “other meat” and other things which the Torah had commanded them not to do. They remembered the “good old days” back in mitzrayim when these things were permitted to them; when they were able to live a “free” life, and not one controlled by the Torah. This is what the Jews really wanted in the desert.
What was the catalyst of this sudden change in attitude? What changed that created such a negative relationship between the Jews and the Torah?
Perhaps the answer to this question lies within what the Jews actually said to Moshe: “We have nothing before our eyes but the manna”. The manna came each day from heaven and provided each person with exactly the right amount to satisfy them. There are two approaches one could have, though, regarding this situation in the desert. One approach could be to view the manna as a tremendous opportunity. One could sit down to a repast of unparalleled diversity. For lunch, one could have pizza on Mondays, falafel on Tuesdays, spaghetti on Wednesdays, knishes on Thursdays, and fish on Fridays – what better menu could one ask for! I do not know what the calorie count was for the manna, but regardless, it sounds like a great deal.
The other approach one could have regarding the manna, however, is quite different. One could wake up each morning and see the same manna over and over again and get sick of it. “The same thing again!?” This latter approach was the one of the Jews in the desert. They saw the manna as the same monotonous diet, instead of viewing each meal as a totally new opportunity, and making the best of it by conjuring up the most delicious foods.
Just as there are two approaches how to view the manna, there are the same two approaches regarding how one views the mitzvos of Hashem. Every day in shema we recite, in both the first paragraph ( where we accept on ourselves the yoke of Hashem) and in the second paragraph (where we accept on ourselves the yoke of the mitzvos), “...And these matters/my commandments that I command you today...” Rashi5 explains that the reason the verse says “today” is to teach us that the Torah and the mitzvos should be new in our eyes every day, as if never seen them before. Instead of being the kid with the PlayStation game who uses it for a week or two and gets tired of it, we must view each day as a new opportunity to live a day of mitzvos in the way of Hashem.
In order to live the proper life of a Jew, we must stop ourselves from living an auto-pilot life of habit and routine. The daily going to davening, putting on tallis and tefillin, these are all things that if done out of habit, lose their taste faster than than the worst gum. Even the mitzvos which occur less often, such as shabbos and yom tov, become part of an ongoing cycle6. With this approach towards mitzvos, we are no better than the Jews in the desert complaining, “...We have nothing before our eyes but the manna!”
Jewish Holidays are not merely a remembrance of past events, but rather a recreation of the same atmosphere which existed during the original event. Shavuos, therefore, is a time of yearly re-accepting of the Torah upon ourselves. The question is – how will we accept the mitzvos and view them for the coming year? Will we perform them by rote and view them as annoying daily chores which need to be checked off the check-list? Or will we view them as the ultimate way to live life, and look at each mitzvah as a new opportunity to become closer to Hashem? This second perspective is really the only option. Furthermore, Jews in the desert were mistaken when they exclaimed that they missed the freedom of mitzrayim. As we declare by the Pesach Seder, “This year we are slaves, next year we will be free.” When we do the mitzvos with love, and use each of them as new opportunity and means to become closer to Hashem, then we experience true freedom.
Only with this approach will we rid ourselves of the 613 problems, and rather adopt the 613 mitzvos.
1Beha'aloscha 11:5
2Tehillim 78:18 and 106:15
3Beha'aloscha 11:5
4Tanchuma 11:22
5Rashi in both places: V'eschanan 6:6 and Eikev 11:6
6I have heard a couple of times before that the reason why the Rambam groups all the daily mitzvos in the section of Ahava (love) is because one could only do something properly on a constant basis if it is being done with love.
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