The rabble which clamored for meat sat and wept . . . "We
remembered the fish and the squash and the watermelons . . .
and now our souls are dry. All we have to look forward to is
the mann . . . " (Bamidbor 11,5).
From a superficial glance, one cannot understand what the
rabble really wanted. What were they lacking? Couldn't they
savor any and every taste they wished within the mann,
including that of squash and watermelon?
The Ibn Ezra succinctly illuminates the matter and derives a
deep lesson applicable to everyday life. "And now, our souls
are dry." "The soul which lusts, which is embedded in the
liver -- is arid." True, they were able to savor all the good
tastes in the world within the mann, but the
salivating appetite, that ravenous hunger-lust that
accompanies eating, was missing. A hungering, hankering soul
assuages its craving through satisfying eating. But this
element was missing, and their animal-souls felt dry and
wanting without that preliminary craving.
The truth is that the rabble pinpointed exactly the purpose
of the mann and its divine design, which was to
circumvent that precise element that they felt was
lacking.
Chovos Halevovos writes in Sha'ar Haprishus;
"Hashem grafted, as it were, the power of craving unto the
soul of man, in order that it should seek to satisfy his
hunger through food, to improve and uphold mankind. He also
appointed the good inclination to monitor it and guide it
towards the food and drink that will benefit and improve the
soul. But Torah-guided people must curb their appetites and
abstain from indulgence. The intellect must regulate a person
and restrain his appetite, for the reverse, the ascendancy of
craving over one's good sense, is the beginning of all
sin."
The elementary need to survive through food and drink is
composed of two opposing interests. Food sustains and
improves life, and for this end it is necessary to want to
eat. On the other hand, this drive to satisfy one's natural
hunger embodies an appetite which can become exaggerated and
lead to all kinds of sin. The daily usage of one's sense of
hunger can fortify a person, but can also lead to negative
results. It is, therefore, crucial to maintain a proper
perspective towards the function of eating. Our attitude
towards it should be according to the marvelous definition of
the Chovos Halevovos: " . . . and He appointed the
yetzer over it to direct it towards [sustaining] food
and drink."
In other words, the intervention of the good and evil drives
within a person through a sense of hunger and the subsequent
pleasure in assuaging that hunger is a specific, designated
purpose, an appointment. The yetzer has been charged
with the task of guiding a person towards the right foods.
Were it not for drive and appetite, we might neglect this
important function. But after the good inclination has
fulfilled its task faithfully, it must step aside. Food is
not something merely to satisfy one's lust, G-d forbid. It is
"the table before Hashem"! The yetzer is merely the
driver, the one who steers the person to the table so that he
will get the physical sustenance he needs to keep on
functioning.
The period of the mann was an educational course, a
schooling to get across this vital concept. Eating of the
mann taught people to regard food in the proper
perspective. The mann's unchanging form and its
regularity cut out much of the fuss and unnecessary bother
involving food, that is, the nonessential "trimmings." People
ate when they needed to, when their bodies called for fuel --
and not vice versa, when their appetites were aroused by the
form and enticement of savory preparation.
There is a very fine-line difference separating pleasure in
eating and the "experience" of eating. The mann
preserved this delicate distinction.
But the rabble craved. They simply craved craving! They
wanted to rouse their appetites, to titillate their senses
with a desire to indulge in eating. They did not want this
craving to atrophy. They wanted to be tempted by savory food,
by the experience of indulgent eating for the sake of eating.
For this end, one needs color, texture, form -- all those
things that arouse one's appetite even when one is not
necessarily hungry. They wanted eating to be in the category
of a gastronomic experience. They were gourmet-hungry.
"And Hashem said to Moshe: And to the people shall you say;
Sanctify yourself for the morrow and you will eat meat. And
Moshe said: Shall flocks and herds be slain for them to
suffice them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered
together for them to suffice them?" Beer Moshe
explains, "Moshe argued that quantities of cattle would not
suffice them because their's was an appetite of lust and not
a desire to satisfy a physical hunger, since they said: Give
us meat and we will eat. They did not want the meat, per
se: they wished to gorge themselves, to have an orgy. To
eat for the sake of eating. `A tzaddik eats to satisfy
his soul, while the stomachs of the wicked are always
lacking.' They can never be sated, for they will always crave
more and more, even on a full stomach. They will always
hunger, no matter how much they have." Their eyes will always
be bigger than their stomachs.
Hashem, therefore, answered: "Shall the hand of Hashem fall
short?" Even for this, there is an answer. "Until it comes
out of their noses and disgusts them." Hashem will cause them
to be disgusted with the very act of eating. That is why this
place was called Kivros Hata'avo -- The Graves of the
Craving. It was here that they buried the very lust for
eating as an activity, as an indulgence and pastime.
*
This portion has deep significance and relevance for our
present day generation, in which eating has turned into a
culinary culture, an "art." But the innovators, so to speak,
the originators, were the Desert Generation Rabble. In the
end, all of Israel sat down and wept. We are all affected and
afflicted in some measure. All of these eateries eventually
get their Glatt Kosher signs and supervision. We cannot help
but bemoan the common phenomenon of eating out in
restaurants, as a pastime, a form of entertainment, where the
true, original function of eating loses its meaning and is
drowned and gorged out.
All the distinctions between "A tzaddik eats to
satisfy his soul" and "the bellies of the wicked are lacking"
are effaced. The eating of the righteous is of the nature of,
"He did not omit anything in His world and created in it
goodly trees to please mankind." The other kind of eating is
described by Chovos Halevovos as: "[those] who make a
deity of their stomachs and a god of their clothing and are
altogether misguided in pursuing foolishness dictated by
lusts . . . " This is the eating of the rabble, this is the
digging up of Kivros Hata'avo.
