Manna: Miraculous but miserable

RABBI AHARON ROSE

Waverley Shul represented by Rabbi Aharon Rose

And so it was that in our parsha, Chukat, the Bnei Yisrael became discouraged from their journey. Among their complaints, they moaned about the “lechem haklokel” – this miserable food, otherwise known as the manna.

Rabbi Avraham Yaakov (1820 – 1883, son of the famous Ruzhiner Rebbe), the Rebbe of Sadigora (then Austrian Empire, today Ukraine), once received a visitor, a young man from an esteemed family.

He moaned bitterly about the people of his shtetl, how they were of low moral fibre. The Rebbe grew angry and called his young visitor by a rather surprising name.

Those privileged to be close to the Rebbe were astonished at his outburst, for the Rebbe was known to be a man of deliberation, and careful in his choice of words.

Seeing their amazement, he explained his behaviour: “The generation of the desert said about the manna: ‘Our souls are sick of this miserable food.’ That generation was one of great knowledge – if so, how could they describe the miraculous food from heaven as ‘miserable food’?”

He answered his own question. “The manna is called miserable because it revealed the sins of the people – the righteous people received their portion of manna on their doorsteps, the average people had to go out to collect it, and the wicked had to walk far to find their share.

“You could see who was wicked for they were wandering around looking for their portion of manna.”

From this, the Rebbe concluded, anyone, or even anything, which speaks badly of the Bnei Yisrael and reveals their failings, may be called “klokel – miserable”. Hence his outburst.

It’s easy to find faults in anyone and anything, for nothing and no-one is perfect. The challenge is to look for the good in others. That is love: seeing the bad, but choosing to focus on the good.

Why did the Holocaust happen? We don’t know. Those murdered by the Nazis were “kedoshim”, holy martyrs who died sanctifying G-d’s name, as were those who survived the Holocaust, broken physically, and often emotionally and spiritually as well.

If someone tells you they died for this or that sin, ask them if G-d told them that. And if G-d didn’t tell them, respectfully inform them that even the manna is referred to as “miserable” because it revealed the shortcomings of people.

The manna was a miraculous food, made for the people by G-d, tasting of whatever they wanted it to taste and producing no waste products. But it revealed the faults of people; and that is a miserable, unacceptable, thing to do.

This doesn’t only apply to finding faults in individuals; it applies even more to criticising groups, communities and certainly whole generations. Rather, do what G-d wants us to do – “love your neighbour as you love yourself” and focus on the good.

Good Shabbos!