“And the asafsuf (mixed ones) among them had desires. And the nation also sat and cried.” (Bamidbar 11:4)
A young child was crying at the bus station. When a passerby asked him why, the child said he didn’t have money to buy a bus ticket. The man had rachmanus and gave him exact change for a ticket. The child bought the ticket but continued crying. “Why are you crying now?” the man asked. The child replied, “When other people buy a bus ticket, they get a ticket plus change. But I only got a ticket.” All too commonly, people tend to lose sight of all the good they have.
A newspaper never writes: “Thousands traveled safely on the highways today,” or “Fifty percent of the population successfully earned money today.” The newspaper focuses only on the one percent, the problems. People are the same. (Rav Elimelech Biderman, Torah Wellsprings)
You know the drill. It’s Sunday afternoon and your kids are whining again. “I’m sooo bored. Why can’t we go somewhere? We never do anything! Ma, he’s bothering me again! Tell him to stop!”
Raise hands if you can relate.
Thankfully, in Eretz Yisrael Sundays are regular school days. But comes a double Rosh Chodesh, and I’m smack in the whining world. My boys only have half-days on Rosh Chodesh. (If Rosh Chodesh is a women’s holiday, why do they send my boys home early?)
In Bamidbar 11:1, the pasuk states that Klal Yisrael complained and that was bad in Hashem’s Eyes. What did they say? They’d just left Har Sinai for the desert and they were scared. What would they eat or drink? When would they leave the desert?
The Imrei Emes notes that immediately afterward, they experienced cravings and demanded, “Who’ll give us meat?”
That’s how things progress. First comes dissatisfaction and complaints. Then one falls prey to temptations, instead of recognizing all the good Hashem does for us.
This past Rosh Chodesh Iyar was difficult. The kids had just gone back to school less than a week before, and now here they were again, so we could spend more quality time together!
The weather was hot and dusty. I’d pulled out the kiddie pool only to discover it had a hole. I was not schlepping out in this heat to buy a new pool. Ice pops as bribes — I mean, treats — weren’t working, and the air was thick with discontent.
