It states (11:5-6) אֵין ָׁהיְבֵש ׁ ֵ נוּנַפְש וְעַת ָּה ,ּ ׁוּמ ִיםהַש וְאֶת ה ַבְּצ ָלִים וְאֶת הֶח ָצִיר וְאֶת הָאֲבַטִּח ִים וְאֵת ֻּׁא ִיםהַק ִּש אֵת ח ִנָּם בְּמ ִצְר ַיִם נֹאכַל ֶׁראֲש ה ַדָּגָה אֶת זָכ ַרְ נוּ עֵינֵינוּ הַמָּן אֶל בִּלְתִּי כֹּל, "We remember the fish that we ate in Mitzrayim, free of charge; the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic, but now our life is parched, there is nothing; we have nothing to anticipate but the manna."
But why were they complaining? The manna tasted like any food they imagined. So, they could imagine these foods... and they would taste them in the manna! (The truth is, Rashi on this pasuk, and the Gemara Yomah 75a says that the manna wouldn't taste like the foods mentioned above. But we are writing this in the path of דרוש). This illustrates how much people dislike thinking. It is easier to complain and to cry than to think for a moment about the taste of fish, cucumbers, etc.
In the days of the Arizal, there was a man who suffered a lot from his wife. She had very bad middos and made his life miserable. This man told the Arizal about the tzaros he suffers from his wife. The Arizal replied, "In a previous gilgul, it was the opposite. You caused her a great deal of distress. Therefore, this time around, she is causing you tzaros. This will atone for your aveiros of the past, it will save you from Gehinnom. Every distress you go through cleanses you immensely, so you won't have to go to Gehinnom."
When the man understood what was really going on, he learned to become happy with his portion, and each time his wife caused him trouble, he became even happier. He began to have hakaras hatov to his wife, because she was helping him become cleansed from his aveiros.
His wife was shocked by the change she noticed in her husband and asked him about it. He didn't want to tell her. But she pestered him to reveal what happened, to explain his positive reaction to her trouble, so he told her what he heard from the Arizal. He explained to her that all the suffering she causes him is for his benefit, because it cleanses him from his aveiros.
Hearing that, she declared, "I refuse to help save you from Gehinom," and she became kind to him. The man returned to the Arizal and cried before him that his wife had become good to him. "All my sufferings ended. What will save me from Gehinnom now?"
The Arizal replied, "You received your kaparah already; now everything will be good for you."
The explanation is as Chazal (Brachos 62a) say קבילי דיסורא סמא, a cure for yesurim is to accept them. When one accepts his yesurim, his kaparah is complete, and the yesurim can now leave him. He accepted his yesurim, and therefore, shortly afterwards, he won’t need them anymore.
This story is also a reminder that when we think something is bad, it is really for the good, only we don't see the complete picture. All we can do is rely on Hashem Who is always leading us in the best way.
A young child was crying at the bus station. Someone came by and asked him why he was crying. The child said that he didn't have the money to buy a bus ticket. The man had rachmanus on him and gave him money for the bus. The child went to buy a ticket and returned with the ticket in his hand, but he was still crying.
"Why are you crying now?" the man asked.
The child replied, "When other people come to the clerk to buy a bus ticket, he gives them a ticket, and he gives them change as well. But the clerk only gave me a ticket, and he didn't give me change!" (This was because he paid the exact rate).
This story serves as a reminder that people often cry and lose sight of all the good they have. A gadol mentioned that you will never read in the newspaper, "Ten thousand people traveled on the highway today, and they all returned home safe and sound." And they don't write, "Fifty thousand people went to work today, and they all earned parnassah." The newspaper focuses only on the one percent, on the problems, while ignoring all the good. People are the same. They focus on what they lack, their issues. But it should be the opposite. We should focus on the good we have.
The Ibn Ezra and Ramban on Complaints
The Ibn Ezra says that מִת ְ אֹנְנִים means thoughts and speech of sin; however, the Torah doesn't specify exactly what those forbidden thoughts and speech were. The Ramban writes, "Reb Avraham (Ibn Ezra) says that מתאוננים comes from the word און, as it says in (Yirmiyahu 4:14) אוֹנֵךְ מַחְש ְׁבוֹת, 'Iniquitous thoughts'. This means that the nation was speaking words of און, sin. But this explanation isn't correct, because why does the Torah conceal the sin, and not tell us what they did wrong, as the Torah does in other places? In my opinion, the correct explanation is that they had just left Har Sinai, which is near civilization, and were now entering the great and awesome desert. This was their first trip into the desert, and they were worried: "What will we do? How will we live in this desert? What will we eat and drink? How will we tolerate the hardships and the afflictions? When will we leave this place?" According to this explanation, מִת ְ אֹנְנִים is similar to the pasuk (Eichah 3:39) חי אדם יתאונן מה חטאיו על גבר, 'Why should a living man mope?...' It is when a person is in pain and he pities himself. Another example is (Bereishis 35:18) אוני בן, which means the son of my distress..."
The Ramban writes, "The Torah tells their aveirah. They were כְּמִת ְ אֹנְנִים, they were speaking from their bitter souls, as those who have pain do, and this was 'ה בְּעיני רַע, bad in Hashem's eyes, because they should have followed Hashem with joy and with a good heart, due to all the good Hashem had given them. But they were going like they were forced, and they were moaning and complaining about their lot."
The Ramban writes, "It states again (11:4) יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּנֵי גַּם וַיִּבְ כּ וּ ׁ ֻבוּוַיָּש, 'Then even Bnei Yisrael once again began to cry [about the manna]. Their first sin was their complaining about not having all their pleasures in the desert, and then they complained a second time. They didn't learn a lesson from the fire that burned in them."
