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 money to buy a bus ticket. The man had rachmanus on him and gave him money for the bus. The child returned with the bus ticket but 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" (because he paid the exact rate).
This story is a reminder that people cry and lose sight of all the good they have. A gadol mentioned that if one looks at a newspaper, it will never write, "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, the problems, and loses sight of all the good. People are the same. They focus on their issues. But it should be the opposite. We should focus on the good we have.
It states (11:1), 'ה באזני רע כמתאוננים העם ויהי, and the Ramban says their sin was that they complained. Complaining is 'ה בעיני רע, bad in Hashem’s eyes.
What were they complaining about?
The Ramban explains, "Har Sinai was located near inhabited cities. [If they needed something, they were near civilized areas and could buy it there.] But they had just left Har Sinai, and for the first time, they traveled into the great, awesome desert. Fearfully, they said, 'How can we survive in this desert? What will we eat? What will we drink? When will we leave this desert?' The translation of מתאוננים is complaining (see Eichah 3:39 and Bereishis 35:18). They spoke with bitterness... and that was bad in Hashem's eyes. They should have followed Hashem joyfully because of all the kindness Hashem gives them. But they traveled as though they were being forced to go, and they were complaining."
The Imrei Emes zt'l adds that immediately after the מתאוננים (the sin of complaining), the Torah states, בשר יאכילנו מי ...תאוה התאוו, "The nation had a temptation... and they said, 'Who will give us meat?'" Because this is the order of how things unfold. First, one is unsatisfied and complains, then he falls into bad temptations. But the correct path is to recognize and praise Hashem for the multitudes of kindness that He does for us.
It states (11:4), תאוה התאוו בקרבו אשר והאספסוף, and Rashi writes that the רב ערב craved for meat. The Ropshitzer Rav zt'l (Zera Kodesh) writes, "Only the erev rav craved meat, not the Jewish nation. This is because the Jewish nation believed in Hashem, and nothing is lacking for those who believe in Hashem. When they don’t have something, they say, 'Apparently, I don’t need it.'"
There is no reason to complain. When you don't have something, say, "If I needed it, Hashem would give it to me." The Erev Rav wanted meat, but the Jewish nation believed that they weren’t lacking anything, because what they don't have, they don't need.
Nevertheless, it states, בקרבו אשר והאספסף ישראל בני גם ויבכו וישבו תאוה התאוו. The crying began with the erev rav, because they craved meat, but then Bnei Yisrael also cried. Why did Bnei Yisrael cry?
The Ropshitzer Rav explains that when Bnei Yisrael saw the erev rav complaining that they wanted meat, the Jewish nation thought, "Why don’t they realize that Hashem gives us everything we need, and there is no reason to be upset? If we don’t have meat, we don’t need it! Where is their emunah?"
But then the nation said to themselves, "When I see people with a low level of emunah that means I also need chizuk in emunah." As the Baal Shem Tov zt'l taught, when a person sees a fellow Yid committing an aveirah, it means that he is also associated with that aveirah – in some way. ויבכו וישבו means the nation was crying and doing teshuvah, and they were strengthening themselves with emunah because they witnessed the low level of emunah of the erev rav. They realized that if they see others crying and complaining about their lot, they have to improve themselves and attain the clear emunah that there is no reason to complain.
