Behaaloscha: Beyond Cucumbers

By Judah Graber

Rav Taragin calls this parsha the “pizza pie” parsha because it contains a variety of seemingly random pieces and stories lumped together. To understand how Rebbe masterfully integrates these elements, עיין שם, but the upshot is one crucial yisod: God implanted in humans the desire for newness, creativity, and teivah. This desire is not inherently bad; it can and should be used positively to delve deeper into Torah, find innovative ways to help the Jewish people, etc. The sin arises when we channel that teivah into meaningless pursuits, such as an obsession with physicality like food.

In this vein, Rabbenu Bechaya (11:5) comments on the foods that Bnei Yisrael chose to complain about missing. The pasuk says:

זָכַ֙רְנוּ֙ אֶת־הַדָּגָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־נֹאכַ֥ל בְּמִצְרַ֖יִם חִנָּ֑ם אֵ֣ת הַקִּשֻּׁאִ֗ים וְאֵת֙ הָֽאֲבַטִּחִ֔ים וְאֶת־הֶחָצִ֥יר וְאֶת־הַבְּצָלִ֖ים וְאֶת־הַשּׁוּמִֽים׃

Why specifically these foods: fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic? He answeres that these foods show far they hava fallen and the strength of their teivah. They sank deeply into their most base desires; the pasuk beforehand refers to it as הִתְאַוּ֖וּ תַּאֲוָ֑ה. Rav Eliyahu Munk translates Rabbenu Bechaya, noting that they “drew on reservoirs of desire, the source of their animalistic soul.” Chazal (Yoma 75a) capture this sentiment, explaining that Bnei Yisrael were looking at the world through the lens of their base desire. They interpret "בוכה למשפחותיו" not just as crying about their food but as lamenting the realization of the prohibition of illicit relationships! It all ties back to the same yisod: they succumbed to their basest desires.

This also explains their great disdain for the מן. The pasuk says (11:6) “בלתי אל המן עינינו”—our eyes are focused only on the manna. The deeper reason for rejecting the מן was its composition of a single element, in contrast to other foods which comprised multiple elements. The מן's lack of מורכב—composed of several elements—made it closer to the abstract, thus enhancing intellectual sharpness. To answer the original question of why they specifically chose those foods, Rabbenu Bechaya explains that these foods represent different elements of the world (e.g., fish representing water, etc). They were telling Moshe, representing Hashem, that they did not desire “intellectual,” rich food; they wanted the tangible elements of the world. Rabbenu Bechaya also notes that they did not ask for fruit from the trees because those represent ruach, air, which is less gashmiyus and more spiritual. Essentially, they were expressing a preference for base, superficial, physical pursuits over intellectual, Godly, and otherworldly ones.

This relates back to Rav Taragin’s yisod of the parsha: we should channel our creativity into intellectual and Godly pursuits rather than physical matters. May we use this parsha to strengthen ourselves and focus on the most important things in the world, Hashem and His Torah.