In this week’s Parasha we read about the Mitonenim- The people who were complaining. The commentaries say that it was because they were traveling. Rashi says,
“Oy Lanu- Woe onto us, How difficult it is for us that we have been traveling for the past three days and we haven’t taken a break!”
Hashem got upset by this, and said, as Rashi says, “I was trying to do this for your own good, so that you would go into Eretz Yisrael immediately.”
The question is, why did Hashem have to make it difficult for those three days? Why not make it six days, and make it less difficult? Why rush them through three difficult days?
The Chiddushei HaRim explains this, based on a Gemara that says that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai says that there are three gifts that Hashem gave to us, all based on Yisurim/ difficulties: Torah, Eretz Yisrael, and Olam Habah.
There are certain, great things that we have to go through difficulties for. Eretz Yisrael is one of those.
But if the Jewish people would have accepted the difficulty of those three days without complaining, they would have fulfilled their obligation of yisurim and would have been able to immediately enter Eretz Yisrael. It was a test, to see if they would accept that B’Avaha/with love.
Sometimes a person has to have yisurim, but they can be small yisurim that keep away the bigger troubles. However, the person doesn’t always realize that. It’s like a person who goes to the dentist. The dentist has to drill a cavity in order to try and prevent a root canal. You can complain about the drilling for the cavity, but you can appreciate that hopefully it is there to prevent the root canal.
Sometimes we need to go through certain purification processes of sorts. It is up to us to realize and accept where it is coming from.
The Rambam says that this was complaint against the Jewish people. He says, “They should have followed with happiness and a glad heart. They had just received the Torah at Har Sinai. They should have left with happiness.” All of the difficulties of the road should not have bothered them.
It is important to realize that, in the Torah, complaining is considered a sin. And it is not just with the story of the Mitonenim. The same thing happened with the sin of the Meraglim/spies. It is human nature.
We don’t always understand the situation, and yet we complain. But if we have trust in our Father in heaven, then we should be refraining from complaining.
This is not just a story from the Dor HaMidbar/the generation of the desert.
Everything that we read about here is also intended for us to learn a lesson, because we too are traveling. As the pasuk says, in this week’s Parasha, “By the command of Hashem they camped, and by the command of Hashem they rested.”
All of their traveling’s happened through God. They were following the cloud, and we too are following the cloud. It is not an easy test. Sometimes they spent months in a certain spot, and it was sometimes only two or three days. They never knew how long they would be somewhere for before they had to move. That is the story of the Jewish people. We are always traveling, and we are always following the cloud. We don’t see the cloud as they did, but we have the same test.
Traveling doesn’t only mean going from city to city, or country to country. Travels also mean the challenges of life. The rabbis tell us that just like the Jewish people in the desert went through 42 travels, everyone in life has their own 42 travels, where they go through various difficulties.
We have the same test. Will we be complainers, Has V’Shalom, or will we be able to realize that all of these travels and difficulties (sometimes we want to move and we can’t, sometimes when we want to stay and we have to move) were only intended by Hashem for our own good, as Rashi told us.
That is always the case. It is our test to realize that.
Sometimes, when we read the stories of the Dor HaMidbar, we wonder why they didn’t get it. But we should be really looking at ourselves and ask ourselves why we aren’t getting it. Somebody once asked me, “I don’t understand what was the big test of the mann? What could be wrong with being supported for 20 to 30 years?” I told the man, “The same thing applies to you,” This man was in his 50s and he had never missed a meal since the day he was born. “Why is parnassa a test for you?” I asked him, “Hashem has been supporting you every single day as well. Hashem is sending down mann for you (and me) too!”
It’s easy to look at the Dor HaMidbar and question how they could complain. That was there test.
But it’s about our lives as well. Let us look into ourselves, and ask ourselves if we are passing the test. Are we, Has V’Shalom, from the complainers? Or are we from the people that take it all with a smile because we realize that Hashem is really doing it for our own good?