Ilustration Credit: Rivka Tsinman
Midrash מִדְרָשׁ
וַיְהִי הָעָם כְּמִתְאֹנְנִים רַע בְּאָזְנֵי ה'
וַיִּשְׁמַע ה' וַיִּחַר אַפּוֹ וַתִּבְעַר בָּם אֵשׁ ה'
וַתֹּאכַל בִּקְצֵה הַמַּחֲנֶה׃
The people were like mit’onenim, which was bad in the eyes of God.
God heard and got angry and a fire of God broke out against them.
It consumed the edge of the camp.
What does it mean that the people were like mit’onenim?
אֵין מִתְאוֹנְנִים אֶלָּא מִתְרַעֲמִים, מְבַקְּשִׁים עֲלִילָה לִפְרֹשׁ מֵאַחֲרֵי הַמָּקוֹם.
“Mit’onenim” means “making themselves resentful” - looking for an excuse to separate from God.
The שֹׁרֶשׁ (shoresh, root) of mit’onenim is א.נ.נ, which means to grumble or complain. This midrash is noticing that “mit’onenim” is in a form called hitpa’el, which means it’s an action people do to themselves (in English this is called a “reflexive” verb). So the midrash learns from this that the people’s bad attitude came from themselves—they were making themselves resentful, and that’s where their complaining came from.
- Very often, the experiences we have can depend on our perspectives. How does your perspective affect your experience? Can your perspective sometimes make a situation better or worse? How so?
- Have you ever noticed yourself looking for something to complain about, or making a bigger deal out of something that’s not really that bad? Why do you think you would do this to yourself? Are you able to do the opposite—make a situation better by looking for the good in it?
- In the wilderness, why might Benei Yisrael have been looking for things to complain about? Can you find evidence that they were doing this from other places in our parashah?
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