Chasidut על במדבר 11:5
Kedushat Levi
Numbers 11,4. “who will feed us meat?” “we remember the fish diet etc.” When looking at this verse superficially, we wonder why the subject of the fish the Israelites claimed to have eaten in Egypt was relevant to their present craving for meat.
Let us revert to what we learned in the Talmud (Yuma 75) that when the people received the manna, it possessed the ability to assume the taste of any food the party consuming it fancied. However, this ability was limited to the taste of any food the party wishing to taste had personal experience of. If someone who had never tasted meat wanted his manna to taste like meat this did not work, as even if it would taste like meat how would the individual eating it recognize it as such?
None of the Israelites had ever tasted a kosher slaughtered animal after its blood had been removed and it had been salted, etc., as required by halachah. While it was presumably true that the Israelites had eaten some meat while in Egypt, that meat had since become forbidden food for them after their stay at Mount Sinai. When they therefore asked: מי יאכילנו בשר, “who fill feed us meat?”, the question was quite legitimate as they felt that the Torah legislation had made it impossible for them to taste meat when eating manna. They mentioned that they had been able to recapture the taste of the fish they had eaten in Egypt as these fish had all had fins and scales, and thus had remained permitted to be eaten after the Torah had been given. Our sages promised us that in the future, G’d Himself will invite the tzaddikim to a meal where both leviathan (fish) and the shor habor (meat), as well as wine saved for the occasion from gan eden will be served. What the sages wished to convey by their promise is that at that time the Jewish people will eat heavenly food, i.e. manna, and that at that time even the tastes that they had not experienced while on their journey in the desert will be enjoyed by them. At that time also the waters they drank in the desert due to the merit of Miriam, will assume the taste of any liquid they will fancy.
Let us revert to what we learned in the Talmud (Yuma 75) that when the people received the manna, it possessed the ability to assume the taste of any food the party consuming it fancied. However, this ability was limited to the taste of any food the party wishing to taste had personal experience of. If someone who had never tasted meat wanted his manna to taste like meat this did not work, as even if it would taste like meat how would the individual eating it recognize it as such?
None of the Israelites had ever tasted a kosher slaughtered animal after its blood had been removed and it had been salted, etc., as required by halachah. While it was presumably true that the Israelites had eaten some meat while in Egypt, that meat had since become forbidden food for them after their stay at Mount Sinai. When they therefore asked: מי יאכילנו בשר, “who fill feed us meat?”, the question was quite legitimate as they felt that the Torah legislation had made it impossible for them to taste meat when eating manna. They mentioned that they had been able to recapture the taste of the fish they had eaten in Egypt as these fish had all had fins and scales, and thus had remained permitted to be eaten after the Torah had been given. Our sages promised us that in the future, G’d Himself will invite the tzaddikim to a meal where both leviathan (fish) and the shor habor (meat), as well as wine saved for the occasion from gan eden will be served. What the sages wished to convey by their promise is that at that time the Jewish people will eat heavenly food, i.e. manna, and that at that time even the tastes that they had not experienced while on their journey in the desert will be enjoyed by them. At that time also the waters they drank in the desert due to the merit of Miriam, will assume the taste of any liquid they will fancy.
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