Chasidut על במדבר 11:12
Kedushat Levi
Numbers 11,12. “did I conceive, etc.......’?, “did I bear them? ….. As a nurse carries an infant on the soil. ….From where am I going to produce meat?” The words על האדמה, “on the soil,” present a difficulty here. What do they add to Moses’ complaint? If they belonged at all, the Torah should have written: אל האדמה, as then the purpose of nursing such an infant until he could live as an adult in the Holy Land might have been easier to understand. Furthermore, the word אדמה does not relate to the request of the people for meat.
We must remember that it was always Moses’ function and desire to be a dispenser of largesse and loving kindness. It had never been Moses’ nature to restrict this largesse available to the Israelites. The fact that the manna was able to taste according to the imagination of the person consuming it is proof of that, especially when we consider that according to the Talmud in Taanit 9, the manna was granted to the Jewish people through the merit accumulated by Moses. If the Israelites demanded meat at this juncture this indicates that they felt somehow as already entitled to the צמצום המזון, )intense, concentrated, taste of food), something that is an exclusive to the land of Israel. This was something beyond Moses’ ability, and this is why he referred to על האדמה, “on the soil of the earth,” meaning the soil of the land of Israel.
We must remember that it was always Moses’ function and desire to be a dispenser of largesse and loving kindness. It had never been Moses’ nature to restrict this largesse available to the Israelites. The fact that the manna was able to taste according to the imagination of the person consuming it is proof of that, especially when we consider that according to the Talmud in Taanit 9, the manna was granted to the Jewish people through the merit accumulated by Moses. If the Israelites demanded meat at this juncture this indicates that they felt somehow as already entitled to the צמצום המזון, )intense, concentrated, taste of food), something that is an exclusive to the land of Israel. This was something beyond Moses’ ability, and this is why he referred to על האדמה, “on the soil of the earth,” meaning the soil of the land of Israel.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy