민수기 11:4 해설: Rashi, Kli Yakar, Sforno & Tur HaArokh

והאספסף AND THE THRONG — This was the mixed multitude that had gathered themselves unto them when they left Egypt (the word is from the root אסף, “to gather”) (Sifrei Bamidbar 86). — The next words of the Biblical text must be inverted to read as follows:

“And the mixed multitude that was within it [Israel] lusted a lust.” All these words are connected, and their explanation is as follows: The Children of Israel knew the truth that the fire of God burned in them as a punishment, not by chance. Therefore, they ceased their complaints. But the mixed multitude, whose origin was from the Egyptians who were steeped in immorality, did not accept discipline and further added rebellion and expressed outwardly what they had initially contemplated in their hearts. This is what it means: And the mixed multitude that was initially within them, in their hearts, lusted a lust, and they returned — meaning they returned to their wayward behavior and brought their complaints outward and cried. And the Children of Israel also wept — from the fact that it says also, we learn that the mixed multitude were crying first and made the Children of Israel cry with them. The repetition of the phrase lusted a lust reflects the nature of sexual immorality, where desire leads to more desire, as the Sages said (Sukkah 52b): “To satisfy it is to make it hungry.” And they said with a full mouth, Who will feed us meat? — referring to the “flesh” of immorality, using a euphemistic expression, as we say in the Talmud “we remember the fish” is a euphemistic expression, and all the more so the term “meat/flesh” can be interpreted this way.

וישובו ויבכו, they again pretended to have justified complaints, testing G’d’s patience. This time they cried that they had agreed to leave Egypt. This was equivalent to insulting the Presence of the Shechinah that had honoured them with its presence amongst them. Moses tells them this explicitly in verse 20 when he said: יען מאסתם את ה' אשר ,בקרבכם ותבכו לפניו לאמור למה זה יצאנו ממצרים?, “because you despised the Lord Who is in your midst and you cried, saying: “why is this that we left Egypt?”

וישבו גם בני ישראל ויבכו AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL ALSO AGAIN WEPT together with them.