Comentário sobre Números 11:10

בכה למשפחתיו [THEN MOSES HEARD THE PEOPLE] WEEP THROUGHOUT THEIR FAMILIES — i.e. the members of each family gathered together and wept in order to display their discontent in public. Our Rabbis, however, said that למשפחתיו means “the people wept because of family affairs” — because of the intermarriage of blood-relaltives that had been forbidden to them (Sifrei Bamidbar 90; Yoma 75a).

ויחר אף ה׳ מאד. G'd's anger was kindled very much. The reason why the Torah describes G'd's anger as מאד, "very much," is that people who fall victim to seduction by Satan have been victimised, in a sense. The same could not be said of the people described in our paragraph who had actually provoked the evil urge within themselves. There is no category of sin which is greater than that.

The intimate relations forbidden. You might ask: Surely the intimate relations had already been forbidden to them, so why did they not weep before? The answer is that before the division into the camps, everyone was intermingled and therefore the intimate relations went unnoticed. However once they were divided into camps, each and every tribe was alone and the women from one tribe were not found among another, rather everyone was from the same tribe. Alternatively, before the division into the camps, all of the tribes were intermingled and people could commonly find other women who were not forbidden relations, thus they did not pay attention to the forbidden relations. However, once they divided and each tribe was left alone together with the forbidden relations, therefore they wept. This is not in accordance with the explanation of Re’m who says that even though the entire Torah had been handed over to Moshe, it is possible that the passage of forbidden relations has not been told over to Yisroel until just before their departure from Mount Sinai. (Kitzur Mizrochi) explains in the name of the Minchah Belulah that they combined the complaint about the forbidden relations with their complaint about the manna. For it says in the Midrash that the Omer-portion would disclose who’s son was a mamzer (a child born from illicit relations), since his Omer-portion would be found in the tent of his father. Thus they complained about the manna, but their main complaint was over forbidden relations.

V. 10. למשפחתיו: es war kein offener Aufstand, sie sammelten sich nicht zu Hauf, sie weinten und klagten familienweise. Jeder blieb zu Haus. Aber sie standen in ihren Zelttüren und jammerten, und das Jammern und Klagen war allgemein.

Moses heard the people weeping, every family apart, each person at the entrance of his tent - one cannot say that they gathered by their families, and cried [together] because it says "each person at the entrance of his tent", so it's obvious that [they were crying] due to each families worries, "and the anger of Ad-nai flared and in Moses' eyes it was bad." Precisely now, but before this it was "bad in the ears of Ad-nai" alone, since Moses did not comprehend their intent. And what is written "we remember" has a meaning connected to the past; and "that we used to eat" has a meaning connected to the future, as they said all the time "let's turn our head and return to Egypt" (Numbers 14:4), in that exact moment "we recall the fish" that we will eat when we get there. And what it says "free" it means free from the mitzvot, as I will explain, with God's help, in the portion of Pinchas: it has to do with the gifts [to the Tabernacle] and the ten percents.

Because of family matters - you must wonder, how could they be complaining now about the relations that had already been forbidden to them, and what pertinence does the issue have here? The answer is, it is not really difficult. Now, they are complaining about physical desires that the Holy One, Blessed be He separated from them, as the verse says, "We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt for free" (Numbers 11:5) - "from [the strain of] mitzvot" (cf. Rashi). They were not concerned about the mitzvot [in Egypt], and we were eating and drinking without this concern, and on top of all of this they had desires for forbidden relations, and the Holy One, Blessed be He separated them from the people. Therefore, they were now stirring up about them. This is a simple explanation.

ובעיני משה רע, and it was wicked in the eyes of Moses. Man is upset if something he considers his own creation does not live up to his expectations. You may find an illustration of this when the prophet Samuel is reported as having aged prematurely and died as a result of the anguish of seeing King Saul whom he had crowned not having met the challenge of wiping out Amalek. In order to save Samuel from experiencing Saul's death at the hands of the Philistines (compare Taanit 5) G'd had him die prematurely. Moses too was upset at Israel acting in a manner not befitting them. Alternatively, we may understand the words ובעיני משה רע as referring to G'd's anger. It displeased Moses that G'd had become so angry at the Israelites on this account. According to Sifri 1,95 G'd gave Moses a preview of the punishment He was going to exact from Israel on account of this misdemeanour. Moses reacted by asking G'd whether He really considered it fair to feed the Israelites meat only to let them die as a result of their eating the meat.