Gratitude is one of the most important lessons that we can learn. The Jews in the wilderness were given everything but were not grateful. They were afraid that now that they were free they were responsible for their actions.
A Quick Devar Torah: The Complaint About the Quail
In this week’s parashah, we encounter the episode of the quail. The Jewish people complain about the manna. Day after day they receive food from Heaven—food that is nutritious, miraculous, and, according to our tradition, could taste like whatever they desired. Yet they complain.
They begin reminiscing about Egypt: the cucumbers, the melons, the fish, and the other foods they enjoyed there. But there is a glaring problem with this nostalgia. They were slaves. Whatever pleasures they enjoyed came at a terrible price. Egyptian slavery was brutal. They had no freedom, no dignity, and no control over their own lives.
There is an Israeli comedian who jokingly imagines Moses reacting to these complaints. Any other nation, he says, would have been thrilled to receive manna from Heaven. The Jews, however, immediately begin asking questions: “Is it gluten-free? Is it diet manna? Is there a catch?” The humor works because it captures a very human tendency—we often focus on what we lack rather than on what we have.
One of the hardest lessons in life is gratitude. We have to teach it to our children from a very young age. The Torah does not oppose enjoying life. On the contrary, Judaism teaches us to appreciate the blessings of this world. But appreciation begins with recognizing what we already have.
Many people complain that we live in difficult times. Yet, in many ways, we live in one of the most blessed generations in human history. Think about it: if someone wanted to learn an obscure fact a hundred years ago, they had to travel to a library and hope the information was available. Today, we carry devices in our pockets that can access the world’s knowledge in seconds. The average person today enjoys conveniences that kings and wealthy nobles of past centuries could scarcely imagine.
Yet we are often not grateful.
The deeper issue in this parashah is not really the food. The manna becomes a symbol for something much larger. The Jewish people had left Egypt, but they were still struggling with the transition from slavery to freedom.
A slave does not have to take responsibility. If something goes wrong, the slave can always say, “I was only following orders.” A free person does not have that excuse. Freedom means ownership. Freedom means responsibility. Freedom means being accountable for your choices, your words, and your actions.
The complaint about the manna reflects an unwillingness to accept that responsibility. Egypt may have been harsh, but someone else made the decisions. Now God was asking the Jewish people to become a nation of free individuals who would govern themselves according to His Torah.
That is the challenge of freedom. We all want its benefits, but freedom comes with obligations. The Torah teaches that true freedom is not doing whatever we want. True freedom is taking responsibility for our lives and our actions.
Something to think about.
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