Parashat: Beha’alotcha

Parashat: Beha’alotcha
Numbers 8:1–12:16

“The riffraff in their midst felt a gluttonous craving; and then the Israelites wept and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. Now our gullets are shriveled. There is nothing at all! Nothing but this manna to look to!'”

— Numbers 11:4–6

The excitement of receiving the 10 Commandments and building the Mishkan have passed, and the Israelites are settling in for a long and unpredictable period of making and moving camp, according to God’s direction. During this time, the Israelites grow tired of the manna God provides them to eat each day and think back with fondness of the foods available to them in Egypt. How strange it is to think of the Israelites looking back to their time in Israel with fondness. Yet how many of us have experienced reflecting on our past with rose-colored glasses, particularly when our present moment is dreary or difficult!

— Rachel Petroff Kessler