12
Jun
The Gathering of Manna. Painting by Giovan Battista Tiepolo (Photo from www.artbible.info).
This week, with the Jewish holidays, I spent a lot of time at the synagogue in Paris. By praying and chanting psalms, you get to a point where you transcend and understand life better.
(11:1) And the people complained…
The Torah passage on Shabbat was in the Book of Numbers, chapter 11.
When the people of Israel left Egypt, they soon started to cry out for food in the desert, so HaShem sent them food. Manna fell out of the sky for them.
But more complaints ensued as they quickly grew tired of manna, saying that things were better in Egypt. The Jewish people bemoaned, “Why did we come out of Egypt.”
“Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.” (11:4)
G-d got angry and sent them meat and more meat, meat for “a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you.” (11:20)
The people of Israel back in those days made the error of thinking that eating meat will make them happy. They pursued happiness in consumption.
We make the same mistake today.
We tend to acquire material possessions, thinking they will create our happiness. But is happiness really in the latest car or smart phone? Today, we are living in a very materialistic society, yet all our property does not make us happy.
A very good friend of mine in Chicago got up one day, called her friends and gave away all her possessions. This was not a yard sale. Everything was free! For many people, it was like Christmas; they came and took the refrigerator, the TV, the computers, the whole living room set. Everything! When all was gone, my friend said, “Now I can live fully.”
Back at the synagogue, the rabbi explained the people of Israel in the desert did not realize that to lead a happy life, they needed to put themselves in it. They were the spices of their own life. So it was up to them (as it is up to us today) to be creative and make manna taste like fish, melons or chocolate if we want.
We are the most powerful ingredient in our life.