meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Commentary/Kli Yakar/Torah/Kli Yakar on Numbers/English/Sefaria Community Translation.txt"}
text: Kli Yakar on Numbers
  כלי יקר על במדבר
  Sefaria Community Translation
  
  
  Kli Yakar on Numbers
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  And the reason they begun with meat and ended with fish is that fish points to promiscuity in sexual relations more than the expression "meat", since fish reproduce more than any animal alive, and they were using the word "flesh" as a compromise: "if only we ate meat" actually means "we want to be uninhibited in sexual relations as the other animals, even though we won't be like the fish - at least they did not ask all of it. But in any instance they did say "we remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt" (Numbers 11:5): when we were in Egypt all was permitted to us, even as to live like the fish, and now, let us at least be like the other animals, and this is what they mean by "if only we ate meat". And if one listens closely [one can see that] all this is very much like the simple meaning of the text, their intent was to ask for meat, which is the food that most warms a person up, and expands the sexual desires, and this is expressed in the language of "gluttonous craving" [the Hebrew expression is doubled 'they craved a craving'], meaning, they craved for a food that would enhance their sexual cravings. ...
  
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  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.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
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  The “sin” of hitting was as follows: Chazal teach (Shemot Rabbah 21:9) that at the Splitting of the Sea the Torah says (Shemot 14:16) “And now lift up your staff and outstretch your hand”, this “lifting” is a language of removal, that is to say “Lift up and throw away your staff, outstretch your hand, without the staff.” For the people were murmuring that the staff was the cause for all the miracles through some means of sorcery within the staff, for the people had not seen miracles without this staff. Therefore HaShem instructed Moshe to throw away the staff and remove that doubt from their minds. So when it says (14:31) “Israel saw the Mighty Hand” meaning they saw the miracles that was done by hand, and not through the staff, and therefore “they believed in HaShem and Moshe His servant.” It would seem that until now they were children who did not trust them - they did not believe in HaShem and the prophecy of Moshe His servant because they had reason to assume the staff created miracles.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Verse 1
  
  
  
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