Our parsha describes the people’s complaining and craving for meat, for which they were taken to task. What was wrong about seeking to eat some meat? Rav Chaim Mintz seems to explain that, on some level, the people fell short in their quest for spirituality, and as a result, they sought physical pleasure. They were mainly taken to task for not adequately filling their souls up with spirituality, for if they would have done so, they would not have desired meat—physical pleasure (Etz HaChaim, Behaalotcha).

Perhaps the people were seeking to gain more internal satisfaction, and instead of seeking to fill that void with spiritual activities, they instead were drawn to fill it through physical enjoyment. In fact, the Meged Yosef quotes his father who seems to say that the people’s complaining for meat was a sign that they were hungry for spirituality, but they sought to fill the pain of this lack through physical and material means (seen in Hadrachat HaParsha, Behaalotcha).

We can perhaps learn from all the above that the more we satisfy our souls with spirituality, the less we will be drawn to physicality, and that being drawn to find happiness from physical/material pleasures may actually indicate a desire for spirituality and that yearning is simply being misdirected.

Binyamin is a graduate of Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan, and Wurzweiler School of Social Work.