False Nostalgia — Why We Sometimes Want to Go Back

Um, pulling this up here, you have to sort of think about where the Israelites are.

So in this particular case, we're in Bemidbar.

We're in n- the Book of Numbers, and, um, we are in the desert.

We're wandering around.

We're making our way towards the Promised Land.

Numbers kind of exists to be a bridge between Exodus, um, and the Levitical Code, which the Levitical Code, like, let's, it's, it...

Let's basically just pull that out narratively for a minute.

Let's just, like, put that to, as an aside.

We have the Exodus, and then we have the conquest of the land.

So that's what Bemidbar does.

It gives us that pathway.

So here's what we got.

Uh, this, so this is Numbers 11:4-6.

"The asaf suf," so this is, like, 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 in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, the onions, and the garlic.

Now our gullets are shriveled.

There is nothing at all, nothing but this manna to look to.'" Now, interesting fact about manna, right? Manna in the desert, right? We talk about that, uh the miracle food.

Um, so it's actually not manna, it's mon.

Mon, like mem, nun, samech, tet.

Mon.

But it got translated to manna, and manna's what we call it, so we're just gonna call it manna, so just go with me for a minute.

So this asaf suf, this riffraff, this rabble-rouser group of people felt this gluttonous craving, and then the Israelites wept and said, "If only we had meat to eat." The way that I interpret this as, is that the asaf suf i- who is in the midst, who are, like, in with the Israelites, felt something, and that that feeling spread, and I'm gonna assume probably verbally, right? People saying things.

They have these feelings, and then it's like a telephone game.

It goes out to other people.

And then what do they do? They feel this gluttonous craving 'cause they're eating this miracle food, and that's all they're eating, right? You'd get a little bit bored, too, after a while.