Parshas Beha’aloscha
In this week’s parsha, we read of the “asafsuf,” roughly translated as “rabble,” who complained to Moshe that they had a “taava,” a burning desire to eat meat. We see later that when they finally received the meat they had so craved, they aroused Hashem’s wrath and were struck dead.
One can only wonder: Why were the asafsuf so desperate for meat? They had the mann, which offered them every possible taste. If so, they were already able to taste all the meat they wanted. What were they lacking?
Moreover, let’s say they could have tasted meat in the mann but still wanted to enjoy “the real thing.” Is that so terrible that the pasuk states that they aroused Hashem’s fury? Chazal at times deal openly with cases where a person, even a tzaddik, is overcome by a “bulmus,” a storm of passion that momentarily cannot be controlled. Why were the asafsuf punished?
My great uncle, the Meshech Chachma, notes that the pasuk does not say that the people “had a taava” but rather that they hisavu taava, meaning they wanted not only meat, they wanted a taava for meat. All the mann could do was provide the taste and nutrition of meat. The asafsufwanted to arouse a base lust that can only be gratified through genuine meat. The asafsufweren’t crying because they were hungry. They were crying because they wanted to feel more of a sense of taava when eating.
This episode stands out as one of the worst sins of that generation because in reality they lacked nothing. As the Ohr Hachaim explains, it’s one thing for a person to be tempted by something he doesn’t have, but here they literally had everything, and yet they aroused their yetzer hara to create a sense of lack and build up their taava. This is what aroused Hashem’s wrath against them.
Rav Chatzkel Levinstein learns from here an important principle worth knowing about the yetzer hara and how to deal with it. People think that taava is based on a lack, and if only we could get what we wanted, the taava would go away. Rav Levinstein shows from the asafsuf that taava has nothing to do with lack. As we said, the asafsuf had everything they could need or want. Taava is not a physical need that can be quenched and effectively brought to an end. Rather, taava is an irrational force that pushes us perpetually toward desire. It enslaves a person and leads him from taava to taava until he turns to aveiros, ruining his life in this world and the next. (see Ramban, Devarim 29:18, for further elaboration).
How can we escape this trap that lurks within us?
Chazal say (Kiddushin 40) that one beset by taava should dress in black (i.e., the most pious looking way possible) and go to a place where people don’t know him. In short, a person should get himself out of the situation in which his taava is getting the better of him and leave it behind. By changing his circumstances, he can break free of this particular nisayon.
Elsewhere, Chazal advise that one make prudent use of a neder to restrict himself from his taavos (i.e., the famous story of the youth who took a vow of nezirus after getting a glimpse of his own beauty-Nedarim 9).
The Rambam (Issurei Bi’ah 22:21) says that thoughts about taava only enter a mind that is devoid of wisdom. The best eitza, he says, is to keep one’s mind full of Torah ideas. This effectively denies taavos entry.
The Meshech Chachma (Bamidbar 11:16) takes this idea a step further: channel your internal leaning toward taava into the Torah itself. Instead of craving physical gratification, crave gadlus in Torah and avoda.
A yeshiva bachur once asked Rav Sheinberg if he should get married (at a relatively young age), as a way of coping with taava.
Rav Sheinberg answered that the taava he is seeking to resolve can beset a person later in life as well, even after marriage. Rather, the only eitza is that one direct one’s taava into a desire for gadlus in Torah.
Moreover, a person has to develop in his mind a picture of what he can reach, who he can emulate, and this, the Meshech Chachma (ibid.) explains, is why Moshe responded to theasafsuf by appointing the 70 elders. These elders were regular people who had reached great heights in ruchnius. As such, they could serve as examples for the asafsuf — and for us, too —that it is possible to overcome and properly channel taava and even convert it into spiritual energy. We should look for great people whose achievements are in our grasp and then direct our taava into emulating their success.
The Klausenberger Rebbe once shed light on this yesod, when asked why he chose to settle his chassidim in Union City, New Jersey, and not a place that had an existing Torah-observant population. He answered with a brilliantly down-to-earth assessment of the reality — and potential value — of taava.
The Rebbe answered: “I want my people’s taavos to be in Torah, that they be able to get up at 4 a.m. to learn a daf before starting their day. If we would go to a big city, people there have other taavos. Instead of a Yid wanting to know Shas he’ll want to have a new kitchen, etc. Union City is a simple, unassuming town where people can develop their taavos in the right way.”
May we be zocheh to channel our taavos properly!