וְהָיָה טַעְמוֹ, כְּטַעַם לְשַׁד הַשָּׁמֶן. - שמן הוא חכמה, לשד לשון דַּדֶּיהָ יְרַוֻּךָ . כי המן היה הצד ההפכי של החטא עץ הדעת, חכמה עם חסדים
וַיִּשְׁמַע מֹשֶׁה אֶת-הָעָם, בֹּכֶה לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָיו
כמו שאמרו חז"ל, על עסקי משפחותיו, על איסורי עריות.
וַיִּחַר-אַף יְהוָה מְאֹד
כי ניאף הוא מלשון אף. לא תנאף, אל תגרום לאף… מאד, זהו היצר הרע
וּבְעֵינֵי מֹשֶׁה רָע.
כי משה תיקן העיניים, הוא היה עיני העדה, והם ביקשו לפגום בעין, לכן "בעיני" משה רע.
מֵאַיִן לִי בָּשָׂר לָתֵת לְכָל-הָעָם הַזֶּה:
משה כלכל את ישראל מבחינת אין, ומותר אדם מן הבהמה אין, מאין יבוא עזרי, שהצדיקים עושים מהיש אין, ולכן זוכים להנחיל אוהבי יש - ש"י עולמות שהעלו לבחינת אין
וְנָשְׂאוּ אִתְּךָ בְּמַשָּׂא הָעָם, וְלֹא-תִשָּׂא אַתָּה לְבַדֶּךָ.
אי אפשר לתקן הר"פ ניצוצות והתאוות לבד, צריכים דיבוק חברים ואיש את אחיו יאמר חזק
עַד חֹדֶשׁ יָמִים, עַד אֲשֶׁר-יֵצֵא מֵאַפְּכֶם, וְהָיָה לָכֶם, לְזָרָא:
זהו דרך התאוות, שאחרי שגומרים, רוצים להרחיקם יותר מאשר לקרבם (רש"י) כמעשה אמנון ותמר, ששנא אותה יותר ממה שאהב אותה מקודם המעשה.
What happened to them in the end? Hashem gave them what they wanted, big time. Not for 1 day, not 10, but for 30 days, עַד אֲשֶׁר-יֵצֵא מֵאַפְּכֶם, till it came out of their noses - mida kineged mida, they caused charon AF, they will have it till it comes out of their AF, their nose!
וְהָיָה לָכֶם, לְזָרָא
It will become disgusting to you, rashi says, you will push it away more than you wanted it.
And this is the derech of all Tayvos. We lust and want and desire, yet once we have it, especially if we give in till the end and try to squeeze out every bit of pleasure from it, in the end it becomes disgusting to us. Like the story of Amnon where he was love-sick for Tamar and ended up raping her, and the pasuk says afterwards that he hated her after the act even more than he had loved her before.
הַבָּשָׂר, עוֹדֶנּוּ בֵּין שִׁנֵּיהֶם--טֶרֶם יִכָּרֵת; וְאַף יְהוָה חָרָה בָעָם, וַיַּךְ יְהוָה בָּעָם מַכָּה רַבָּה מְאֹד. לד וַיִּקְרָא אֶת-שֵׁם-הַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא, קִבְרוֹת הַתַּאֲוָה: כִּי-שָׁם, קָבְרוּ, אֶת-הָעָם, הַמִּתְאַוִּים.
Let us learn from this amazing parsha, which is perhaps the only time in the Torah that we get such a clear glimpse into the nature of lust. In the end, they died a horrible death and were buried in Kivros Hatayvah. It’s not called kivros hachotim, but kivros hatayva, to remind us that the tayva itself that we thought we wanted so much ends up being our grave!
The Torah speaks to each one of us in parable form. We all have the ASAFSUF inside of us, lusting for physical pleasures. And we all have a Moshe Rabeinu inside us. What can we learn from this story in terms of what Moshe said and what Hashem answered him? Firstly, Moshe cried out to Hashem, where do I have meat to give them? this is too heavy for me to carry alone. If you do this to me, kill me rather than I should see my failure.
Perhaps we can learn from this that even if the obsession is overpowering to the point where we feel we'll die if I don't give in, we should fall before Hashem and say, Hargeini na harog va'al ereh berasi. "Hashem, I don’t belong to myself. I am nothing. How could I even dream of going against Your will? Kill me rather than me sin against You!”
And when we do this, Hashem removes the obsession from us.
Another thing we can learn is that Hashem instructed Moshe to share from his spirit with the 70 elders who would share the burden along with him. Sometimes the struggle is such that we must reach out to others and join a group of others who are going through the same thing and understand us, to share hope and strength with each other.