Shalom Chaverim, This week’s Torah portion, Beha’alotecha (Numbers 8:1 – 12:16) includes a painfully accurate observation on human nature: The riffraff amongst them were beset with a craving, and the Israelites joined them weeping, and said, “Who will feed us meat? We remember the fish, which that we ate in Egypt for free! And the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic! But not, our soul is parched, there is nothing to look forward too, just Manna!”  ​Now the Manna was like coriander seed of a mysterious appearance. The people went around and gathered it, and prepared it in many ways, and when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell too.  (Exodus 11:4-9) There it is. “Hey, we may have been enslaved to Egypt, oppressed so hard we could not stand, criminalized for our mere existence, dehumanized and abused, but at least we had food we liked… And it was free!” Unbelievable, right? Well, it’s not so different now. Human appetite, whether gastronomic or otherwise, is a powerful force. We actually crave the cycle of difficulty followed by pleasure. We are, most of us, inclined to experience increased enjoyment of delights when they are preceded by a period......

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