The Jeering Complainers

This week’s Torah portion begins to show us the cracks and strains that travel through the desert. The Jewish people have just left Sinai, and we are told:

The people were like “Onnenim”, which was bad in the ears of G-d, G-d heard and he was angry, and a fire of Hashem burned amongst them, and it consumed the edge of the camp. The people cried to Moshe, and the fire abated. They called that place Taveira, because the fire of G-d consumed them (there) (Chapter 10)

What the word “Onnenim” means is vital if we are to understand why their actions or emotions were bad in the eyes of G-d. Abarbanel understands the word as follows:

It seems to me that this word means they were looking for an excuse, looking for claims to prove that “there is badness in G-d’s ears”, meaning to say that He doesn’t listen to the pleas of people…that Hashem does not really take care of the lower world and its details.

It would appear that these words were in the mouths when Moshe said the words “Arise G-d and your enemies will disperse, and when it would rest, he would say: return G-d to the myriads of the Jewish people”, to which the people responded “G-d doesn’t have ears to listen”. Because their words were said in jest and mockery, the verse states that they were “like” they were complaining. They didn’t say this statement in seriousness, but they were using these lighthearted quips to complain that G-d didn’t look after their own needs.

Abarbanel’s claim is that the people didn’t believe that G-d would look after their own needs - that He has “earwax” so to speak, which prevents Him from listening to the needs of the lowly men and women of Israel. The nuance in the interpretation comes from the idea that the words “bad in G-d’s ears” refers not to G-d but instead to what the people said about G-d. This could be because Abarbanel doesn’t want to give G-d “ears” as Hashem truly doesn’t have any ears. However, there is a huge amount of boldness in this interpretation, because the most simple interpretation of the verse is that these complaints were evil in G-d’s eyes.