Longing for the Fleshpots of Egypt in the Wilderness

"And the children of Israel said to them, Would that we had died" (Exodus 16:3). They said to them: if only we had died during the three days of darkness in Egypt. "When we sat by the pot of flesh." Rabbi Yehoshua says: were they really so eager to eat? Rabbi Elazar of Modi'in says: Israel were slaves to kings in Egypt; they would go out to the market and take bread and meat and fish and every thing, and no creature would protest against their hand; they would go out to the field and take figs and grapes and pomegranates, and no creature would protest against their hand. Rabbi Yose says: know this, for in the end they were given only cucumbers; therefore it says (there) "the cucumbers," for these are hard [kashim] on their bellies. "For you have brought us out." They said to them: you have brought us out to this wilderness, a waste with nothing in it. "To kill this whole assembly with hunger." Rabbi Yehoshua says: you have no death harsher than death by hunger, as it is said, "Better were those slain by the sword" (than those slain by famine) (Lamentations 4:9). Rabbi Elazar of Modi'in says: "with hunger" - famine came upon us after famine, plague after plague, darkness after darkness.