There you are, wandering in the desert, sustained by food that literally falls from the sky. And yet…you grumble. You whine. You say, "Ugh, not manna again!" It sounds almost unbelievable, right? But that’s precisely the situation we find ourselves in with the Israelites in the wilderness, as recounted in Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews.

The story goes that after being freed from slavery in Egypt and led through the desert, the Israelites began to tire of their divinely provided sustenance, manna. This miraculous food, manna (מָן‎), is described in the Torah as a "fine, flake-like thing" (Exodus 16:14) that appeared each morning. Tradition holds that it tasted like whatever the person eating it desired. But despite its miraculous nature and adaptability, the people grew weary. They cried out, "Our soul loatheth this light bread!" (Numbers 21:5).

And then, as Legends of the Jews tells it, a voice boomed from the heavens. It called out to all humankind, pointing to the example of the serpent. Yes, that serpent. The one cursed in the Garden of Eden to eat dust. The voice thundered, "Come hither and hearken!" Look at the serpent, the voice commanded. Even though it was condemned to eat dust, it never complained. But you, My people, whom I led from Egypt, for whom I rained down manna, quails, and water…you murmur!

The voice continues, "Let now the serpents come…and let them bite those who murmur though they have a food that possesses every conceivable flavor.” The Zohar elaborates, painting a vivid picture of the serpent as the first creature to slander its Maker, earning its punishment. Now, it would become the instrument to punish those who, failing to learn from its fate, blasphemed their Creator by decrying the heavenly food as something that would bring them death.

And what happened next was terrifying. According to Legends of the Jews, the very serpents that had been burned by the protective cloud of glory surrounding the Israelite camp during their forty-year journey – serpents that lay heaped up around the camp – were now resurrected to bite the people. Their venom burned the souls of those they attacked. A truly horrifying punishment for the sin of ingratitude.

The story highlights a profound lesson about the nature of gratitude and the dangers of entitlement. It’s not enough to simply receive blessings; we must also appreciate them. We must recognize the miracle in the mundane, the divine gift in the everyday.

What does this story tell us about our own lives? How often do we, like the Israelites, focus on what we lack rather than what we have? How often do we take the blessings in our lives for granted, forgetting the source from which they flow? Perhaps the tale of the complaining Israelites and the avenging serpents serves as a potent reminder to cultivate gratitude, even – and especially – when things are difficult. Because sometimes, the greatest blessings are the ones we least appreciate. And sometimes, the consequences of ingratitude can be more venomous than we ever imagined.