“And the people were complaining in a bad way in the ears of the Almighty.” (Bamidbar 11:1)
When the Jewish people were traveling through the desert H”S sent the Mana ( a miraculous food that fell from heaven every day, and it acquired the taste you wanted), but nevertheless human nature is embedded in us and we are prone to complain, so they did. They were upset because they didn’t have meat and began to complain.
Rashi comments that when the people were complaining they had no real cause to complain, they were just looking for an excuse to separate themselves from G-d.
Complaining is wrong, this shows a lack of gratitude for our blessings. The underlying reason of a complainer is not necessarily that he wants the situation to change, he just wants to have the benefits of complaining. The benefits of a complainer are that he gets rid of his responsibility to change. It’s easier to put the blame on someone else or a situation that to be accountable for our actions.
Ultimately, a person that goes through life complaining does not appreciate the good in life.
One of the harms a complainer causes is that this attitude is contagious. You might be in a restaurant with others and then you find fault in something, those who are with you might of not noticed what you did and suddenly you make them aware and everyone begins complaining, and what could’ve been a nice night out suddenly becomes miserable.
The same principle applies when a person wants to keep an emotional distance from someone else and they find reasons to complain. By complaining about what a person does wrong or doesn’t do enough of, you try to free yourself from gratitude towards that person for what he has done for you. This fault causes much misery in both the life of the complainer and the one he is complaining about. The sages teach that when we don’t recognize the good others have done to us eventually we will not recognize the good H”S has done for us too.
So make an effort and make it a practice to show gratitude and appreciation to those who help you during your life.
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