Who hasn’t flown on a flight when young children or babies are crying! I read where a person was seated behind two small children who were not happy about being on a plane. Their cries of complaint filled the cabin.Just before takeoff, a flight attendant stopped next to them and said with a big smile, “What is all this squawking up here?” After charming the fussy 3-year-old and his younger sister for a few minutes, the flight attendant bent down and whispered very seriously, “I must remind you, this is a nonsquawking flight.”
The little ones became unbelievably quiet. That made everyone feel better. It’s a long journey when you have to sit in the squawking section.Once I asked an assembly of day school students what we Jews are good at. They gave me a lot of good answers except the one I was looking for based on this week’s Torah portion of Beha’aotekha. We Jews are good at complaining. Despite the fact that God provided the miraculous manna for them, “The rift raft in their midst felt a gluttonous craving; and then the Israelites wept and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, onions, and the garlic. Now our gullets are shriveled. There is nothing at all! Nothing but this manna to look to. ’” (Numbers 11: 4-6) To say the least, Moses wasn’t please, and he complained to God “Where am I to get meat to give to all these people, when they whine before me and say,’ give us to meat to eat!” (Numbers 11:13)
I’m sure God would like to remind all of us every morning that He wants this day to be a nonsquawking flight. We should try to do all things without complaining and disputing. If we went through each day without complaining, how would it affect our family and friends?
Squawking or nonsquawking?
The choice is ours.
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