What was so terrible about the Slav? 

The people wanted some meat. It wasn’t even steak, it was quail. They asked Moshe for it and Hashem sent it to them. What is so terrible about a little quail? 

I think the problem was not in how much quail the Jews ate. It was in their attitude. They ate the quail like their lives depended on it, because it was much easier to feel like their lives depended on quail than to just give the responsibility to G-d. 

Did the Jews really have free fish in Mitzrayim? The Ramban writes that they actually did, but Rashi argues. The whole thing was a figment of their imagination. They missed the days before they got the Torah when they were free of Mitzvos. Now they needed to rely on their good deeds. If they behaved, Hashem would send them mon. If they were Tzadikim it would fall to their doorstep. 

The Jews were crying about the freedom, the promiscuity and the lack of discipline that they had in Mitzrayim. 

One of my Rabbeim, Rav Dovid Hirsch Meyer Zatzal, used to explain that this is not just a euphemism where the Torah says that they were complaining about fish but they were really complaining about halacha. They actually did complain about fish, but that wasn’t their true discomfort. They claimed it was about fish, but in truth it was about their responsibilities. 

This is how we work. We all have responsibilities and we all have challenges. We aren’t happy with our responsibilities so we complain. There is no shortage of real and perceived things to complain about. But really we aren’t upset about the little things. Those are excuses. We just don’t want the responsibility. 

Even if our complaints are legitimate we need to ask ourselves why we are complaining. Is it the fish? Or are we kvetching because we don’t want to face the responsibility that we took upon ourselves as the Am Hanivchar, the G-dly people and the light onto all of the other nations? 

Good Shabbos.