Or HaChaim on Numbers 11:11/אור החיים על במדבר י״א:י״א

1 למה הרעת לעבדך…ולמה לא מצאתי חן, "Why have You dealt ill with Your servant,…and why have I not found grace?" It is somewhat difficult to understand why Moses first complained about the damage he felt that he had suffered and only afterwards about the lack of some positive achievement, i.e. not finding grace? Logic would have dictated that these two elements be cited in an ascending order! We must understand what Moses said in light of what our sages said in connection with Exodus 32,34 where G'd told Moses: "go and lead the people, etc." Sifri 1,91 there describes G'd telling Moses that the Israelites were obstinate pestering people who cursed their leaders and threatened to stone them, etc. Thus far the Sifri on the subject. We may understand Moses' reaction here in light of what G'd had told him at the time when the sin had been the golden calf. When he used the expression הרעת, Moses meant: "why did You G'd make me experience this misconduct of Your children?" After I have accepted that burden at least You should have helped me to carry this great burden which You have imposed upon me. When Moses asked: "why have l not found grace," the word מצתי, "I have found," is spelled without the customary letter א. Moses hinted that he had not even found a minimal amount of grace.

2An alternate way of looking at our verse assumes that Moses did not want G'd to give the Israelites meat so as to prevent their death after eating the meat. Moses asked G'd why He had placed such a heavy burden upon him instead of granting him grace. The letter ל in the word לשום את משא כל העם הזה עלי, is to be understood as giving a reason. Moses complained that if G'd refused to accede to his request not to grant the Israelites' wish to eat meat, why would he have to watch the debacle that would occur as a result of G'd granting the Israelites' request to be fed meat? He also foresaw that the improper behaviour of the Israelites would eventually lead to his own death in the desert. He felt that these results were not the proper reward he could have expected for all his toil on behalf of the Jewish people. Moses' second complaint then may be seen as even greater than his original request. This disposes of the question we raised regarding the sequence of Moses' complaints.