Batsal refers to the onion, a staple food of the ancient Near East and particularly of Egypt. Onions were among the most common and cheapest foods available to laborers and slaves in Egypt, where they were cultivated extensively along the Nile. The word appears only once in the Hebrew Bible.
In Numbers 11:5, the Israelites in the wilderness complain: "We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic." This verse is remarkable for what it reveals about the human heart. Israel had been delivered from slavery by the most spectacular series of miracles in history — yet they longed for Egyptian onions. The craving was not really for onions but for the predictability and sensory comfort of bondage. It is a devastating picture of how easily the redeemed romanticize their former chains.