Comentario sobre Deuteronómio 2:8

ונפן ונעבר AND WE TURNED AND PASSED, towards the north; we turned our faces to proceed along the eastern side (see Rashi on v. 3).

ונעבר מאת אחינו בני עשו, "we passed by from our brethren the children of Esau, etc." The reason Moses stresses the brotherly relations with Esau is to remind the Israelites that the Jewish people had abided by G'd's command not to cause any friction or provocation in their dealings with the Edomites. Another reason why Moses refers to them as "our brothers" was because they maintained correct relations with the Israelites, selling them whatever produce the Israelites were willing to buy. We know this from verse 29 in our chapter.

ונעבור מאת אחינו בני עשו היושבים בשעיר מדרך הערבה מאילת ומעציון גבר, “we moved on away from our kinsmen the descendants of Esau, who dwell in Seir; from the way to the Aravah, from Eylat and from Etzyon-gever.” We turned away from (ערבה) from the paths of the Lord and Torah; this is why the Edomites were not given to us to conquer at this time (a Midrash found in Lieberman’s edition of Devarim Rabbah, not the standard printed text) [The implication of the words עציון גבר in this Midrash is that instead of honoring the נעשה ונשמע the Israelites had pledged at Sinai, they regressed to man-made counsel, the result being a reduced-size Eretz Yisrael. Ed.]

We turned our faces to travel, etc. Rashi needed to explain, “We turned northward,” because the verse (3), “Turn yourselves northward,” implies the turning of their heads now. Although they were not commanded to do so until after traversing the entire southern border of Moav, nevertheless, [they attempted to turn northward through the land of Edom, but] after they saw that Edom opposed them, they left and traversed the entire southern border of Moav. Afterwards they turned northward, as they were commanded when they were at the southern border of Edom. Then they traversed the entire eastern border of Moav until reaching the land of Sichon and Og, which was to the east of the Land of Israel, etc. (Re”m).

V. 8. ונעבר וגו׳. Mosche hob aus dieser Berührung mit Esaus Söhnen nur das hervor, was für die zu weckende rechte Einsicht und Gesinnung bei der bevorstehenden Landesbesitznahme von Wichtigkeit war. Daher überging er die unbrüderliche Weigerung Edoms, den Durchzug zu gestatten (Bamidbar 20, 21).

ונעבור מאת אחינו, “we passed by our brethren, etc.” they did so by turning northward as they had been commanded in verse 3. Their point of departure was Ovot. This is why there is a most unusual end of paragraph mark (letter ס plus two blank spaces in our chumashim, in the middle of a sentence.)