Commentaire sur Les Nombres 9:22

או ימים means, [OR] A FULL YEAR, just as, (Leviticus 25:29) “A full year (ימים) shall he have the right of redemption”.

או יומים או חדש או ימים, this is now already the fifth time that the Torah belabours the subject of these journeys, something totally unprecedented. It alerts us to how sometimes the people did not even have time to send their beasts to graze, whereas on other occasions they had to dismantle everything at very short notice, any plans they had made having to be abandoned.

בהאריך הענן, when the cloud tarried, etc. The Torah mentions that even when the cloud tarried for a whole year, meaning that during that year the Israelites did not come any nearer to their ultimate goal, they did not demur but were content to remain encamped in that location. ובהעלתו, and when it rose, even when the cloud remained in place only overnight, יסעו they would (willingly) move on. The Torah describes the Israelites' will to make camp as equal to their desire to move on. Moreover, even when their journey commenced after a sojourn in the same location for a whole year and would be followed by a renewed encampment after a journey as brief as a day, they still did not demur but displayed the same willingness to encamp again as they had displayed when bidden to move after not having moved for a whole year. The Torah concludes its report by providing us with the reason why the Israelites displayed such equanimity, namely על פי ה׳, they had trained themselves to recognise that G'd acted in their own best interests when He gave the signal to rest or to move on respectively. The words את משמרת ה׳ שמרו, "they observed G'd's charges," mean that the Israelites' patience matched whatever timetable G'd had worked out for them.