Commentaire sur Les Nombres 20:5

לא מקום זרע, “not a place where you can plant seed.” From these remarks of the people we can learn that as long as Miriam’s well had supplied them with water, it had been possible, especially in places where they had sojourned for many years, such as Kadesh, to plant seeds and grow crops, for during all the years we never heard the people complaining that they could not even plant any seeds.

V. 5. ולמה העליתנו וגו׳. Das Verhängnis unserer Wanderschaft in der Wüste ist ja zu Ende. Wir sollten doch bereits das verheißene blühende Land betreten, das in dieser Frühlingszeit schon in allem Schmuck der Saaten und Früchte prangen muss — welch ein Kontrast damit dieser Ort —, wo nicht einmal Wasser zum Trunke vorhanden! — Das ist nicht Gottes Wille, das ist euer Werk.

ותאנה וגפן ורמון, “neither are there fig trees, grape vines or pomegranates.” In another context the order of these trees is reversed, such as the vision of people enjoying tranquil life תחת גפנו ותחת תאנתו, “beneath his vineyard and his fig tree.” (Kings I 8,5 and Micah 4,4) There may be an allusion here as to why the firewood for burning the red heifer is traditionally the wood from the fig tree. Seeing that we had just concluded reading about the red heifer, this may explain the source of this tradition. [I have not found a source for this tradition. Ed.]