Tafsiran Bilangan 33:49: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi, Kli Yakar & Rashbam

“They encamped by the Jordan from Beth-jeshimoth as far as Abel-shittim in the plains of Moab” [33:49]. Israel rested by the Jordan from the city of Beth-jeshimoth to Shittim, in the plains of Moab. From here we learn how wide and long [the area] was where Israel rested at one time and in one place. Rabah bar bar Hanah said: I was at that place and I saw that where Israel rested was twelve miles long. The people of Israel was so numerous that they needed a place that was twelve miles wide.⁹Rashi, Numbers, 33:49.

מבית הישמת עד אבל השטים [AND THEY ENCAMPED] … FROM BETH-JESIMOTH EVEN UNTO ADEL-SHITTIM — Here it tells you that the extent of Israel’s camp was twelve miles, for Rabba bar bar Chana said: “I myself have seen that place etc., and it is three Parsangs (12 miles) square” (Eruvin 55b).

And they camped by the Jordan from Beth-jeshimoth unto Abel-shittim. On the level of allusion, one can explain why these two extremes were mentioned, since this portion speaks of the death of Aaron, and our Sages said (Rosh Hashanah 18b) that the death of the righteous is equivalent to the burning of our God’s Temple. This is hinted at the beginning of the portion: And [Aaron] died there in the fortieth year… in the fifth month, on the first day of the month. This is the month of Av, in which our God’s Temple was burned, and which was established as a time of weeping for all generations since the time of the spies, to indicate that these two events are of equal weight; therefore they coincided in the same month. This is alluded to in “Beth-jeshimoth,” which is a term of desolation and destruction of the Temple, and “Abel-shittim” is a term related to cedar and alludes to the time when they mourned for the righteous one who is compared to a cedar. Both of these coincided at the same place, and the connection of these two extremes indicates that they are equivalent, as if one extreme experienced Abel-shittim — meaning the mourning for the soul of the righteous — and the second extreme experienced the pain of Beth-jeshimoth.

אבל השטים — The plain of Shittim had the name אבל (cf. Rashi on Genesis 14:6).