Commento su Numeri 33:1

אלה מסעי THESE ARE THE JOURNEYS (STAGES) [OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL] — Why are these stations recorded here? In order to make known the loving acts of the Omnipresent: that although He had decreed against them to make them move about and wander in the wilderness, you should not think that they wandered and moved about without cessation from one station to another station all the forty years, and that they had no rest, for you see that there are here only forty-two stages. Deduct from them fourteen, all of which were their stopping places in the first year after they left Egypt, before the decree was made, viz., from the time when they journeyed from Rameses until when they came to Rithmah whence the spies were sent out — as it is said. (Numbers 12:16): “And afterwards the people journeyed from Hazeroth, [and encamped in the wilderness of Paran], whereupon the Lord said unto Moses, (Numbers 13:2) "Send thee men [who may search out the land]”; and here (v. 18) it states, “and they journeyed from Hazeroth and they encamped in Rithmah”, so you learn that it (Rithmah) is in the wilderness of Paran. — Further deduct from them the eight stages which were after Aaron’s death viz., those from Mount Hor to the plains of Moab in the fourtieth year (v. 38). It follows that during the whole of the thirty eight years they made only twenty journeys. This is excerpted from the work of R. Moses the Preacher. — R. Tanchuma gave another explanation of it (of the question why these stages are here recorded). A parable! It may be compared to the case of a king whose son was ill and whom he took to a distant place to cure him. When they returned home the father began to enumerate all the stages, saying to him, “Here we slept, here we caught cold, here you had the head-ache, etc.” (Midrash Tanchuma 4:10:3.

THESE ARE THE JOURNEYS. After the vengeance [executed] upon Midian, concerning which the Holy One, blessed be He, told Moses, afterwards shalt thou be gathered unto thy people,¹Above, 31:2. and after Moses had apportioned the land of Sihon and Og [to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Menasheh] and they had built the [previously] mentioned cities,²Ibid., 32:34-38. he set his mind to write down [the various stages of] the journeyings [in the desert]. His intention in so doing was to inform [future generations] of the loving kindnesses of the Holy One, blessed be He, towards them, for even though He had decreed upon them that they had to move about and wander around in the wilderness, you should not think that they were continually wandering and moving around from place to place without any rest; for throughout all this long [period of] time they only went on forty-two journeys as the Rabbi — Rashi — wrote, [citing] the words of Rabbi Moshe the Preacher.³See above in Seder Naso, Note 146.
And the Rabbi [Moshe ben Maimon] added in the Moreh Nebuchim⁴Guide of the Perplexed III, 50. Ramban is using Al Charizi’s Hebrew translation from the Arabic [rather than Ibn Tibbon’s]. another [explanation as to the] benefit [that we derive] from knowledge [of these stages], saying: “There was a very great necessity in mentioning the [stages of the] journeyings. For [although] the miracles and wonders that were done were [recognized as] true ones by all who saw them, in later times these events would be matters of hearsay, and those who hear about them [then] might deny them altogether. Now among the greatest miracles and wonders [related] in the Torah is Israel’s survival in the wilderness for forty years, and finding the manna every day, although these places [where they stayed] are very far from cultivated settlements, and are not natural habitat for human beings, not being a place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates,⁵Above, 20:5. and the Torah states, Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink.⁶Deuteronomy 29:5. All these [matters] are signs of events of a miraculous nature which were seen by [the human] eye. But the Creator blessed be He, knew that these wonders will be subject to the process which occurs to [all] historical events — that those who hear them will not believe them; and they will think [about these events] that the sojourn of the Israelites in the wilderness was [in a place] near the cultivated settlement, where people can live there, such as the deserts in which the Arabs live today, or [that they stayed in] places where there was plowing and harvesting, or where there were grasses and plants suitable for human consumption, and that there were wells of water in those places. Therefore in order to remove from people’s hearts all such thoughts, and to firmly establish [the truth of] all these miracles, [He recorded] as a [permanent] memorial the [stages of their] journeyings [in the wilderness], so that the future generations would see them and acknowledge the great wonders [entailed] in keeping people alive in such places for forty years.” All these are his words [i.e., the words of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon].
Thus the writing down [the stages of] the journeyings was a commandment of G-d, either for the reasons mentioned above or for some other reasons, [for] a purpose the secret of which has not been revealed to us. For [the expression] by the commandment of the Eternal⁷Verse 2. is connected with [the beginning of that verse], And Moses wrote,⁷Verse 2. unlike the opinion of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra who wrote that it is connected with according to their journeys,⁸Verse 2 reads: And Moses wrote their goings forth according to their journeys by the commandment of the Eternal. Ibn Ezra explains that the phrase by the commandment of the Eternal is connected with according to their journeys, meaning that all their journeys were by the commandment of G-d. Ramban objects to this explanation because this fact has already been expressed elsewhere in Scripture, and therefore he explains that the phrase refers to the beginning of the verse, And Moses wrote, and the intention is to say that Moses wrote down the various stages of the journeys by G-d’s command, and not of his own accord. for Scripture has already informed us of this [fact, saying]: according to the commandment of the Eternal they remained encamped, and according to the commandment of the Eternal they journeyed.⁹Above, 9:20.

אלה מסעי, G’d wanted all the journeys to be recorded in order to compliment the Jewish people who had followed him blindly through the desert where nothing grew, so that as a reward for their faith they would deserve to enter and inherit the land of Israel.

אלה מסעי בני ישראל, These are the journeys of the children of Israel, etc. We have been told in Bereshit Rabbah 12,3 that the expression אלה is used to separate what follows from something negative which had preceded it, [such as the Tohu Vavohu prior to the story of creation, and Genesis 2,4. Ed.] whereas the expression ואלה establishes a link with what preceded it. It is difficult to see in which way the journeys the Torah tells us about here are supposed to separate from a negative experience which has been described previously. Perhaps the Torah meant to draw a line of distinction between all journeys which occurred in human history, even those which have not been recorded on the one hand, and those of the Jewish people in their Exodus from Egypt on their way to the Holy Land on the other hand. This would be an acceptable reason for writing אלה if these journeys had all been a record of positive achievements. Alas, they were not, far from it! After all, most of these journeys were caused by the sins of the spies! Even a number of the journeys which occurred before the sin of the spies were due to negative rather than positive considerations such as G'd leading the Israelites on detours skirting the land of the Philistines in order to prevent a premature confrontation with the Philistines and possible tragic results (compare Exodus 13,17). G'd had been afraid that the Israelites might appoint an alternate leader and head back to Egypt rather than face the hostile Philistines. Clearly then "journeys" had been related to potentially negative experiences long before the incident with the spies. We also have the following comment in Yalkut Shimoni Yitro item 273: "Proverbs 3,17 describing Torah as כל נתיבותיה שלום, 'all her paths are peace,' is a reference to the time of the Exodus when G'd wanted to give the Torah to the Jewish people immediately." This proved impossible as the people were constantly divided, a section wanting to return to Egypt. The Midrash lists the various places where the Israelites rested on their way to the desert of Sinai as constant sources of strife and discontent. All of this is proof that the journeys of the Jewish people were nothing to be proud of and why would the Torah review them here by introducing them with the word אלה?

אלה מסעי, the Torah reviews all the journeys in order to list all the locations were they camped.

אלה מסעי, “these are the journeys, etc.” Rashi comments that the reason the Torah details all the various journeys of the Israelites here is to illustrate the innumerable acts of kindness performed by Hashem for the people. It is a testimony to the fact that in spite of having decreed death in the desert for the generation that had participated in the Exodus, they were not wandering aimlessly for 40 years but were constantly under His benevolent supervision. Nachmanides adds a further element and writes that the detailed report here is designed to negate the claim of people who feel that the story of the Israelites surviving for 40 years in a desert devoid of the barest essentials for survival is beyond belief, and these people diminish the experience by claiming that surely the Israelites were only at the edge of the desert all that time and had easy access to regions that were inhabited and civilised. By tracing the movements of the people, such assumptions by latter-day historians, real or so-called, are laid to rest by the Torah. Anyone tracing the route of the Israelites will not find even a hint at ruins of previous human habitation. The miraculous nature of the entire experience every step of the way is preserved in the minds of our people when we read these lines.

You learn that it was in the desert of Paran. Paran was a large plain which included a place called Rismah, thus we see that the decree of the spies was at Rismah.

Kap. 33. VV. 1 u. 2. Mannigfache Zwecke dürften dieser Zusammenstellung der Züge und Rastorte der Wanderung durch die Wüste innewohnen. Eine ganze Reihe von Ereignissen und Erlebnissen dürften sich an diese Wanderzüge und Rastorte in der Wüste geknüpft haben, die für die Familien- und Stammesangehörigen und Nachkommen derer, die sie betrafen, des Gedächtnisses wert gewesen sein mögen, die aber keine Stelle in diesen Büchern der nationalen Gesamtheit fanden, und deren mündlicher Überlieferung durch dieses Verzeichnis Merkstäbe für das Gedächtnis geboten wurden. Welche Spuren mögen ferner diese Orte noch für die nächste und fernere Folgezeit von dem Aufenthalt und den Wanderungen unserer Väter in der Wüste bewahrt haben, und wie sehr mochte damit den Söhnen und Enkeln Gelegenheit geboten gewesen sein, diese Stätten der Gott offenbarenden Wunderwaltung in der Wüste aufzusuchen und an Ort und Stelle sich die aus der Geschichte der Väter redende Tatsächlichkeit der Gottesgegenwart auf Erden an dem Schauplatz der Offenbarung selber lebendig zu vergegenwärtigen. Schon der Anblick der nahrungs- und wasserlosen Öde dieser Örtlichkeiten, die so groß ist, dass selbst eine Karawane vorsichtig die Tage zählen muss, um mit ihrem Vorrat auszureichen, und in welcher ein Volk, in welcher mindestens an dritthalb. Millionen Seelen vierzig Jahre lang gelebt, wie sehr — nach einer Bemerkung des רמב׳׳ם im Moreh, — muss schon der bloße Anblick dieser Örtlichkeiten in der Wüste die ganze Göttlichkeit der jüdischen Gründungsgeschichte dokumentieren! Raschi teilt von ר׳׳משה הדרשן die Bemerkung mit, von den zweiundvierzig Zügen dieses Verzeichnisses fallen vierzehn, von Raamses bis Ritma, vor die Aussendung der Kundschafter, acht, von dem Berge Hor bis zu den Öden Moabs, nach Aharons Tode im vierzigsten Jahre, so dass auf die achtunddreißig Jahre des Wanderungsverhängnisses in der Wüste nur zwanzig Züge kommen. Die göttliche Milde hat somit die Ausführung des Verhängnisses keineswegs zu einem unstäten ruhelosen Herumwandern werden lassen, da der Durchschnitt fast zwei Jahre für jede Rast ergibt.

אלה מסעי, “these were the journeys, etc.;” whenever a paragraph commences with the word: אלה the reason is to tell the reader that what follows is not connected to what was written previously. What this means here in practical terms is that only the journeys listed from here on in, but not עטרות and דבון, of which the Torah wrote in Numbers 32,3 and the locations mentioned there, are included in what follows.

That throughout the thirty-eight years… For the decree was only for thirty-eight years, as Rashi explains in Parshas Devarim (1:46). You might ask: From Rismah until Mount Hor there were only nineteen journeys, thus there should have been just forty-one journeys, however Rashi above explained that there were forty-two. See Parshas Chukas (21:4) where Rashi explains that there were seven journeys from Moseirah until Mount Hor (and the comment of Sifsei Chachamim there).

Perhaps we have to divide these various journeys into two groups. 1) The journeys during the first year plus, prior to the decree that the people over twenty would die in the desert as a result of their supporting the majority report of the spies, and 2) the journeys undertaken as a result of that decree. G'd had never meant for the people to undertake these latter journeys at all had they not proven so quarrelsome during the journeys of the first year plus. These earlier journeys were far worse than the ones who served a positive purpose after the decree due to the debacle with the spies. The word אלה in our verse is meant to draw a dividing line between the negative aspects of the unnecessary journeys and the positive aspects of the necessary journeys. The journeys the Torah is about to list are all those that were of a necessary kind, i.e. that had positive elements to them as distinct from others which were mere tedium devoid of redeeming qualities.

ויכתב משה את מוצאיהם למסעיהם על פי ד׳ ואלה מסעיהם למוצאיהם gewiss kein bedeutungsloser Wechsel in der Begriffs- und Wortstellung. Nach der göttlichen Auffassung waren es מוצאיהם למסעיהם, ihnen waren es מסעיהם למיצאיהם. Zug und Rast geschahen ja stets unter Gottes Geheiß (Kap. 9, 17 f.). Wenn Gott sie aufbrechen ließ, so lag das Motiv in dem jedesmal zu erreichenden Ziele, für welches die göttliche Erziehungswaltung den neuen Rastort als den geeigneten ersehen hatte. Jede מסע war ein Fortschritt, war der Zweck des מוצא, des Aufbruchs, und alle ihre Aufbrüche waren מוצאיהם למסעיהם. Dem Volke war es aber umgekehrt. Sie wurden an jedem Orte unzufrieden. Wenn es zum Aufbruch ging, war ihnen der Aufbruch Ziel, es war ihnen in dem Augenblick gleichgültig, wohin es ging, sie zogen weiter, um nur von dem bisherigen Rastorte fortzukommen, es waren ihnen מסעיהם למוצאיהם.

Expounds the matter differently. Meaning: This is why the journeys were enumerated…

We also need to explore why the Torah chose to emphasise the "journeys," i.e. the Israelites breaking camp, rather than to emphasise that they made camp. i.e. that they arrived at a destination. This question is especially relevant in view of Tanchuma on our verse which describes the situation in terms of a parable. "A king had a son who was sick, so he took him to one health spa after another. When the son had finally been cured and the father took him back home, the father would reminisce with him about all the various places they had been together prior to the last one where the son had been cured." If the Midrash correctly summarizes the reason why the Torah lists all these journeys, it surely would have been more appropriate to list the places where stey stopped over, i.e. the "arrivals." We also have yet another Tanchuma which claims that the reason the Torah lists all these journeys is so that the desert which hosted the Jewish people during this period would receive its appropriate reward in the future as alluded to by Isaiah 35,1 : "the arid desert shall be glad, the wilderness shall rejoice etc." This Midrash too would make much better sense if the Torah had concentrated on describing the times spent by the Jewish people camping in the desert rather than the occasions when they broke camp.

Here we slept. Meaning: Here you slept. Likewise, Hashem enumerated all the journeys as if to say that on this journey you did this, and on that journey such-and-such happened to you.

Our verse may be understood when we consider what the Zohar volume 2 page 157 has to say about the purpose of the Israelites' trek through the desert. It was meant to enable the Israelites to seek out isolated sparks of sanctity and to release them from captivity. These "sparks" had been taken captive by the spiritually negative forces who have their home in the desert. G'd made the Israelites travel through such places in order that their sanctity would act as a magnet and attract such "lost" sparks of sanctity. The only way this could be accomplished was by means of total sanctity, i.e. a combination of the sanctity of Israel, the Presence of G'd, שכינה and the holy Torah. It required the presence of 600,000 souls which originated in holy domains. Moses matched these 600,000 individually holy souls, as he is perceived of as the tree from which all these souls are branches (compare Isaiah 63,11). In a combined effort these forces of sanctity were able to overcome the forces of impurity which kept many of these lost sparks of sanctity captive. According to the Zohar then these "sparks" could be captured while the Israelites were actively journeying not while they were passsively encamped, and it is this the Torah has in mind when writing "these are the journeys." The word אלה is indeed in sharp contrast to any other journeys ever described anywhere as never before had there been a journey which was accompanied by so many elements of sanctity.

We were chilled. In the sense of being chilled, for it is common for those who are sick to be comforted when one cools them.

While it is true that the patriarchs have also been described as journeying, and they too had rescued lost sparks of sanctity during their journeys, there is no comparison between what these individuals accomplished and what the Jewish nation as a whole accomplished in this regard. The Torah itself describes the superior nature of these journeys by stressing that they occurred as an aftermath of the Exodus from Egypt, i.e. after the Israelites had been refined in the iron crucible called Egypt. This enabled them to isolate sparks of sanctity wherever they would encounter them. Not only that, but the Torah describes these journeys as having taken place לצבאותם, when they were a complete unit, the Presence of G'd resting on these 600,000 holy souls. We have described repeatedly that the definition of שלמות, wholeness, completeness, is not applicable to fewer than 600,000 such souls.

You find that the reason G'd did not give the Torah to the patriarchs was due to their being too few in number. They lacked this "completeness" which is predicated on the presence of 600,000 souls which originated in a holy domain (compare Mechilta Yitro) so that they could be described as צבאות, "G'd's armies." Only once the Israelites were in the desert did they comprise all the necessary pre-conditions for fulfilling the task set for them by their journeys. The Torah also added: ביד משה ואהרון, "under the guidance of Moses and Aaron," who were the שושבינים, "go-betweens" between the Presence of G'd and all the other elements of sanctity needed to fuse the nation into a single whole of sanctity.

אשר יצאו מארץ מצרים לצבאותם, who had departed from Egypt according to their hosts; according to what we explained thus far that the word אלה separates these special journeys as being spiritually superior to any previous journeys, the reason that the Torah wrote the words "who came forth out of Egypt according to their hosts," is that the Torah wished to describe the journeys prior to the affair of the spies as being spiritually superior to those which occurred only as a result of the decree after the affair of the spies. Prior to the affair of the spies, the Israelites deserved to be described as journeying לצבאותם as due to their being the hosts of G'd. Journeys which took place after the decree occasioned by the fiasco of the spies lacked the element described here as לצבאותם. The major reason that it lacked this element was that part of the men who had participated both in the Exodus and in the refining process of the iron crucible called Egypt had begun to die off, so that there were no longer the requisite number of holy souls to make up the magic number of 600,000 who combined all the qualities we described. When the Torah describes the journeys as ביד משה ואהרון, this means that prior to the fiasco with the spies the journeys had been described in Numbers 9,23 as על פי ה׳ ביד משה, "at the command of G'd as conveyed by Moses," that Moses and Aaron (the latter by means of the trumpets) gave the signal to initiate a journey.

Numbers 33:1: What it feels like this in these psukim are explained in the commentaries. It appears to me, based on what I explained earlier, on the verse "Moshe Rabbeinu returns the words of people to G-d." This is the virtue of the tzaddikim of the generations that they elevate all the prayers and the all good deeds of the simple people to go up to heaven. That's the meaning of the words "Moshe Rabbeinu returns the words of people to G-d", meaning he returns them and their deeds to Hashem. This is what is written here as well: their journey was from level to level within kedusha because while they were in Egypt, they were immersed in the 49 gates of impurity. When they left from the great darkness to the great light, they were traveling in kedusha, going higher and higher. That's the meaning of the verse "these are the journeys": these people ascended higher and higher as the result of them leaving Egypt to become the army of Hashem, all of this was achieved by the tzaddikim, Moshe and Aaron, who lifted them up before Hashem. And this is the meaning of the verse "Moshe wrote down their departures to their journeys" that he achieved all of this; all of their depart and their journey, he achieved that all of this should be for the sake of Hashem to journey by Hashem's instruction to go higher and higher. Another verse "these are their journey according to their departure": these 42 journey allude to Hashem's 42 letter name, because His Kindness is Everlasting, all of this achieved through Moshe and Aaron.

Numbers 33:1: This verse can be understood by another verse: "Man cannot live on bread alone but by the word of G-d." The main energy of a person is that G-d should say Torah in the person's name. It says in Talmud: "When Moshe Rabbeinu went to Gad Eden, he saw G-d sitting and saying that 'my son Eliezer is saying that cow refers to a 2-year old cow, that's how it's written in heaven'." This is the meaning of Mishna where it says "the language of sages and the names of the sages are studied in their mouth" that's how we explained earlier in Behalotcha "according to the mouth of G-d, when they were told to camp, they camped and when told to travel, they traveled." Tzaddikim do no rest, neither this world or the next, because the more they understand, the higher their understanding ascends until G-d will say a Torah in their name and, at that point, they "encamp." This, in turn, brings a new Torah insight like a wellspring. [In the times of Tanna,] this empowered the strength of Torah for the Talmud for the next generation [,the Amorim]. At the end of the generation [the Amorim], called the conclusion of the Talmud, this stopped except for unique individuals. That's the meaning of the verse "Man cannot live on bread alone but by the word of G-d" that the main life/energy of a person is that G-d says in Torah in his name. By the Jewish people, it says that "these are their journeys for their coming out of Egypt," "coming out" means saying words of Torah, according to G-d's word--like how when they were told to travel, they travelled-- they reached higher and higher until G-d said Torah in their mouth. This is the meaning of the posuk "they're coming out of their journey": they're revealing a new flow of Torah as it says "G-d renews the world every day."