Comentário sobre Números 12:16

AND AFTERWARD THE PEOPLE JOURNEYED FROM HATZEROTH, AND PITCHED IN THE WILDERNESS OF PARAN. The reason [why Scripture mentions the wilderness] is to say that when they travelled from Hatzeroth they did not go from one wilderness to another, as they did on their first journey when they set forth from the wilderness of Sinai and pitched in the wilderness of Paran,³⁰³Above, 10:12. for [now] they set forth from Hatzeroth which is in the wilderness of Paran, and pitched in another place in that very same wilderness. This [place was called] Kadesh-barnea, for [although its name is not given here], it is from there that the spies [mentioned in the next section of the Torah] were sent, as is said in another place, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh,³⁰⁴Further, 13:26. and so also it is written, and we came to Kadesh-barnea;³⁰⁵Deuteronomy 1:20. And ye came unto me every one of you, and said: Let us send men before us.³⁰⁶Ibid., Verse 22. Now Scripture does not say here: “and they journeyed from Hatzeroth, and pitched in Kadesh-barnea,” for perhaps there were many [stages in their] journey between them [i.e., these two places], and this is not now the place to mention them. However, it mentioned [that they pitched] in the wilderness of Paran,³⁰³Above, 10:12. in order to inform us that this Kadesh [from where the spies were sent] is the Kadesh-barnea which is in the wilderness of Paran, not the Kadesh which is in the wilderness of Sin³⁰⁷Further, 20:1. where the affair of the waters of Meribah³⁰⁸Ibid., Verse 13. took place in the fortieth year [of the Israelites’ stay in the wilderness].
Shelach

ויחנו במדבר פארן, in a region of the desert which had not been named at all, but it is clear that it was opposite Kadesh Barnea, not far from it. This was in order for them to make all the necessary preparations to enter the first town of what was going to be their homeland. Moses referred to this specifically in his review in Deuteronomy 1,19-21. Having made camp there the Israelites called the site Ritmah, and it is described as such in the list of the journeys of the Israelites in Parshat Massey.

ואחר נסעו העם מחצרות ויחנו במדבר פארן, “and after (the conclusion of that wait) the people journeyed fro Chatzerot and camped in the desert of Paran.” Nachmanides writes that the people’s journey from Chatzerot does not describe the journey from one desert to yet another desert, but that they journeyed from one point in the desert of Paran to another location in that same desert The precise location where they encamped now was known as Kadesh Barnea, the place from which the spies would be dispatched, as described in the following chapter. (13,26) The reason the Torah did not mention that location by name at this stage may have been that the journey from Chatzerot entailed several brief stops before they encamped around Kadesh Barnea. There was another location called Kadesh, and this is the reason why the Torah in 13,26 is precise so that we should not confuse that Kadesh with the Kadesh in the desert of Tzin.