Comentário sobre Números 10:33

דרך שלשת ימים [AND THEY DEPARTED FROM THE MOUNT OF THE LORD] THREE DAYS’ JOURNEY — A distance of three days’ journey they miraculously travelled in one day, because the Holy One, blessed be He, desired to bring them straight away into the Land (cf. Sifrei Bamidbar 82).

AND THEY SET FORWARD FROM THE MOUNT OF THE ETERNAL THREE DAYS’ JOURNEY. According to the plain meaning of Scripture, the cloud [of the Eternal] journeyed and went before them for three days and the ark followed the cloud in front of the people, and it did not come to rest in that place until the night of the third day, when the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran,¹⁴⁰See Ramban further, 12:16 for explanation of this area. which was a good place for them to camp in. This is the sense of [the expression] to seek out a resting-place for them.¹⁴¹Verse 33. And when the cloud rested they erected the Tabernacle and brought the ark into it. Scripture, however, did not explain whether they also journeyed at night.

דרך שלשת ימים, to the border of the land of Israel, for within the space of 3 journeys they had advanced to Kadesh Barnea opposite the desert of Paran. From there the spies were dispatched. As Moses explained in Deuteronomy 1,22 “you all approached me asking: ‘let us dispatch men, etc.’” This was the place where the Jewish people had been encamped in the desert of Paran which has been mentioned here in 12,15 after the delay due to Miriam’s having been afflicted with tzoraat. The spies had returned to that location at the end of their mission. (Numbers 12,16) [The fact that the place from which the spies were dispatched is described by Moses as הר האמורי, the mountain of the Emorite, proves that this was within the boundaries of the land of Canaan of which the Emorite was the leading tribe. Ed.]

'מהר ה, for the people at that time had still not moved from Mount Chorev in the desert of Sinai. This was after the Tabernacle had been erected, as I have explained in connection with Numbers 1,1 on the words מדבר סיני.

וארון ברית ה' נוסע לפניהם דרך שלשת ימים, “and the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem journeyed before them a three–day distance.” According to Rashi this was the Ark containing the broken pieces of the first set of Tablets. This Ark traveled ahead of the main body the distance normally covered in three days’ march. Nachmanides writes that according to the plain meaning of the text neither the Ark nor the cloud preceded the people at all in terms of physical distance; the Torah describes that the Ark and the cloud would move for three days uninterruptedly without taking time out to make an even temporary “pit stop” until the evening of the third day. On that evening the cloud came to rest in the desert of Paran, and this is the meaning of the words לתור להם מנוחה, “to espy a suitable resting place for them” in our verse. The people would not make camp until they had reached that location. They then proceeded to re-assemble the Tabernacle and they brought into it the various furnishings, first of all the Holy Ark. What is not clear is whether during these three days the people marched also at night. Ibn Ezra writes that when the Torah wrote in verse 21 that the Kehatites journeyed and erected the Tabernacle before the people arrived, refers to the Kehatites journeying behind the first two flags, (army groups) does not apply to the first time the people moved away from their 11 months encampment at the bottom of Mount Sinai. During that journey the Ark did travel a distance of three days’ march ahead of them.

ויסעו מהר ה, “they journeyed from the mountain of the Lord.” The Israelites journeyed away from Sinai, the cloud leading the way. The Ark was being carried by the Kehatites behind the cloud. The cloud did not stop moving until the evening of the third day as it had been searching for a suitable site to make camp. This is the meaning of the words לתור להם מנוחה, “to search out for them a place to rest.”
Our sages in Shabbat 116 interpret the words מהר ה' as meaning מאחרי ה', that as soon as they left the environment of Sinai the people deviated from following G’d, they literally fled from the nearness of G’d. Different desires began to surface. These desires surfaced on the 22nd day of Iyar seeing that on the 20th of that month the cloud had risen from the Tabernacle and commenced to move. The first day of the three days which is mentioned here was the 20th of the month, the day the cloud started moving. The overpowering desire to eat meat surfaced on the 22nd of the month; the meat materialised on the same day and the people kept eating of the quail for 30 days until the 22nd of Sivan. Why did the sages in Shabbat have to interpret events in this manner? It was to teach us that as soon as the people moved away from Mount Sinai they no longer felt that they were under the immediate benevolent supervision of Hashem. They believed that this kind of supervision existed only right at the Mountain of G’d. The expression הר ה' as opposed to הר האלו-הים is so unusual that the sages felt the essence of the move was “away from the Torah element associated with that mountain.”

They traveled in one day. For if not so, why does it say “a journey of three days.”

VV. 33 u. 34. ויסעו וגו׳. Indem es nicht heißt: ויסעי שלשת ימים, sondern דרך שלשת ימים, so ist damit wohl die Beschwerlichkeit und Anstrengung vergegenwärtigt, die ein solcher dreitägiger Weg verursachte. Allein ארון ברית ד׳ נסע לפניהם דרך שלשת ימים, sie hatten auf diesem ganzen dreitägigen Wege die ihnen voranschreitende und den nächsten entsprechenden Rastort für sie erspähende Lade des Gottesbundes vor Augen, und dieser stete Anblick durfte ihnen wohl die Frische und Heiterkeit einer bewussten Gottesnachfolge erhalten, so wie ענן ד׳ עליהם, die bei ihrem Aufbruch über ihnen bleibende und mit ihnen ziehende Gotteswolke sie des auf ihrer Wanderung sie stets begleitenden Gottesschutzes sicher sein lassen konnte.

וארון ברית ה' נוסע לפניהם, “and the Holy Ark of the Covenant with Hashem traveled in front of them. During each night the Divine cloud was resting above the Holy Ark. Clearly the Israelites had not been able to travel without resting for three days and three nights. Jewish law rules that if someone swears an oath that he would not three for three consecutive days, i.e. for 72 hours, he will be subjected to the penalty of 39 lashes, as he undertook something he knew he would not be able to fulfill. (Talmud, tractate Shavuot, folio 25.) The cloud would resume its position above the camp of the Israelites in the morning, and the Levites would make the necessary preparations before the main body of the people resumed travelling. This is the plain meaning of the words: נוסע לפניהם, “was travelling ahead of them.” The Holy Ark was a distance of three days’ walking on foot in front of the main body until the people came to Kadesh in the desert of Paran. (Numbers 13,3) From then on they travelled without the Holy Ark, as we know from Numbers 14,44, when Moses did not allow the ones who were then willing to try and conquer the land of Canaan to take the Holy Ark with them. The meaning of the words: דרך שלשת ימים , is “a distance of three days’ march. This construction is also found when the Torah describes G–d as having created the universe in six days, i.e. ששת ימים. (Exodus 20,11)

'ויסעו מהר ה, “they journeyed away from the Mountain of the Lord;” all this time the Israelites had still remained next to Mount Sinai.

וארון ברית ה' נסע לפניהם דרך שלשת ימים AND THE ARK OF THE COVENANT OF THE LORD WENT BEFORE THEM IN THE THREE DAYS' JOURNEY — This was the Ark that went with them whenever they waged war and in which the broken Tablets were placed. It traveled in front of them a distance of three days’ journey to prepare for them a proper place for encampment (Sifrei Bamidbar 82; Talmud Yerushalmi Shekalim 6:1).

וארון ברית ה' נוסע לפניהם דרך שלשת ימים, during these three days that they spent on these three journeys through the “great and awesome desert,” (Deut.1,19) the Ark was traveling ahead of the Jewish people. The purpose was to remove any dangerous obstacles in the path of the advancing Israelites. However, during the remainder of the journeys the Ark was positioned within the center of the marching armies as described in Numbers 2,17. This was in line with the other holy artifacts transported by the Kehatites in that position of the marching order.

דרך שלשת ימים, they walked for a period of three days, not making camp until the end of the third day. Seeing that this had been very strenuous, the people began grumbling, as we know from Numbers 11,1, a phenomenon which also occurred in the last year of their wanderings and is recorded in Numbers 21,4. At that point the mood of the people is described as ותקצר נפש העם בדרך וידבר העם באלוקים ובמשה, “the people’s soul was restive on the journey and they spoke out against G’d and against Moses.”

Went with them. Meaning that it was the Ark which traveled in front of them that went with them to war. Moshe made it before he brought down the second set of Tablets, and it was not the Ark that Betzalel made after Yom Kippur. After they removed the second Tablets from that Ark and placed them in the one that Betzalel had made, the broken Tablets were placed in it and remained there. This Ark would go out with them to war, as well as journeying in front of them. However, the Ark which contained the second Tablets would journey in the midst of the camp, as it is written in this Parshah (v. 21).

דרך שלשת ימים, “for a distance of three days’ march;” the Torah did not write simply “שלשת ימים “ for three days; but it wrote: “a distance of three days.” This means that when they had started journeying they encamped once before the incident with the quails for a distance of three days march. These dates were the 20th of Iyar, the 21st and the 22nd of Iyar.

וארון ברית ה' נוסע לפניהם, during these entire three days, looking for a suitable place for them to make camp; for the cloud was seeking out such a location.

לתור להם מנוחה, a safe and secure place for camping in this awesome desert.

'וארון ברית ה, and the Ark of the covenant with the Lord, etc.,” some people claim that Moses had been carrying it, just as has been written in Michah 6,4: “I sent ahead of you Moses, Aaron and Miriam.” In other words, Moses carried the ark he had made for the second set of Tablets, whereas the Ark that had been made by Betzalel was carried between the second and the third army group as described earlier.