Comentários de Citação sobre Números 32:8

The correct interpretation of These are the words is that the commandments written in the upcoming parashiyyot of Re eh , Shofeṭim , Ki Teṣeh , and Ki Tavo had already been given to the Israelites when they were in the wilderness. In other words, the phrase that Moshe spoke is modified by the entire remainder of the verse, as if Scripture had repeated it, saying: “These are the words that Moshe spoke to all Israel, which Moshe had spoken in the wilderness, and in the desert across the Red Sea…” starting from the day that they left Sinai.

Scripture says eleven days to tell us that Moshe spoke these words during those eleven days wherein they traveled from Ḥorev to Qadesh Barnea. I shall later inform you that the spies started out from Qadesh Barnea [comment on: 3] [see also Numbers 32: 8]; after God swore that they would not enter the land, no new commandments were given until the fortieth year — for so it is written [Bava Batra 121a–121b] [Ta‘anit 30b] [cf. 2: 16–17]. Conclusive evidence is found in the phrase “to expound this Torah” [: 5]: He explained the Torah that he had already spoken between Paran and Tofel. Note that most of the Commandments are repeated in this book. Accordingly, the upcoming phrase “all that God had commanded him concerning them” [: 3] is properly modified by the preceding phrases “across the Jordan” [: 1] and “in the desert wilderness” [: 1]. If you can grasp the mystery behind the following problematic passages: 1) The final twelve verses of this book 2) “Moshe wrote…” [31: 22] 3) “At that time, the Canaanites dwelt in the land” [Genesis 12: 6] 4) “…In the mountain of God , He will appear” [Genesis 22: 14] 5) “behold, his bed is a bed of iron…” [3: 11] you will then understand the truth. There are those who say that the reason for mentioning It is eleven day’s journey from Ḥorev, by way of Mount S̀eir, to Qadesh Barnea is to stress that they wandered in the wilderness for forty years — hence, the contrasting phrase

מנגב לקדש ברנע, from the south to Kadesh Barnea. There were two places called “Kadesh.” One was located in the land of Canaan, and was mentioned in the Book of Joshua 15,3 as one of the towns in that land. The second one is the one first mentioned in the portion of Mattot, 32,8: בשלחי אתכם מקדש ברנע, “when I sent them, (your fathers) on a mission from Kadesh Barnea,” Moses speaking about the ill fated trip of the spies throughout the land of Canaan some 38 years earlier. It is quite impossible to suppose that Moses dispatched the spies from a town inside the land of Canaan. If he had done so, he would have first have to cross into that land, something that not only G-d had forbidden him, but something that he greatly regretted not having been able to do as we know from his own mouth. The “Kadesh” without an adjective, was situated near the border of the land of Edom