With their victories over Emor,
How does this list of sites appropriately preface the nation’s obligation to conquer Eretz Yisrael? The Bnei Yisrael arrived in Arvos Moav eleven perakim ago, at the end of Parashat Chukas, and they haven’t moved since. Why then does Moshe wait to recount their past journeys until they are prepared to leave the plains? Alternatively one could ask, as Rashi asks, why Moshe recounts these journeys altogether.
“These are the journeys.” Why are these journeys written? To inform [us] of G-d’s kindness, for although He decreed to drag them through the wilderness, do not claim that they were dragged from journey to journey all forty years without rest.
Rashi, BaMidbar 33:1
Rashi proceeds to prove his claim. “There are forty-two journeys altogether,” he tallies. He then proves that fourteen of these journeys preceded Hashem’s decree, and eight more came after the end of His decree, after the death of Aharon. Therefore, Hashem made the Jews travel only twenty times in the span of forty years, an unconditional kindness even in the face of a most terrible decree.
But how does this tally prove G-d’s kindness? Maybe the Jews stopped at each destination for only a day, and so they spent nearly the full forty years on their feet wandering. Without knowing how long they spent at each destination, there is no possible way to determine just how long Hashem made them wander. And while an estimation of the time required to travel from Mitzrayim to Eretz Yisrael might accurately project the respective numbers of days spent wandering and camping, such a calculation would itself reveal the kindness of Hashem, rendering Moshe’s list of destinations entirely useless, bringing the difficulty with Rashi’s comments back to square one.
The Mifarshim take issue with Rashi from a very different angle. If we count the journeys listed in our parasha, we find that there are actually only forty-one stops along the way, and that the nation made only nineteen journeys during Hashem’s decree. Why then does Rashi round these numbers up?
In order to answer this difficulty, the Levush HaOrah first raises an additional question. In Parashat Eikev (10:6), Rashi writes that there were eight journeys from Mosera to Hor HaHar. Similarly in Parashat Pinchas (26:13), Rashi writes that when the Cana’ani king of
To resolve these inconsistencies, the Levush HaOrah first explains Rashi’s definition of a Masa, a journey. When a man sets out on a journey with a particular destination in mind and travels a quick and straight path to this destination, we call his travel a single Masa. However, the moment this man walks off his original course, all the more so if he travels in exactly the opposite direction of his destination, his traveling turns into a straddling and is no longer termed a Masa.
In this sense, the Bnei Yisrael traveled seven Masa’ot from Mosera to Hor HaHar, seven journeys with different destinations in mind. Their first destination was Bnei Ya’akan, and then they settled. The next was Chor HaGidgad, and again they settled. And so on. But there is another unlisted journey Rashi includes, namely the journey from Mosera back to Hor HarHar. After the Bnei Yisrael regrouped from their retreat, they set their sights on Hor HaHar and hastily returned. Although this journey spanned the length of seven previous journeys, the Bnei Yisrael completed their trek with one destination in mind, Hor HaHar, and so Rashi counts this return as its own Masa, but only one Masa. On the other hand, Rashi omits the nation’s retreat from Hor HaHar to Mosera from his enumeration of Masa’ot, for this straddling worked against the reaching of their next destination, Tzalmona.
Therefore, the Levush HaOrah concludes, the extra Masa that Rashi refers to in Parashat Masei is the return from Mosera to Hor HaHar. Rashi includes this eighth journey within his enumerations whenever the focus of his comments includes the return from Mosera to Hor HaHar. Rashi’s comments in Parashat Pinchas revolve around the efforts of Shevet Levi to turn the nation around and lead them back to Hor HaHar, and his comments in Eikev evaluate the haste of their return (Rashi infers this from the skipped Masa’aot in Moshe’s rebuke there); therefore, Rashi refers to the “eight Masa’ot” in each of these two cases. However, Rashi’s comments in Chukas deal exclusively with Bnei Yisrael’s retreat, so he limits the span of this retreat to a simple “seven Masa’ot.” All in all, we find that there were indeed forty-two journeys from Klal Yisrael’s departure from Mitzrayim to their arrival in Arvos Moav, and twenty of these forty-two journeys preceded the nation’s departure from Hor HaHar.
By the Levush HaOrah’s assessment, Rashi defines a Masa solely by the destination one resolves to reach before he sets out on the road. In other words, the definition of a Masa is not the travel along the road, not the process of journeying. Rather, a Masa is simply the departure, a lifting of the eyes with a new destination in mind. The Jews’ first Masa was from Ramiseis, and their second Masa was from Sukos, and so on. This definition reads quite clearly into the pasukim:
“VaYisu Bnei Yisrael MaiRamiseis, VaYachanu BiSukos,” and Bnei Yisrael departed from Ramiseis, and they camped in Sukos.
BaMidbar 33:5
Rashi doesn’t prove Hashem’s kindness by analyzing the time Klal Yisrael spent wandering through the Midbar. Rather, Rashi focuses specifically on the number of times the nation had to depart from their current location with another destination in mind. The most difficult step of a journey is not the transition, the time spent commuting, but rather the departure, the very resolution to pack one’s belongings and abandon an old home for new home. Indeed, Hashem could have made Klal Yisrael pack their belongings over and over for forty years, moving them from destination to destination on an almost daily basis. Yet He did not; He made them commit to no more than twenty different destinations, twenty different homes, along the forty year trek. And therefore, Moshe urges, the nation must feel grateful.
Of course, the most difficult of the nation’s departures was the one from Arvos Moav. The destination they now set their sights on, Eretz Yisrael, was no wilderness, and the efforts summoned to make this land their home were no short order. But with his recounting of Hashem’s kindness, Moshe reminds his nation that Hashem will always stand on their side, through all their departures, no matter how stressful or difficult the transition may seem. Hashem will always guide them to their next destination, to the land He promised their fathers. And if they can achieve this one last mission, if they can drive every last inhabitant from the land, then they can finally experience a true arrival “El Ha Menuchah ViEl HaNachalah Asher Hashem Elokecha Nosein Lach” (Devarim 12:9) to the resting spot and to the inheritance which Hashem gave to them.