Aug 6/05 - Shabbat Mas'ei

Commentary by Rabbi Lawrence Pinsker

“These are the journeys (mas’ei) of the Israelites, who had left Egypt in organized groups under the leadership of Moses and Aaron.” —Numbers 33:1

This week’s Torah portion is the last in the Book of Numbers (Bemidbar), which has focused on issues of politics, leadership, and societal formation both within the Israelite community and in their relations with non-Israelites during their forty years of wandering in the Sinai wilderness. The portion opens with a summary of the Israelites’ itinerary, a listing of forty-two places visited and inhabited over those four decades: from Rameses in Egypt to Avel Shittim in the West Plains of Moab (Numbers 33:3-49).

In most cases, the text gives no details of the events during the Israelites’ various journeys, and the most common expressions in this Portion are: “They left x ... and they camped at y.” Here and there references are made to a few of the events which have already been recounted in previous parts of the Torah, such as the killing of the first-born in Egypt, finding water and dates at Elim, the lack of water at Rephidim, Aaron’s death upon Mount Hor, and also a reference to Israel’s war with the Canaanite king of Arad (Numbers 33:40).

The curious absence of narrative detail elicits a comment from Moses Maimonides in The Guide to the Perplexed (Part III, Chapter 50). He offers an explanation for why the Torah simply lists all the places where the Israelites stopped in the desert:

God knew that in the future people might doubt the correctness of the account of these miracles, in the same manner as they doubt the accuracy of other narratives.

They might think that the Israelites stayed in the wilderness in a place not far from inhabited land, where it was possible for man to live [in the ordinary way]; that it was like those deserts in which Arabs live at present; or that they dwelt in such places in which they could plow, sow, and reap, or live on some vegetable that was growing there; or that manna came always down in those places as an ordinary natural product; or that there were wells of water in those places. In order to remove all these doubts and to firmly establish the accuracy of the account of these miracles, Scripture enumerates all the stations, so that coming generations may see them, and learn the greatness of the miracle which enabled human beings to live in those places for forty years.

In other words, the list of place-names lends veracity to the claims of the Torah narrative. A vast population of former slaves could not possibly have inhabited the places cited without divine help. Future generations would understand that for their ancestors to have lived in those desolate regions would have required divine intervention.

Another issue regarding their long journey is addressed using the opening sentence of this Torah portion. We are accustomed to thinking that we know why the Israelites must wander for forty years; it’s because they believed the misleading report of the Israelite scouts who reported that Canaan could not be entered because of its formidable inhabitants and therefore had no faith in God’s promise that they would return to their homeland. But Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Binyamin Sofer, in Ketav Sofer, gives the following explanation:

At the beginning of Parshat Mas’ei it says: “who had left Egypt in organized groups under the leadership of Moses and Aaron.” It was thus necessary to get them out of there by force (the “show of power” on the part of Moses and Aaron), and therefore the generation of the desert was not worthy to enter the land. If they had left Egypt of their own free will, they would not have tarried, and they would not have been condemned to forty years of wandering.

In other words, the most formidable problem in getting the Israelites out of Egypt was neither Pharaoh nor his army. The real obstacle was the Israelite leadership, which would not encourage the people they had organized to leave when the opportunity presented itself. The plagues were not so much for the benefit of impressing the Egyptians as to move the Israelites themselves out of a deadly inertia into action. Astonishingly, Rav Sofer’s commentary points to the stagnant, unimaginative leadership of the Israelites as the greatest enemy to securing their own future. Quite obviously he understands the reluctance of entrenched leadership to risk their own power even when it will benefit those whom they lead.

“Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.” The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Shabbat Shalom.