עשה לך [שתי חצוצרות], “make for yourself [two trumpets]” — for your own needs [or benefit, like other דרשות on לך]. So that you will not need to send out after them [the עדה].

החונים קדמה, “who were encamped on the eastern side;” the flag of the army group headed by Yehudah.

החונים תימנה,”who were encamped on the southern side;” the army group headed by Reuven and his flag. We might have thought that just as signals were blown for the eastern and southern army group to form in formation, so the trumpets would also be blown as signals for the army group in the west and the one in the north. By writing the word t’ruah, alarm, in the singular mode the Torah made clear that only two alarms were blown on these trumpets “for them to commence their journeys (pl).” There is another opinion which holds that separate alarms were blown on the trumpets for each army group.

ותקעתם תרועה שנית, “you will blow a second alarm.” From this verse we learn that every time a t’ruah was blown it had been preceded by the signal known as tekiyah both before and after.

ותקעתם תרועה שנית, Rashi comments on this line as follows: the signal to start journeying was to blow in this order: tekiyah truah tekiyah. If the trumpets were being used to call the people to an assembly, however, no t’ruah was blown. Our author continues with speculations about what appears to be repetition in this paragraph. As there will not again be an opportunity to reenact the procedure in reality, I have decided to save time and space and not translate his speculations.

ובהקהיל את הקהל, “but when the assembly is to be called together, etc.” on this verse Rashi comments: “seeing that we might have thought that seeing that the construction of the trumpets had been introduced as something that Moses was to do personally, and use by himself, that just as for breaking camp there would be a blast of tekiyah followed by a blast of t’ruah, followed again by a blast of tekiyah, the same would be the signal for a general assembly; However, if that were so how would the people have known the significance of these blasts? In order to prevent such a misunderstanding, the Torah in our verse specifically warns that when the trumpet call served to call the people to an assembly there would not be the alarming blast of the t’ruah.”

והיו לכם לחוקת עולם לדורותיכם, “they shall be for you as a statute forever, throughout your generations. These (trumpets) will serve you as a statute. They were given to you as a statute, i.e. only to be used while in the desert; whereas all the other vessels used in the Tabernacle or in connection with it, were to be used also after the people settled in the Holy Land, i.e. “throughout your generations.”

וכי תבאו מלחמה, “and when you go to war;” the Torah employs a variety of words when referring to becoming involved in wars, another one being והיה כי תראנה מלחמה, “it will be when war will break out” (Pharaoh to his people in Exodus 1,10)

על הצר, “on account of the enemy that oppresses you,” (a defensive war) the preposition על, as “on account of” occurs also in Psalms 44.23: כי עליך הורגנו כל היום, “for on Your account we are being killed on any day;”

ונזכרתם לפני ה, “you will be remembered before (the throne) of the Lord;” the Torah will proceed to explain how this scenario will unfold, i.e. you will be saved from your attackers.

ותקעתם בחצוצרות, “you will blow the tekiyah blasts with the trumpets, etc.” (the Torah speaks of joyous occasions) in order that the people will realise that the offerings on their behalf are at that moment being presented and they can tune in spiritually to the meanings of these sacrifices.

על זבחי שלמיכם, “and over the sacrifices of your peaceofferings;” this is a reference to sheep offered on Shavuot, when the trumpets were only blown to call attention to communal mandatory offerings.

והיו לכם לזכרון, “which shall be for you a memorial;” on those days blowing tekiyah will accompany the burnt offerings, whereas when the trumpets are blown on account of war, especially the t’ruah, alarming sounds, this was to bring your merits to the attention of the Lord so that He would help you prevail against your enemies.

וישכון הענן במדבר פארן, “and the cloud came to rest in the wilderness of Paran.” This region included the location which became known as Taveyrah, another name for Kivrot Hataavah, where the meat hungry people died from overeating as if ravenously hungry. Included were also the locations named Chatzerot, Ritmah, and Kadesh, all reminders of minor or major disasters. Proof of this is the fact that in Parshat Massey where all 42 way stations of the journeys of the people are listed chronologically, no mention is made of the wilderness of Paran.

על פי ה, “at the command of the Lord;” by means of blowing the trumpets. [not verbal commands to Moses each time. Ed.] An alternate interpretation of these words: the command of the Lord was conveyed to the people when they observed that the lifting of the cloud over the Sanctuary and the Levites dismantling the Tabernacle.

והקימו את המשכן, “so that they would be able to erect the Tabernacle.” According to Rashi, the subjects in this verse are the members of the house of Gershon and Merari. There is a full stop here in Rashi’s commentary. When Rashi continues there with: “two army groups had already preceded them,” this does not refer to the ”Merarites and Gersonidides,”but refers to a different subject, namely the order in which the journeys proceeded. Rashi has to be understood as follows; “when did the members of the house of Gershon and Merari reerect the Tabernacle? After the first two army groups which had already preceded them and who in turn had preceded the Kehatites carrying the Holy Ark on their shoulders, had passed. The members of the house of Gershon and Merari had traveled as part of the first two army groups. When they observed that the cloud had stopped moving, this was their signal to reerect the Tabernacle. During that period the Kehatites arrived and found the Tabernacle ready to receive the Holy Ark.

מאסף לכל המחנות, “the rearguard of all the camps. (army groups) Rashi comments that the reason why the tribe of Dan formed the rearguard was that it was very numerous. Anyone who had lost something during the journey would hand it in to members of that tribe awaiting the loser to claim it. This follows the opinion that the Israelites were moving in the pattern of a box. The camp of Dan was in a northerly direction as a matter of routine. [The land of Israel being situated north of the land of Egypt, this would be normal. Ed.] Seeing that they numbered so many soldiers they could spread out over a wide area so that the left flank would actually be partially in the west. It would therefore be appropriate to apply the term מאסף, “ingatherer,” to that army group headed by the Danites. If you were to argue that according to the text of the Torah, the army group headed by Yehudah numbered about 16000 more soldiers than that of Dan, what Rashi meant was that of the three tribes comprising the army group headed by Dan, the tribe of Dan itself was more numerous that the other two tribes that formed part of his army group. The members of the tribe Dan itself were the hindmost of all the tribes in the various army groups.

מאסף לכל המחנות, “the hindmost of all the army groups;” if any member of any of the other army groups due to fatigue fell behind, they would all be included in the group headed by the tribe of Dan, so that they would not become lone stragglers. We find the expression מאסף having a similar meaning in Judges 19,18: ואין איש מאסף אותי הביתה, “and no one would be willing to give me shelter in his house.”

נוסעים אנחנו, “we are about to embark on our journey to the Holy Land;” according to Rashi, Moses invites Yitro to become a partner to Israel. At this point Moses still believes that both he and the people are on the way to immediately enter the Holy Land and to settle there. When Moses had suggested to G-d that He send someone else to be the leader of the Jewish people, (Exodus 4,13), Rashi commented that the reason why Moses said this was that he knew that he himself would not get to the Holy Land. According to the plain meaning of what Moses is saying here to his father-in-law, it is clear that he included himself among the people who would get to the land of Israel. He reasoned that if the people were to know that the man who had taken them out of Egypt and performed all these miracles would not be allowed to enter the Holy Land, what possible chance would an ordinary Israelite have to ever to get to that land? [He therefore pretended that he would get there.] An alternate interpretation: Moses said this only to Yitro, as he reasoned that if he told or hinted to Yitro that he himself would not get to the Holy Land, surely Yitro would not believe that he would succeed where Moses did not, and therefore he would decline Moses’ offer.

והטבנו לך, “we will treat you well.” He meant that Yitro would be allowed to share in the loot the Israelites would secure from the Canaanites. He had not been authorized by G-d to promise him an ancestral piece of land in the Holy Land.

כי אם אל ארצי ואל מולדתי אלך, “but I prefer to go to my country and my birthplace” [to die there. Ed.] According to our author, Yitro preferred the evil he knew to the evil he did not know, i.e. he knew what awaited him in Midian, but he did not know what awaited him in the land of Canaan.

אל נא תעזוב אותנו, “please do not abandon us!” We have not been able to show you how well we can treat you thus far. (B’chor shor)

כי על כן ידעת חנותנו, “for the reason you came here to see where we were encamped was in order to join us.”

והיית לנו לעינים, “and you have become our eyes” this is to be understood as Genesis 18,3: אם נא מצאתי חן בעיניך “if only I will find favour in your eyes.” The word עינים is used in the same sense as פנים, “face, front.” An alternate interpretation: other potential converts to Judaism will look at you as the example that inspires them to follow his example. (B’chor shor)

אשר ייטיב ה' עמנו “the good that the Lord will do for us.” Moses refers to nations in addition to the seven Canaanite nations. He refers to Exodus 34,24: והרחבתי את גבולך, “I will expand your boundaries.” According to another view, Moses promised Yitro and his family the land belonging to the Kenites. This had been included as one of the ten nations whose lands G-d had promised to Avraham as being part of greater Israel (Genesis 15,19). This is why in future years the descendants of Yitro are usually referred to as Kenites, as for instance in Numbers 24,21, where Bileam prophesied about them. Compare also Samuel I 15,6 ויאמר שאול אל הקני, “Shaul said to the Kenite.”

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

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, 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 first 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.

וענן ה' עליהם יומם ולילה, “and the cloud of the Lord was above them both by day and by night. Regarding Rashi’s commentary that there were seven clouds during theIsraelites’ journeys, they were not all mentioned in a single paragraph, as pointed out in Torat Kohanim. Four enveloped them from the four directions of the globe, and two from above and below. The seventh traveled ahead of them. This latter one is the one mentioned here. The others are mentioned in Numbers 14,14, Numbers 9,19, Exodus 40,36 and 40,37. According to the view of Rabbi Yehudah, there were 13 such clouds, 2 in each direction of the globe, two above and two below, and one in front of them. According to the opinion of Rabbi Yoshia, there were only four clouds, whereas according to the opinion of Rabbi Yehudah hanassi, there were only two such clouds.

ויהי בנסוע הארון, “It would be that whenever the Ark was moving forward, etc.” According to the Talmud in tractate Shabbat folio 116, quoting the opinion of Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, this short paragraph in the Torah (which is bracketed) will be removed from the Torah scrolls at some time in the future and it will be rewritten in the appropriate place. If so, why was it not written in the proper place to begin with? It was meant to separate positive occurrences that the people experienced from negative ones, such as the ones we will shortly be reading about. What is the “appropriate” place that it should have appeared in? According to Rabbi Yossi, on the folio of the Talmud in Shabbat 116, it should have appeared when we read about the flags, immediately after verse 21 in our chapter, where the Torah describes the Kehatites as carrying the Holy Ark.'

ויאמר משה קומה ה, “Moses said:” arise O Lord, etc.” He said so as the cloud appeared to have disappeared at the time when the people were on the march.

ובנחה, “and when it came to rest, etc.” the spelling of this word appears defective and it is to be read as if it had been written with the letter ו at the end instead of the letter .ה

ובנחה יאמר שובה,”and when it came to rest, he (Moses) would say: “return O Lord, etc.” This was necessary as the cloud had previously been inert. Moses wanted the cloud to actively “dwell” above the camp of the Israelites.

רבבות אלפי ישראל, “unto the tens of thousands of families of Israel.” The expression means that Moses wished for the Presence of the glory of the Lord to be manifest in the midst of the tens of thousands of families comprising the Jewish people. רבבות, this is one of the words that loses the prefix letter ב, such as we find the first time already in Exodus 31,17: כי ששת ימים, which we would have expected to be: כי בששת ימים, “for during six days.” The author quotes a number of such examples, singling out: Genesis 38,11. An alternate interpretation: the meaning of the line: קומה ה' ויפוצו אויביך, “arise O Lord so that Your enemies will scatter,” is the standard prayer we ought to recite whenever engaging on a journey.

The line commencing with: 'שובה ה, is the prayer to let the traveler complete his journey without mishap, so that when counting his companions he will find that none were lost during the journey. The author quotes Deuteronomy 30,3, ושב ה' אלוקיך את שבותך, “and the Lord your G’D will return with your captives, etc.,” to support his view.

The word ושוב there is to be understood as if Moses had said: והשיב, “He will bring back.”