ויבאו בני ישראל, “The Children of Israel arrived, etc.;” the arrival of which the Torah speaks were was during the fortieth year of their wanderings. Their lengthy detour around the territory of Edom who had denied them passage and whom G-d had not allowed them to harass in any way, had now been completed. It had commenced at Kadesh Barnea, and was concluded in the desert of Tzin. The Torah summarises this period here although it comprised 18 separate moves during which the Tabernacle had been erected and taken apart each time. In Numbers 33, 1936, the details of these moves have been recorded for posterity. The first encampment was at a place called Ritmah, the last at the edge of the desert of Tzin. Concerning that period we read Moses recalling in Deuteronomy 2,5: ונפן ונסע המדברה דרך ים סוף ונסב את הר שעיר ימים רבים, “we turned around and journeyed toward the desert in the region of the sea of reeds and marched around Mount Seir, for many years.” That period concluded there in verse 8 with: “we detoured our brethren the children of Esau that dwell in Seir, from the way of the Aravah from Eilat to Etzion Gaver.” From there they arrived at Kadesh, boundary of the Kingdom of Edom, as stated in Numbers 33, 36: “they journeyed from Etzion Gaver and encamped at the desert of Tzin, at Kadesh. What is missing here is only G-d’s warning not to harass the people of Edom (Compare Deuteronomy 2,5).

וישב העם בקדש, “the people had settled down at Kadesh;” they remained there for four months until the month of Av when they arrived at Mount Hahar, where Aaron died. This was not the same Kadesh as the one mentioned in Deuteronomy 1,46, as at that Kadesh they stayed for many years. (19 years according to our sages.) It was the Kadesh from where the spies had been dispatched on their ill fated expedition.

ותמה שם מרים, ”Miriam died there;” seeing that the dying of the people condemned to die as a result of their acceptance of the spies’ majority report had commenced there, Miriam’s death as well as Aaron’s, is also reported at this juncture.

And they joined against Moses and Aharon - they were not punished now as they were in the other complaints, because now they have a case. There really is no water (after Miriam's death).

קח את המטה, “take the staff!” G-d referred to Aaron’s staff. This is clear from what the Torah writes: Moses took the staff that had been in the presence of the Lord, i.e. in the Tabernacle, the staff that had produced almonds in Numbers 17,23. Compare also Numbers 17,25, where Moses had been told to return his staff to the Tabernacle as an ongoing reminder to the obstinate community of Israel that a member of his family had been chosen to be High Priest. It was appropriate for this staff to be used again when dealing with a people that were in a rebellious mood. In this episode Moses committed his first error when he took the wrong staff, seeing that he thought he was supposed to strike the rock. The only reason that G-d had told Moses to take this staff, was that it had been used in conjunction with the rebelliousness of the Jewish people, as opposed to the obstinacy of Pharaoh.

ודברתם אל הסלע, “and speak to the rock (pl.).” The prefix ה before the word: הסלע teaches that the rock involved was the one that used to provide water for the people as long as Miriam had been alive. The people would draw their water from that rock. It used to move with the people whenever they moved. This was the rock that Moses now struck and that refused to yield its water on account of Miriam having died. It resumed yielding water due to the merit of Moses and Aaron, as our sages have explained in the Talmud tractate Taanit, folio 9. This is why G-d told both Moses and Aaron to speak to the rock. Some commentators understand what happened during this episode as follows: the words: ודברתם אל הסלע refer to what occurred in Exodus 17,7; this is totally erroneous, if only since there the Torah never used the expression סלע when speaking about the rock, but only the term צור. Moreover, it is clear that that episode occurred near Mount Sinai, as the Torah testifies that the waters emanated from the rock known as Chorev. (Exodus 17,6)

ונתן מימיו, “it will yield its natural waters,” i.e. just a few drops, as a result of being spoken to.

והוצאת להם מים, “you will extract for them water;” i.e. a great quantity of water, by striking the rock. According to that view, the reason why G-d had told Moses to take along the staff, although on the face of it sounded as if quantities of water would be released from the rock by merely speaking to it, was that it had never been intended that more than a few drops of the rock’s own moisture would be released by speaking to it. Moses had misunderstood G-d, as he was upset at the time so that he had never spoken to the rock at all, apart from not having known which of the numerous rocks all around he was to address. The critical rock was surrounded by many others which all looked alike.

?המן הסלע הזה נוציא לכם מים, “Are we supposed to extract water for you from this rock?” The Israelites understood Moses’ exclamation at face value, i.e. that he thought that it was quite impossible to extract water from the rock he pointed at, (or they had pointed at). Actually, what Moses had meant to say was: “did you think that what we are going to do to this rock is the same as what we did for your fathers 40 years ago, i.e. by striking it?”G-d’s command to speak to the rock was precisely to teach them that it was not even necessary to strike the rock. Moses had not been precise in his exclamation.

ויך את הסלע, “he struck the rock with his staff twice.” Rashi’s explanation here is too short when he writes that after the first strike the rock produced only a few drops of water, Moses struck the rock again and then it produced ample amounts of water because G-d had never instructed him to hit the rock at all, but had said to Moses and Aaron: “speak to the rock.” According to Rashi, they then spoke to another rock. The result was that no water emerged from that rock at all. They then thought that this second rock should have been struck just like the first one, and when they proceeded to do this a lot of water came out. When the rock had failed to produce water, they had thought that they must have spoken to the wrong rock. (Our author amends what he thought that Rashi had meant to write)

לכן לא תביאו, “therefore you will not bring, etc.” Whenever the expression לכן, appears, it indicates that the speaker is saying something in the nature of an oath. Compare: Samuel I 3,14: לכן נשבעתי לבית עלי, “therefore I have sworn concerning the house of Eli;” compare alsoDeuteronomy 4,21: וישבע לבלתי עברי, “therefore He swore that I may not cross, etc.”If you were to query that we read at the end of Exodus 6,7 that Rashi explains the words: עתה תראה, “now you will see,” that Moses, while witnessing the Exodus from Egypt, will not witness the crossing of the Jordan into the land of Canaan, (as a penalty for having questioned G-d’s handling of the Israelites since his appointment as their leader) he had already forfeited the right to cross into the land of Israel 40 years earlier, so what is new about G-d’s oath here? We may answer that both incidents combined to deny him entry to the Holy land; [alternately, in Exodus, the matter had only been hinted at, (thus preventing Moses from apologizing and doing teshuvah) and had not been confirmed by G-d with an oath thus making it irrevocable. Ed.].

ויקדש בם, “He was sanctified through them.” The phenomenon that caused G-d to become sanctified here was the water that came forth from the rock. (Not in accordance with Rashi) As a result, the name of this place henceforth was Kadesh, a sanctified location.

וישלח משה מלאכים, “Moses dispatched messengers;” the Torah here explains in detail what Moses refers to in Deuteronomy at the beginning of chapter two there. Some details missing there have been supplied here, whereas others have been augmented there but omitted here.

בקדש עיר גבולך, “at Kadesh, a town on the border of your Kingdom.” This was at the southeastern end of the land of Canaan.

ולא נשתה מי באר, “and we will not drink water from your wells.” Moses reassures the Edomites that the Israelites will not deprive them of water they had had to dig for, but would only drink from water which flowed in the streams coursing through their territory, water that would not be used by them anyways. These waters are not owned by anyone.

דרך המלך נלך, “we will march along the king’s highway.” We will march along a route indicated by the King.

לא תעבור בי, “do not trespass on anything that I own; even though the Israelites offered to pay the King of Edom a head tax for every Israelite who would use the King’s highway, a huge income for him, the King refused adamantly. He was afraid that the Israelites would use the opportunity to invade and conquer his Kingdom.

ויאמרו אליו במסילה נעלה, “they said to him: we will go up by the highway and we will pay for everything, etc.” they even offered to pay for water drunk from the rivers.

ויאמר לא תעבור, “the King said: “you must not cross (the boundary).” After confronting soldiers at the borders, the Israelites decided, in conformity with G-d’s command, not to violate Edom’s territory.

כל העדה הר ההר, “the entire congregation, to Hor Hahar.” Even though the King of Edom had sent troops with an aggressive posture the Israelites did not incur a single casualty.

ואהרן יאסף, “and Aaron will die (be gathered in to his forefathers). In verse 24 it stated this specifically. At that point we had not been told where Aaron would die. This information is being supplied in our verse.

ויראו כל העדה, “the entire congregation saw, etc.” since this verse cannot be understood literally, the Jerusalem Targum renders it as meaning that when the people witnessed Moses and Elazar returning without Aaron, they drew the appropriate conclusions, [especially, seeing that Elazar wore the garments of the High Priest, as described in verse 28. Ed.] They observed Moses having ash on his head and having rent his garments, calling out to Elazar, “woe for my brother Aaron!”An alternate interpretation: we find that the expression ראיה, “seeing” is also used to describe “knowing,” i.e. seeing with one’s mental eye. Prominent examples are: Genesis 40,16, where the chief of the bakers is described as “seeing” that Joseph had properly explained the dream of the chief of the cup bearers. Another example of the root: ראה describing “understanding,” rather than seeing with one’s eyes, is found in Genesis 42,1 where our patriarch Yaakov is credited with seeing that there was grain for sale in far off Egypt, i.e. וירא יעקב כי יש שבר במצרים, “Yaakov “saw” that there was trading in grain going on in Egypt.” The author cites more examples.