Blessed are You, Lord, our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with mitzvot and commanded us to immerse ourselves within words of Torah.

(1) These were the marches of the Israelites who started out from the land of Egypt, troop by troop, in the charge of Moses and Aaron. (2) Moses recorded the starting points of their various marches as directed by the LORD. Their marches, by starting points, were as follows:

(1) אלה מסעי THESE ARE THE JOURNEYS (STAGES) [OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL] — Why are these stations recorded here? In order to make known the loving acts of the Omnipresent: that although He had decreed against them to make them move about and wander in the wilderness, you should not think that they wandered and moved about without cessation from one station to another station all the forty years, and that they had no rest, for you see that there are here only forty-two stages. Deduct from them fourteen, all of which were their stopping places in the first year after they left Egypt, before the decree was made, viz., from the time when they journeyed from Rameses until when they came to Rithmah whence the spies were sent out — as it is said. (Numbers 12:16): “And afterwards the people journeyed from Hazeroth, [and encamped in the wilderness of Paran], whereupon the Lord said unto Moses, (Numbers 13:2) "Send thee men [who may search out the land]”; and here (v. 18) it states, “and they journeyed from Hazeroth and they encamped in Rithmah”, so you learn that it (Rithmah) is in the wilderness of Paran. — Further deduct from them the eight stages which were after Aaron’s death viz., those from Mount Hor to the plains of Moab in the fourtieth year (v. 38). It follows that during the whole of the thirty eight years they made only twenty journeys. This is excerpted from the work of R. Moses the Preacher.

— R. Tanchuma gave another explanation of it (of the question why these stages are here recorded). A parable! It may be compared to the case of a king whose son was ill and whom he took to a distant place to cure him. When they returned home the father began to enumerate all the stages, saying to him, “Here we slept, here we caught cold, here you had the head-ache, etc.” (Midrash Tanchuma 4:10:3.

(2) The reason why we find sometimes the objective mentioned first and other times the place of departure, is due to the fact that sometimes the people were glad to get away from a certain place where unpleasantness had occurred, whereas other times they were merely glad to arrive at a new destination hoping for a pleasant stay in their new encampment. One of the most vexing aspects of all these journeys was that the new objective had never been announced beforehand, so that the people were always in the dark about what the next day would bring. In spite of all these uncertainties they never refused to follow the cloud and break camp at a moment’s notice when required. The reason that both the breaking of camp and the making of camp are mentioned separately is because both entailed a considerable amount of discomfort.

(1) "These are the journeys of the Children of Israel" (Numbers 33:1). This is what is stated in the verse (Psalms 77:21), "You led (nachita) Your people like a flock through Moshe and Aharon." What is [the meaning of] nachita? It is the expression of an acrostic: Rabbi Eliezer says, "You did Nissim (miracles) for them; You gave them Chaim (life); You split the Yam suf for them; You gave them the Torah through Moshe and Aharon." R. Yehoshua says, "You did Niflaot (wonders) for them; You gave them Cherut (freedom); Yamincha (Your right hand) delivered them; You gave them Tilluy rosh (holding the head high) through Moshe and Aharon." R. Akiva says, "You did Noraot (dreadful things) to their enemies; You sentCharon af (waxing anger) against them and you fought against them; You covered them with Tehomot (depths) through Moshe and Aharon." Rabbi said, "Nevi'im (prophets) did You raise up from them; Hasidim(saints) did You raise up from them; Hasidim (saints) did You raise up from them; Yesharim (upright) did You raise up from them; Temimim (unblemished ones) did You raise up from them through Moshe and Aharon." What is [the meaning of] flock? Just like one does not bring a flock under the shade of a roof (indoors), so too Israel when they were in the wilderness was not brought under the shade of a roof for forty years. Just like a flock does not have storerooms collected for them but rather only graze from the wilderness, so too Israel for the forty years that they were in the wilderness were fed without storehouses. And just like a flock follows to anywhere that the shepherd leads them, so too Israel journeyed to any place that Moshe and Aharon took them, as it is stated, "These are the journeys of the Children of Israel" - in order to fulfill that which is written, "You led Your people like a flock through Moshe and Aharon."

(15) They set out from Rephidim and encamped in the wilderness of Sinai. (16) They set out from the wilderness of Sinai and encamped at Kibroth-hattaavah.