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(2) it is eleven days from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea by the Mount Seir route. — (3) It was in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, that Moses addressed the Israelites in accordance with the instructions that יהוה had given him for them,
"- first, that wherever you live, it is probably Egypt;
- second, that there is a better place, a world more attractive, a promised land;
- and third, that 'the way to the land is through the wilderness.' There is no way to get from here to there except by joining together and marching."
---Michael Walzer, from Exodus and Revolution, p. 149
"Importantly, this has been a spiritual journey. Indeed, Moshe's final oration should serve as a powerful reminder of that fact...as the nature of the journey changes, it falls to Moshe - the man who once called himself slow of tongue - to speak for himself, to remind B'nei Yisrael of what they have achieved in spiritual growth..."
---- George Robinson, Essential Torah, p. 499-500
"Death, moreover, visited the transgressors in such fashion that they were aware it was meant as punishment for their sins. Throughout all the year not one among them died. On the eighth day of the month of Ab, Moses would have a herald proclaim throughout the camp, "Let each prepare his grave." They dug their graves, and spent there the following night, the same night on which, following the counsel of the spies, they had revolted against God and Moses. In the morning a herald would once more appear and cry: "Let the living separate themselves from the dead." Those that were still alive arose, but about fifteen thousand of them remained dead in their graves. After forty years, however, when the herald repeated his customary call the ninth day of Ab, all arose, and there was not a single dead man among them. At first they thought they had made a miscalculation in their observation of the moon, that is was not the ninth day of Ab at all, and that this was the reason why their lives had been spared. Hence they repeated their preparations for death until the fifteenth day of Ab. Then the sight of the full moon convinced them that the ninth day of Ab had gone by, and that their punishment had been done away with. In commemoration of the relief from this punishment, they appointed the fifteenth day of Ab to be a holy day."
---- Summary of Eicha Rabbah, Petichta 33, in Ginzberg, Louis . Legends of the Jews (p. 971). Global Grey ebooks. Kindle Edition.
כׇּל־רֹ֣אשׁ לׇֽחֳלִ֔י וְכׇל־לֵבָ֖ב דַּוָּֽי׃ (ו) מִכַּף־רֶ֤גֶל וְעַד־רֹאשׁ֙ אֵֽין־בּ֣וֹ מְתֹ֔ם פֶּ֥צַע וְחַבּוּרָ֖ה וּמַכָּ֣ה טְרִיָּ֑ה לֹא־זֹ֙רוּ֙ וְלֹ֣א חֻבָּ֔שׁוּ וְלֹ֥א רֻכְּכָ֖ה בַּשָּֽׁמֶן׃
Every head is ailing,
And every heart is sick. (6) From head to foot
No spot is sound:
All bruises, and welts,
And festering sores—
Not pressed out, not bound up,
Not softened with oil.
But let’s go back to the 8th of Av. Today. The Torah works in funny ways. What is this midrash telling us about tonight, about hayom, this day, right now, is also a day in which our legendary ancestors were in the process of digging their own graves. Time in the Torah works in funny ways, one day it is 3,000 years ago and another day it is hayom, right now, today, the 8th of Av, and there are disasters, and some people are dying, and here we are.
What could we learn if we all dug our graves together once a year, and lay down in them, uncertain as to whether we would live or die that very night? It sounds creepy, and scary, and hard – and, yet, here’s a way to grow. This is the challenge of the desert. The challenge of the wilderness. We all have to face our wilderness, and our graves, of a sort. We all have something. And the question is: what are we going to learn when we are there – and what are we going to do, together, when we get out of this wilderness? The wilderness might be terrible, but it’s also awesome, and, of course, ha-gadol – great. So may first seem like a problem, but really it’s an opportunity for us to change.