Ki Tavo | A Re-Examination of the Reason for Israel's Wandering in the Wilderness

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Moshe's oration concerning the commandments constitutes the bulk of the book of Devarim and opens with the following heading:

And Moshe called to all Israel, and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I speak in your ears this day, that you may learn them, and observe to do them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Chorev. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. (Devarim 5:1-3)^[1]

Moshe goes on to describe in detail the covenant of Chorev, and from there he continues with a list of commandments that spans multiple chapters. The end of the oration similarly involves a covenant – Moshe commanding about the assembly in which the blessings and curses will be pronounced. In this way, the end of the oration connects back to its beginning:

These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moshe to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moav, beside the covenant which He made with them in Chorev. (28:69)

This is then followed by the following passage:

And Moshe called to all Israel, and said to them: You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land; the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and those great wonders; but the Lord has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day. And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and your shoe is not waxen old upon your foot. You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you might know that I am the Lord your God. And when you came to this place, Sichon the king of Cheshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we smote them. And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reuvenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Menashites. Observe therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may make all that you do to prosper. (29:1-8)

Ostensibly, we are dealing here with a new issue, but we wish to argue that a there is a connection between this passage and the oration that preceded it and that it is Scripture's intention to illuminate Israel's period in the wilderness in a completely different light. To support this claim, let us turn to the linguistic parallels that appear in this passage.

"You Have Seen"

At the end of the assembly at Mount Sinai, God addresses the people as follows:

And the Lord said to Moshe: Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make with Me gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make to you. An altar of earth you shall make to Me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt-offerings, and your peace-offerings, your sheep, and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be mentioned I will come to you and bless you. And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones; for if you lift up your tool upon it, you have profaned it. (Shemot 20:18-22)

With these words, God expresses His expectation of the people that they internalize what they had seen and conduct themselves in light of that experience. In fact, this phrase, "you have seen," already appeared at the beginning of the story of the assembly on the mountain:

In the third month after the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai…  And Moshe went up to God, and the Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying: Thus shall you say to the house of Yaakov, and tell the children of Israel. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will hearken to My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then you shall be Mine own treasure from among all peoples; for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. (Shemot 19:1-6)

Here, too, Scripture cites a fact that the people experienced and tries to guide them to conduct their lives in accordance with the conclusion that emerges from it. Thus, the end of the assembly connects to its beginning.

In all of the Torah we find only one other place where this expression is directed toward the people, and again in the framework of that same course of thought – the passage from our parasha cited above. This lays the foundations for the connection between our passage and the assembly at Mount Sinai, although the full explanation of the passage will become clear only after we present more of the parallels with additional passages.

"For Every Day a Year, Shall You Bear Your Iniquities, Even Forty Years"

Ostensibly, the reason for Israel's wandering in the wilderness is stated explicitly in Scripture. It was decreed that they would remain for forty years in the wilderness as punishment for their failure at the time of the sin of the spies:

But as for you, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, and shall bear your strayings, until your carcasses be consumed in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which you spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall you bear your iniquities, even forty years, and you shall know My displeasure. (Bamidbar 14:32-34)

Our passage, however, indicates a completely different reason for the people's sojourning in the wilderness:

And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and your shoe is not waxen old upon your foot. You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink; that you might know that I am the Lord your God. (29:4-5)

There seems to be here an allusion to another event:

When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water. And the Lord delivered to me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the Lord spoke with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. (9:9-10) 

The verses seem to direct us to a different view of Israel's stay in the wilderness. There is indeed "for every day a year," but the years correspond not to the days that the spies scouted out the land, but rather to the days that Moshe spent on Mount Sinai.

To see the picture in its entirety, we must take note of another parallel emerging from our parasha. 

"A Heart to Know, and Eyes to See, and Ears to Hear"

            In our passage, Moshe announces the new qualities that have now been added to the people of Israel:

And Moshe called to all Israel, and said to them: You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land; the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs and those great wonders; but the Lord has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, until this day. (29:1-3)

When we read the passage carefully, we notice a certain leap in the verses. Scripture testifies to the people about the events that they saw, but then claims that only today were they given eyes with which to see them. This argument is built in logical fashion. Scripture includes in its claim that only today did they also merit "a heart to know and ears to hear," but it does not spell out the events that required these traits, traits that were missing until that day.

It seems that Scripture's intention can be understood in light of a comparative study of Moshe's words at the beginning of his oration concerning the commandments:

For ask now of the days past, which were before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and from the one end of heaven to the other, whether there has been any such thing as this great thing is, or has been heard like it? Did ever a people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live? Or has God assayed to go and take Him a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders… according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord, He is God; there is none else beside Him. Out of heaven He made you to hear His voice, that He might instruct you; and upon earth He made you to see His great fire… Know this day, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath; there is none else. (4:32-39)

Once again, it appears that our passage is referring to the oration concerning the commandments, which preceded it. Moshe refers to his words above, in which he pointed out the people's need to activate their senses and be alert to what is happening both at the time of the exodus from Egypt and at the assembly at Mount Sinai. The people saw the great fire, heard the voice of God out of the fire, and were asked to know and internalize these events in their hearts. Here, on the other hand, at the end of the oration, Moshe announces to the people that even though the people were asked to do so earlier, they are capable of completing the task only today, in the fortieth year, when the entire picture stands before their eyes.

"Blessed Is He Who Keeps His Promise to Israel"

A closer look at the parallel that we have just uncovered reveals that the progress that the people made in understanding the ways of God is not one-sided. There is also an advance in the fortieth year in the fulfillment of God's long-standing promises to Israel.

 

At the beginning of the oration concerning the commandments, a declaration of intent is cited:

And because He loved your fathers, and chose their seed after them, and brought you out with His presence, with His great power, out of Egypt, to drive out nations from before you greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day… And you shall keep His statutes, and His commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days upon the land, which the Lord your God gives you forever. (4:37-40)

In our chapter, these matters are presented in a similar format, with a note concerning the progress that had been made in furthering these ends:

And when you came to this place, Sichon the king of Cheshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us to battle, and we smote them. And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Menashites. Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may make all that you do to prosper. (29:6-8)

Thus, in the fortieth year Scripture testifies that the people had been brought by the hands of God as planned, and they inherited the land. The passage ends with the people being encouraged to continue to keep the laws, which will continue to prove themselves and bring them only good.

A New Giving of the Torah

Let us summarize the variety of parallels included in the passage we are discussing:

1. Shemot 20:18: "You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven" parallels the atmosphere at the end of the assembly at Mount Sinai, which directs the people to contemplate what is happening and internalize its meaning.
2. Devarim 9:9: Forty years, a year for a day, corresponding to the forty days during which Moshe received the Torah on Mount Sinai.
3. Devarim 4:34-40: A declaration that only now has Israel been graced with senses sharp enough to internalize the voice of God that spoke to them out of the fire at the assembly on the mountain.
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From this brief summary, it is clear that our passage attempts to raise in the reader's mind the assembly at Mount Sinai, but in my opinion, its purpose is to illuminate it in a new light. Whereas an orderly reading of the verses teaches that our forefathers were sentenced to a forty-year delay in the wilderness due to the sin of the spies, here the Torah wishes to expound history, and before us is a "midrash of history" made by Scripture itself. At the end of their grueling journey in the wilderness, it turns out that the forty-year delay was not merely a punishment for the sin of the spies, but rather a route that shaped a new giving of the Torah. The people had already been present at the giving of the Torah as a one-time event at Mount Sinai, but the Torah wishes to point out that since that event they have been in the midst of an ongoing practical giving of the Torah on a daily basis. At the end of the forty years in which this spiritual journey was being conducted, Scripture wishes to proclaim its successful end. At the end of forty years in which the people did not eat bread or drink wine, they succeed in acquiring the abilities to see and hear and know these matters well.

"Although That Was Near"

The truth is that the midrash preceded us with this understanding. At the beginning of Parashat Beshalach, the Torah justifies the choice of the long route at the time of Israel's exodus from Egypt over the short route by way of the land of the Pelishtim. The midrash sees in this justification a basis that can be stretched to cover the years that the people wandered in the wilderness: 

"The way of the land of the Pelishtim, although that was near" (Shemot 13:17) – Near was the promise that the Holy One, blessed be He, made to Avraham. It was also the nearest way to return to Egypt. Furthermore, near [fulfillment] was the oath that Avraham swore to Avimelekh: "[Now therefore swear to me here by God] that you will not deal falsely with me, [nor with my son, nor with my son's son]" (Bereishit 21:23), even though the grandson had not yet been born. Furthermore, the first war was near the second. Another explanation: "Although it was near" - It was near the time that the Canaanites took possession of the land, as it is written: "And in the fourth generation they shall come back here" (Bereishit 15:16), and the fourth generation had not yet come, and so He made them wander in the wilderness for forty years. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: If I lead them into the land by the most direct route, they will each take possession of a field and a vineyard and neglect the law. Therefore, I will lead them through the wilderness for forty years and cause them to eat the manna and drink the water of the well so that the law may penetrate into their very beings. Furthermore, when the Canaanites heard that Israel was about to enter the land, they arose, burned the seeds, uprooted the trees, cut down the shoots, destroyed the buildings, and stopped up the wells. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: I promised Avraham, their father, to take them into a land filled with everything good. I will keep them in the wilderness for forty years until the Canaanites rise up and restore what they ruined. (Midrash Tanchuma, ed. Warsaw, beginning of Parashat Beshalach)

The midrash expounds history and in the course of its reasoning incorporates the need that arose to keep the people in the wilderness. This was unrelated to the sin of the spies,[2] but rather arose from a vital inner need to delay Israel's entry into the land "so that the law may penetrate into their very beings."[3]

The Exposition of History in Scripture

If we could be content with a superficial level of understanding, we would stick fast to the impression that the history of the people of Israel in the wilderness is a string of complaints/sins followed by specific punishments. According to this perspective, for the sin involving the spies they were punished more severely, because the content of the sin itself was extremely serious, and thus it too fits in with the equation created during the wilderness period: complaints/sin and punishment in accordance with the sin. However, our passage offers a completely different perspective. At the end of the journey, it turns out that the approach to the sins of the people was not merely one of "putting out fires." God understood from their conduct that they suffered from an essential defect, of which their complaints were merely a reflection. The fundamental tenets of faith that should have been assimilated into the people in the wake of the assembly at Mount Sinai were not properly assimilated, and this is the root from which their complaints floated to the surface from time to time. Thus, the forty years in the wilderness served as a de facto acceptance of the Torah, to complete the giving of the Torah that lasted forty days. Only afterwards does Scripture confirm that Israel's faith has now been properly assimilated by them.

(Translated by David Strauss)