Nombres 21:4

By the Reed Sea route. Since Aharon had died, and this war fell upon them, they turned back to the Reed Sea route This was the route by which they had turned back when the decree of the spies was issued against them, as it is said, “travel into the desert, by the Reed Sea route.” Here, they turned back seven journeys, as it is said, “Bnei Yisroel journeyed from Be’eiros Bnei Yaakan to Moseirah. There, Aharon died.” Was it in Moseirah that Aharon died? Did he not die at Mount Hor? But they returned there, and mourned and eulogized him as if he were in their presence. Go, examine the journeys, and you will find seven journeys from Moseirah to Mount Hor.

To circle around the land of Edom. Since they did not permit them to pass through their land.

Traveling was insufferable to the people (lit. “the people’s souls did not have the capacity for traveling”). Because of the rigors of travel, which were overly difficult for them. They said, “We were just close to entering the land, and we are turning back. This was how our fathers turned back, and they remained for thirty-eight years, until this day.” Therefore, the distress of traveling was insufferable. “Encrot lor” [“repulsive to them”, in old French]. But it would be improper to translate “the people experienced insufferability בַּדֶּרֶךְ, while traveling,” without specification of the cause of the insufferability; since, wherever one finds insufferability in Scripture, the cause is specified. For example, “they were insufferable to me.” And, for example, “Israel’s distress was insufferable to him.” Anything overly difficult for a person is depicted as קִצּוּר נֶפֶשׁ (lit. the incapacity of the soul), like a person beset by travail, who lacks the breadth of mind to accept that, and who does not have a place in his heart where the distress might reside. Now, the thing causing distress is depicted as looming large, since it is seems large and weighs heavily on the person. For example, “their souls loomed over me” —seemed large to me. [And, for example,] “Trapping me like a lion looms large.” The synopsis of the interpretation: Every statement expressing the soul’s incapacity for a thing means that it cannot tolerate it, for the mind cannot tolerate it.

And they journeyed from Mount Umanom, by the way of the Sea of Suph, that they might compass the land of Edom; and the soul of the people was wearied in the way.

ויסעו מהר ההר דרך ים סוף, “they journeyed from Hor Hahar in the direction of the sea of reeds, ...making a long detour around the Land of Edom, and the people’s state of mind became very short tempered.” Their dissatisfaction was not caused by the journey, but by the fact that they traveled in the opposite direction of their objective, i.e. crossing the river Jordan. This was as hard for them to swallow as if they had been sentenced to death. They had felt until recently that they were close to their objective and would soon taste the fruit of the Holy Land and they now saw all their hopes as dissolving like an illusion. To the question what they had to complain about as long as they had manna and water, the answer is that once one has set one’s sights on something that can be enjoyed by the senses, eyes, ears, taste buds, feeling it with one’s hands and one’s sense of smell, the sameness and predictability of the manna, instead of being a sign of how G–d provided for them, became something of insignificance, קלקל, “lightweight” for them. The Torah therefore told us already in Numbers 11,8 that the manna, far from being so insubstantial, lightweight, insignificant, lent itself to grinding between stones, pounding, in a mortar, boiling in a pot, making into cakes. Moreover, it tasted like cream. [It is human nature that familiarity breeds contempt. After forty years of the same diet without getting to the destination they were seeking, the people’s reaction is understandable, although it had been due to their having displayed themselves as not yet worthy to dislodge the Canaanites from their homeland. Ed.] The pleasant taste of treated manna is also described in Numbers 11,8.