Last week I discussed which “Kadesh” the nation stayed at “for many days,” siding with those who say it was the Kadesh next to Edom. One of the issues to be resolved is that Miriam died in that Kadesh (Bamidbar 20:1), with a straightforward reading indicating that she died shortly after they got there. Since it’s generally accepted that she died in the 40th year, they couldn’t have been there for too long —certainly not for the 19 years most say constituted the “many days” they stayed there. I therefore suggested that either they arrived at Kadesh 19 years earlier, with Miriam passing away at the end of those 19 years, or the Torah combined both times they stayed in Kadesh into one narrative, with Miriam’s death (and the resulting water shortage) occurring the second time they were there, which was in the 40th year.
That Miriam died in the 40th year is attested to by Seder Olam (9/10), and seems to be agreed upon by everyone (see, for example, Rashi on Bamidbar 20:2, Ibn Ezra and Rashbam on 20:1). However, there’s a puzzling Baal HaTurim that seems to say otherwise.
Not all of the encampments listed towards the end of Sefer Bamidbar are mentioned elsewhere. For some of these otherwise unknown places, the Baal HaTurim tells us the significance of the name, and/or what happened there. For example, קהלתה (Bamidbar 33:22) is based on Korach gathering (“ויקהל”) the congregation against Moshe and Aharon (Bamidbar 16:19), indicating that this was where Korach’s rebellion occurred.
מקהלת (Bamidbar 33:25), the Baal HaTurim tells us, is based on “ויקהלו על משה ועל אהרן,” which is assumed to be the “gathering” against Moshe and Aharon in Kadesh, after Miriam died and there was no water (Bamidbar 20:2). Even though the same exact words also appear in the Korach narrative (16:3), since the Baal HaTurim indicated that this occurred at קהלתה, he couldn’t be referring to Korach’s gathering at מקהלת. Besides, the words quoted by the Baal HaTurim for מקהלת appear earlier in the Korach narrative than the words he quoted for קהלתה, so he must be referring to the second time those words are used, i.e. when they were in Kadesh. [Although I previously suggested that Korach’s rebellion may have stretched out over multiple encampments, since the verse quoted for מקהלת would be before the verse quoted for קהלתה, and they camped in קהלתה first, Korach’s rebellion can’t be what the Baal HaTurim is referring to both times.] Rokeach, who also assigns events to encampments based on their names, quotes the same verse for מקהלת as the Baal HaTurim, adding that this was where there was a water shortage, strongly indicating that this was the Baal HaTurim’s intent as well.
Several stops after מקהלת, the nation camped at Kadesh, which is where Miriam died, and she died just before the water shortage that led to the “gathering against Moshe and Aharon.” How could מקהלת be where they gathered against Moshe and Aharon because of the water shortage if Miriam died at Kadesh? As I alluded to earlier, according to many, the nation camped at Kadesh twice; the simplest way to explain this Baal HaTurim is to say that the water shortage happened the first time they were in Kadesh. However, if Miriam died in the 40th year, it must have been when they were at Kadesh the second time. Does the Baal HaTurim think she died before the 40th year, despite all the sources that say she died in the 40th year?
Shaarei Aharon suggests that the Baal HaTurim is not referring to the gathering that took place in Kadesh, but to Korach’s gathering. Even though that had already occurred in קהלתה, in מקהלת they gathered again, this time to repent for that earlier sin. But this seems extremely unlikely, for several reasons. First of all, Rokeach says explicitly that the gathering was because of the water shortage; the difficulty this raises isn’t mitigated if it’s just Rokeach who said it. Secondly, if that was the Baal HaTurim’s intent, I would have expected him to mention the repentance aspect explicitly, and not leave us with the impression that it was where the rebellion itself took place. Additionally, since the words quoted also apply to the gathering when there was no water, and the earlier gathering was already assigned to an earlier encampment, wouldn’t the Baal HaTurim have clarified that this also referred to the first gathering rather than leaving us with the mistaken impression that he was referring to the second one? It therefore seems much more likely that the Baal Haturim is also referring to the gathering during the water shortage. But how could the water shortage have occurred in the 40th year at מקהלת if they returned to the same location (Kadesh) later?
It would be difficult to suggest that Miriam died in מקהלת in the 40th year and they returned to that same location just a few months later, as Kadesh is 11 encampments after מקהלת, which included going south all the way to Etzion Gever (near the Gulf of Aqaba) and then back north to Kadesh. [Aharon died in the fifth month of the 40th year (Bamidbar 33:38) at the encampment after Kadesh.] Besides, the narrative in Bamidbar 20 is presented as if Aharon died at the very next encampment after Miriam’s death. Nevertheless, there is a way to explain how מקהלת was Kadesh, named for the gathering during the water shortage after Miriam’s death, even though she died in the 40th year.
Moshe compiled the list of encampments after the nation had already reached Arvos Moav, which was obviously after Miriam died. Since the nation had stayed in Kadesh for 19 years without lacking water, how could they have complained that Moshe brought them to a place where there was no water (Bamidbar 20:5)? In retrospect, this complaint was absurd, and after the water shortage was solved, everyone knew that the issue wasn’t where they were, but that Miriam — in whose merit they had water all those years — had died. Therefore, when referring to their first stay at Kadesh —the 19-year stay there — Moshe gave it the name מקהלת in order to highlight how problematic their subsequent gathering was (keeping the name “Kadesh” for their second stay there in order to match the earlier narrative and to highlight the folly of the complaint). The Baal Haturim need not be saying that the gathering that led to it being called מקהלת happened the first time they were there, only that it was the same place where that gathering eventually occurred. As a matter of fact, Targum Yonasan, who had also said קהלתה was named for Korach’s gathering, says מקהלת was named because “it was a place of gathering.” Not that the gathering happened at that point in their travel itinerary, but that it was the place where a gathering would eventually occur. A gathering that, based on their previous 19-year stay there, was unreasonable.
Rabbi Dov Kramer wrote a weekly dvar Torah from 5764-5776, most of which are archived at RabbiDMK.wordpress.com and AishDas.org/ta. He occasionally discussed geographic issues there too, including on this week’s parsha. RabbiDMK.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/parashas-va-eschanan-5770.
