While the Children of Israel were in Kadesh, Moshe sent messengers to Edom, asking for permission to pass through their land (Bamidbar 20:14-17), but they refused (20:18-21). Almost 300 years later, when Yiftach related this to the king of Ammon (Shoftim 11:17), he added that Moshe also asked Moav if they could pass through their land, and they also refused. Why doesn’t the Torah tell us about this second request?
Although Rashi (on Shoftim) says Moshe referenced it indirectly in Devarim (2:29) when he compared Edom to Moav, it’s not included in the narrative in Bamidbar, and is only hinted at in Moshe’s later recap. Why is this second request completely ignored in our parsha?
In order to properly address this question, we need to clarify where Kadesh was, and where Edom and Moav were. Although we have the advantage of being able to consult maps (and satellite images), traditional commentators did not. They correctly said Edom was south of Eretz Yisroel, but didn’t realize that directly south of Eretz Yisroel was a peninsula (now known as the Sinai Peninsula), which is surrounded by the Yam Suf (Red Sea) on the west, south and east. Edom is actually (mostly) southeast of Eretz Yisroel, with Moav north of Edom (east of the Dead Sea).
We know how Rashi and Tosfos envisioned their locations by looking at Rashi’s commentary on Bamidbar 34:4 (“Three lands are south of Eretz Yisroel, side by side; part of Egypt, all of Edom and all of Moav”) and the diagram in Tosfos on Arachin 15a. Rashi explains why the request to pass through Edom was made: “They came to the south of Edom and asked the king of Edom to let them enter his land and pass through [going north] to enter the Land [of Israel], but he didn’t let them, so they had to go around the entire southern part of Edom until they reached the [area] south of Moav, as it says (Shoftim 11:17), “and to the king of Moav they also sent [a request] and he didn’t allow it,” and they traveled the entire southern part of Moav, and from there they turned north until they moved past the eastern side [of Moav].” According to Rashi (see also Chizkuni on Bamidbar 21:10 and Netziv on 20:16 and 33:37), Kadesh was south of Edom, with the request to pass through Edom made in order to avoid traveling farther east before traveling north.
Tosfos’ map, from the standard Vilna edition of the Talmud (Arachin 15a), published by the Romm brothers in 1886 (available on Hebrewbooks.org). Please note that some current publishers have altered the map to reflect the physical reality.
Besides explaining why they asked Edom to pass through their land, putting Kadesh south of Edom makes sense because the stop before Kadesh was Etzion Gever (Bamidbar 33:36), which is just north of the Gulf of Aqaba, and therefore south of Edom. However, it’s clear that after leaving Etzion Gever they went back north to Kadesh, since the next stop after Kadesh was Hor Hahor (20:22 and 33:37), and from there they went south towards the Yam Suf (21:4, referring to the Gulf of Aqaba, see also Devarim 2:1). Although Rashi (Bamidbar 21:4 and 26:13) understands their heading towards the Yam Suf as retreating seven or eight stops – so Kadesh could be south of Edom with the Yam Suf west of it – the verse says explicitly that the reason they went towards the Yam Suf was to go around Edom, and if they were already south of Edom they would be going in the wrong direction. Besides, they went back towards Etzion Gever (and nearby Eilat) after leaving Kadesh (Devarim 2:8) [without stopping there, which is why it isn’t listed as one of their stops], making it fairly clear that they had been south of Edom (at Etzion Gever), went back north to the western side of Edom (to Kadesh), then came back south (passing Etzion Gever and Eilat) to go around Edom, before heading north along its eastern side. Additionally, Kadesh is in Midbar Tzin (Bamidbar 20:1) which was where the scouts started their mission (13:21), meaning that this desert included the southern part of Eretz Yisroel; it would be quite difficult to say it extended south of Edom as well. [Bear in mind that some think Kadesh and Kadesh Barnea are the same place, and Kadesh Barnea was the southern border of Eretz Yisroel. Even if they’re two separate locations (which is what most think), they’re likely not far from each other.]
All this points to Kadesh being on the western side of Edom, close to its north, most likely Petra (or nearby). Although I’m usually hesitant to use similar-sounding names to identify locations (and think Alexander Hool relies on this way too much), Petra being known as Raqmu (the Targumim translate Kadesh as “Reqem”) is significant. There’s an Arab tradition that Petra is where Moshe hit the rock and that a nearby twin-peaked mountain is where Aharon was buried. It has also been documented that in the fourth century a mountaintop shrine at Petra was considered Miriam’s burial place. Normally I wouldn’t rely on this type of information, but the location fits. Regardless, Kadesh would seem to be west of Edom, not too far from its northern border – which is where most biblical atlases put it.
This location raises a larger issue: If Kadesh was close to the southern border of Eretz Yisroel, why ask to cross through Edom, rather than just going north (and a little west), the way the scouts entered? It would seem that the nation was ultimately supposed to enter Eretz Yisroel by crossing the Jordan River from the Plains of Moav to the Plains of Yericho. [Why they had to enter from the Plains of Moav (Arvos Moav) is a topic I will, iy”H, discuss next week.] They got to Arvos Moav by going around Edom, continuing past Moav, and going through the land they conquered from Sichon, but this was the long way around. So long, in fact, that “the spirit of the nation became defeated” (Bamidbar 21:4). It would have been much shorter to cut through Edom, so they asked for permission to do so. When this was denied, they had to go around Edom, as waging war against them wasn’t an option (see Devarim 2:5).
Had Edom allowed them to pass through, they still wouldn’t have been at Arvos Moav; they would have been at Moav’s southern border. Therefore, besides getting permission from Edom, they also needed permission from Moav to pass through their land too, so Moshe sent messengers to both Edom and Moav. When Edom said no, the request of Moav became irrelevant, as even had they said yes, the long trip around Edom was still necessary. It would have helped getting from the eastern border of Moav to its western border (Arvos Moav), but Moav’s refusal meant Sichon had to conquer part of Moav so that the Children of Israel could conquer Sichon in order to get to Arvos Moav. When the king of Ammon told Yiftach that the Children of Israel had taken part of his land (and Moav’s), Moav not letting the Children of Israel pass through was pertinent because had they not refused, God wouldn’t have had to have Sichon conquer it.
Edom’s refusal was integral to what happened in Kadesh because it forced the Children of Israel to go all the way around their land. Moav’s response only impacted what happened after they went beyond the eastern side of Edom, so it wasn’t disclosed in the same narrative. By the time they got there, Sichon had already conquered part of Moav, making their refusal no longer relevant enough to mention.
Rabbi Dov Kramer wrote a weekly dvar Torah from 5764-5776, occasionally discussing geographical issues. One of those occasions was for Chukas 5776, regarding the significance of the king of Arad noticing that the nation “came the way of the scouts.” That piece is available at RabbiDMK.wordpress.com/2016/07/14/Parashas-Chukas-5776.
