Refining Sparks Through Journeys

בפסוק אלה מסעי כו' תלה הכתוב המסעות ביציאת מצרים

On the verse "These are the journeys (of Bnei Yisrael)" (Bamidbar 33:1), the Torah links the journeys to the going out from Mitzrayim.

The Torah ties the list of journeys to Yetzias Mitzrayim, hinting that the travels carry forward the work begun at the Exodus.

כי ידוע שכל אלה המקומות היו צריכין תיקון ע"י הליכות בנ"י שם

For it is known that all of these places needed to be rectified through the travels of Bnei Yisrael there.

Each stopping place along the way was a site that required spiritual repair, accomplished by Bnei Yisrael's passing through it.

וי"ל כי אלה הנ' מסעות מ"ב וח' שחזרו לאחוריהם הם המה הנ' פעמים יצ"מ שנזכר בתורה

And it may be said that these fifty journeys — forty-two journeys plus the eight in which they turned back — correspond to the fifty times that the going out from Mitzrayim is mentioned in the Torah.

The Sfas Emes counts fifty journeys in all and matches them to the fifty mentions of Yetzias Mitzrayim in the Torah.

דאיתא בזוה"ק חמשין זימנין אידכר

As it is brought in the holy Zohar that fifty times is it recalled.

The Zohar supports this count, noting that the Exodus is recalled exactly fifty times.

להודיע שהיו צריכין לצאת משערי טומאה לשערי טהרה

This comes to make known that they needed to depart from the gates of impurity into the gates of purity.

The fifty parallels teach that Bnei Yisrael had to climb out of the fifty gates of impurity and into the gates of purity.

ובמצרים הי' כלל כל אלה המקומות ואח"כ הוצרכו לעבור שם בפרט

And in Mitzrayim was contained the collective whole of all these places, and afterward they had to pass through them in detail, one by one.

Mitzrayim held all these places as one collective root, and the journeys were the detailed working-out of that whole, place by place.

ותיקנו המקומות כדאיתא במדרש שע"י שקיבלו בנ"י נתעלו

And they rectified those places, as it is brought in the Midrash, that through Bnei Yisrael's receiving (the Torah) they were elevated.

By receiving the Torah, Bnei Yisrael lifted up each of these places, repairing them as the Midrash describes.

ע"ש

See there (in that source).

The Sfas Emes directs the reader to consult the original source.

ויתכן לפרש מסעי בנ"י אשר יצאו כי גם המקומות יצאו ממצרים

And it can be explained, "the journeys of Bnei Yisrael who went out" (Bamidbar 33:1), that the places themselves also went out from Mitzrayim.

He reads the verse to mean that the places themselves, not only the people, were drawn out of Mitzrayim.

והענין כי אחר שיצאו אבותינו ממצרים הוציאו משם רכוש גדול והמה ניצוצי קדושה שהיו במצרים ולכן הוצרכו אח"כ לברר אלה הניצוצות בכל אלה המסעות

And the matter is thus: after our forefathers went out from Mitzrayim, they took out from there a great wealth — and these are the sparks of kedushah that were in Mitzrayim — and therefore they afterward had to refine these sparks throughout all of these journeys.

The "great wealth" taken from Mitzrayim was really sparks of kedushah, which then had to be sifted out and refined at every stop along the journeys.

ופרשנו בזה מ"ש ואמר אלעזר הכהן כו' הבאים למלחמה

And with this we have explained that which is written, "And Elazar the Kohen said... (to the men) who came to the war" (Bamidbar 31:21).

He brings the wording in the war against Midyan, where Elazar speaks to those "who came to the war," as a difficulty to be resolved.

והול"ל הבאים ממלחמה

And it should have said, "who came back from the war."

Logically the verse should have said they came back from the war, since the fighting was already over.

אך הוא אשר דברנו כי אחר המלחמה בכלל יש מלחמה בפרט ואחר שהוציאו ממדין השלל והמלקוח הי' להם מלחמה שנית בלכתם לתקן אלה הניצוצות שנדבקו בהם

But it is as we have spoken: that after the general war there is a particular war, and after they took out from Midyan the spoil and the plunder, they had a second war as they went to rectify these sparks that had become attached to them.

But a second, inner battle remained: after seizing the spoil, they still had to extract the sparks of kedushah that clung to that plunder.

וזהו ענין געולי כלי מדין והמכס והקרבת השרי אלפים אצעדה כו' וכומז

And this is the matter of the purging of the vessels of Midyan, and the levy, and the offering brought by the officers of thousands — the armlet... and the kumaz (ornament) (Bamidbar 31:50).

This inner battle is reflected in the purging of Midyan's vessels and in the gold ornaments the officers brought as an offering.

ולכן כתיב הבאים למלחמה כנ"ל:

And therefore it is written "who came to the war," as explained above.

Because that second avodah of refinement still lay ahead, the verse fittingly says "who came to the war" rather than "from the war."

Summary: The Sfas Emes teaches that the journeys of Bnei Yisrael through the midbar were not mere travel but a work of rectification, each stop a place needing repair that they accomplished by passing through it. He counts fifty journeys and aligns them with the fifty mentions of Yetzias Mitzrayim in the Torah and the fifty times noted in the Zohar, showing that Bnei Yisrael had to ascend from the gates of impurity to the gates of purity. Mitzrayim contained all these places as one root, and the "great wealth" carried out of it was in truth the sparks of kedushah that then had to be refined at every stage of the journey. He applies the same idea to the war against Midyan: because sparks of kedushah still clung to the spoil, a second, inner battle of refinement remained even after the fighting ended. This is why the Torah says the soldiers "came to the war" rather than "came back from the war" — the deeper avodah of extracting and elevating those sparks still lay before them.