Returning To Rectify Departures
בפסוק ויכתב משה כו' מוצאיהם למסעיהם כו' ואלה מסעיהם למוצאיהם
Regarding the pasuk, "And Moshe wrote their goings-forth according to their journeys... and these were their journeys according to their goings-forth" (Bamidbar 33:2), there are two reverse orderings here, and we must understand them.
The Sfas Emes opens with the curious double phrasing of the pasuk: first "goings-forth according to their journeys," then the reversed "journeys according to their goings-forth." He flags this reversal as the key to be explained.
כי הנה כל אדם בכלל ובפרט צריך מקודם לעבור על המקומות הצריכין תיקון כמ"ש בבנ"י שהיו מקודם במצרים ואלה המסעות עד שבאו לידי ישוב ואח"כ צריכין לחזור ולתקן גם כל אלה המקומות
For behold, every person, both the collective and the individual, must first pass through the places that require rectification, as it is written regarding Bnei Yisrael, who were first in Mitzrayim, and these were the journeys, until they came to a settled state; and afterward they must return and rectify all of those places as well.
He establishes the principle that everyone, whether Bnei Yisrael as a whole or each individual, must first travel away from the places needing repair, and only later come back to actually fix those very places.
וכן בפרט האדם כשזוכה לצאת לחירות מהגשמיות והבלי עולם
And so too with the individual person, when he merits to go out to freedom from physicality and the vanities of this world,
He applies the principle to the individual neshamah, which first wins its freedom by breaking away from materialism and worldly vanities.
צריך אח"כ לתת לב על כל הדברים שעבר עליהם ולשוב בתשובה ועי"ז מעלה כל אותן הדברים
he must afterward give heart to all the matters that he passed through, and do teshuvah upon them, and through this he elevates all of those matters.
Only after gaining that freedom can a person look back, reflect on everything he passed through, do teshuvah, and thereby raise up all those earlier experiences.
וזה מצד האדם בעצמו
And this is from the side of the person himself.
He notes that this returning to rectify is the part that comes from the person's own effort and avodah.
וזהו ענין מסעיהם למוצאיהם שבכח המסעות שנתעלו ממדריגה עליונה חזרו לתקן המקומות שיצאו מהם
And this is the meaning of "their journeys according to their goings-forth" (Bamidbar 33:2) — that through the power of the journeys, by which they were elevated to a higher level, they returned to rectify the places from which they had gone out.
He reads "journeys according to their goings-forth" as the return trip: the elevation gained through the journeys empowers a person to go back and repair the very places he originally left.
ובחי' הראשונה ויכתוב משה מוצאיהם למסעיהם הוא החירות ממקומות המקולקלים והוא בכח התורה שבכתב שנק' חירות
And the first aspect, "And Moshe wrote their goings-forth according to their journeys," is the freedom from the corrupted places, and this comes through the power of the Written Torah, which is called "freedom" (as in "charus," engraved, read as "cheirus," freedom — Avos 6:2).
The first phrasing, "goings-forth according to their journeys," represents the initial escape from corrupt places, accomplished by the power of the Written Torah, which Chazal call "cheirus," freedom.
ובחי' השני' הוא בחי' תורה שבעל פה:
And the second aspect is the aspect of the Oral Torah.
The second phrasing corresponds to the Oral Torah, which represents the labor of going back to rectify what was left behind.
Summary: The Sfas Emes asks why the pasuk in Masei lists the encampments in two opposite orders: "their goings-forth according to their journeys" and then "their journeys according to their goings-forth" (Bamidbar 33:2). He explains that every person, whether Bnei Yisrael as a nation or each individual neshamah, must first break free and travel away from the places that need rectification, and only afterward return to actually repair them through teshuvah, thereby elevating all those earlier experiences. The first stage, the initial flight to freedom from physicality and worldly vanities, is accomplished through the power of the Written Torah, which Chazal call "cheirus," freedom. The second stage, the labor of returning to fix the corrupted places, corresponds to the Oral Torah. In this way the two reversed orderings of the pasuk map onto the two Toros and the two movements of avodah: going out, and coming back to set things right.