11 Days' Journey

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These are the words that Moshe told to the Jewish people across the Jordan in the desert, in the plain opposite the [Reed] Sea, between Paran and Tophel and Lavan and Chatzerot and Di Zahav;

11 days journey from Chorev by way of the mountain of Seir until Kadesh-Barnea. (Devarim 1:1-2)

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It is worth pointing out ... that the souls of the final generation in advance of Moshiach’s arrival will be those of the generation that rejected Eretz Yisroel (Shaar HaGilgulim, Ch 20).

It has to be more than coincidence that the first generation in 2,000 years that has the capability to successfully enter the land lacks the desire to do so, especially since it is a mistake that has never been corrected since the first generation to leave Egypt with Moshe Rabbeinu, and history, and especially gilgulum - reincarnations - are all about rectifying previous sins.

There is no better time to think about this than on the Shabbat in advance of Tisha B’Av, the Jewish Day of Infamy that became what it is because of the Dor HaMidbar’s rejection of Eretz Yisroel.

by Rabbi Pinchas Winston, Leshem on the Parshah; this and more at THIRTY-SIX ORG