temporary annoyances

Moshe tells Klal Yisrael at the start of Parshas Devarim that "rav lachem sheves ba'har ha'zeh," (1:6) enough dawdling at Sinai, now that the Torah was given and the Mishkan built it is time to move on and head towards Eretz Yisrael.  In between that declaration and the sending the the spies, which would set things back 40 years, Moshe describes how he appointed judges to help manage the burden of leadership. 

The Midrash notes that this episode is out of place.  The appointment Moshe describes is either the appointment of judges that took place immediately after Yom Kippur before the Mishkan was built, or the appointment done after the misonenim story, much later.  Either way, it did not happen after the people broke camp at Sinai to start the journey to Eretz Yisrael.  Why does Moshe in recounting events put things out of order?

Some explain that Moshe was thematically linking the appointment of judges to the journey toward Eretz Yisrael.  Our task is to setup a just society in our homeland.  By appointing judges Moshe was establishing the framework through which that could be accomplished.

Rav Shachter writes that R' Soloveitchik used to have the baal koreh at Shabbos mincha/Mon/Thurs before parshas Devarim stop not at sheni, which is what the sidur says to do, but to read through until after this section describing the appointment of judges.  RYBS said this was the minhag in Brisk.  Not pausing reinforces this link between the journey to Eretz Yisrael at the start of the section and the appointment of judges -- it is one topic.

The Sefono takes a different approach.  He and links the parsha of appointing judges to the theme of Moshe's opening speech -- tochacha.  He ties the parsha not to the road ahead, to Eretz Yisrael, but rather to the sojourn in the midbar:

זֶה סִפֵּר לְהַזְכִּירָם אֶת פִּשְׁעָם, שֶׁאַף-עַל-פִּי שֶׁבִּשֵּׂר אותָם שֶׁיִּכָּנְסוּ לָאָרֶץ בִּלְתִּי שׁוּם מִלְחָמָה, שֶׁהָיָה עִנְיָנָהּ רַב הַתּועֶלֶת וְהַכָּבוד יותֵר מִכָּל נִכְסֵיהֶם וְעִנְיְנֵיהֶם בַּמִּדְבָּר, לא נִמְנְעוּ מִלְּעורֵר דִּבְרֵי רִיבות אִישׁ עַל חֲבֵרו, בְּאפֶן שֶׁהֻצְרַךְ לְמַנּות מַדְרֵגות שׁופְטִים, עַד שֶׁכָּל עֲשָׂרָה מֵהֶם הָיוּ צְרִיכִים לְדַיָּן פְּרָטִי, וְאֵין זֶה כִּי אִם מֵרעַ לֵב.

Am Yisrael was on the road and moving quickly.  It is an 11 day journey from Chorev to Kadesh Barne'a ,but Klal Yisrael was able to do it in a mere three days, as Hashem wanted to help hurry their arrival into Eretz Yisrael.  How long would it be before they arrived in Eretz Yisrael? Moshe did not anticipate more than a few more days of travel.  And yet, Moshe tells the people, I had to appoint judges along the way.  You could not avoid arguing, you could not avoid having disputes that needed to be worked out and resolved, even for that short period of time, even though you knew you would soon be in Eretz Yisrael, each person with his own portion.

It's like a person who wins the lottery and on the way to collect his winnings gets into a fight with the cab driver about the fare.  You're about to become a millionaire -- who really cares whether the ride costs a few dollars more or a few dollars less?  It's not worth fighting about!  Here too, Moshe was telling Klal Yisrael, "You are about to inherit Eretz Yisrael, the greatest land, the holiest land -- is it really worth fighting about things in the midbar, things that are temporary annoyances, until we get there?!"

Anyone who reads this Seforno has to say to himself/herself: We are in the aschalta d'geula! So why do we keep up the petty arguments with each other?   Would anyone get into a fight with their interior decorator about whether this chandelier or that chandelier belongs in their dining room if they knew that tomorrow they would be moving to Yerushalayim?  Or get into a fight with their neighbor about whose fault it was that their car got dinged if tomorrow they were moving to Eretz Yisrael and the car ain't coming along?  If we really believed geulah was just around the corner, so much of what we bicker over would just be so trivial and unimportant. 

Our 2000 year long trip is almost over -- time to start acting that way.