What caused Yisrael to delay a long time in the wilderness?

(33,1) These are the journeys of the children of Yisrael who left the land of Egypt in their legions, under the hand of Moshe and Aharon. And Moshe wrote their goings forth of their journeys according to the command of Hashem. And these are their journeys of their goings forth.

These posukim are difficult to understand: Firstly, why does it say that the journeys were “under the hand of Moshe and Aharon” - since Aharon had already died the journeys were not by his hand! The Alshich has already dealt with this question, but it is possible to explain that these words refer only to the previous phrase "who left the land of Egypt", and that was indeed under the hand of Moshe and Aharon. But then it is still difficult to understand why the Torah mentioned it here. Also, what difference does it make if their exodus from Egypt was under the hand of Moshe and Aharon or someone else? Secondly, the end of the posuk “and Moshe wrote their goings forth of their joutneys according to the command of Hashem” is not understandable at all, particularly the fact that it says initially “their goings forth of their journeys”, and then it repeats itself, but in reverse - “their journeys of their going forth”.

But it seems that we can explain all this with the teaching of Chazal, that had Yisrael not sinned they would have not delayed in the wilderness at all and would have immediately entered the land of Yisrael, but instead sin caused them to remain in the wilderness for a long time.

Now, the Midrash at the end of parshas Bo teaches that Hashem said to Yisrael: What caused you to flee? Was it not the haste of your going out? But concerning the future it is written in Yeshayohu (52,12) “not in haste will you go forth, and not fleeing will you go”. That is, since they went out in haste they left even when it was still night, making themselves appear like thieves sneaking away. This caused the Egyptians to accuse them of staeling their wealth and thus chased after them, causing Yisrael to flee. And for the same reason they had to delay in the wilderness forty years, as is clear from the posuk in Bereishis (15,16) “because the iniquity of the Amorites will not be complete until then”, and this was caused by their hastiness in their going out, as is clear from the Midrash above.

Now, the reason why they went out in haste was because the redemption was not by Hashem Himself but rather through intermediaries, Moshe and Aharon. Therefore, it had to be with haste. But had the redemption been done by Hashem Himself there would not have been any haste. This is very clear from the quoted posuk, where Hashem said that in the future we will not go forth in haste, and it concludes with the reason - because “Hashem goes before you, and your rear guard is the G-d of Yisrael”. It follows that had the redemption from Egypt also been by Hashem Himself it would not have been in haste at all, and so it also follows that they would not have needed to delay in the wilderness, but rather they would have entered Eretz Yisrael immediately, and they would not have needed all these journeys.

This is what it means when it says “these are the journeys of the children of Yisrael who left the land of Egypt…under the hand of Moshe and Aharon…according to the word of Hashem”, that even though the exodus from Egypt was according to the mouth of Hashem, nevertheless it was in the hand of Moshe and Aharon - the words “in the hand of Moshe and Aharon” referring to the exodus from Egypt, which was by both of them. And since it was through them, who are flesh and blood, therefore Yisrael had to experience all these journeys.

Because of this, we might be mistaken, G-d forbid, and think that just as the bad which happened to Yisrael when they left Egypt - their need to go out in haste and consequently their need to delay all these journeys - was because they came out through Moshe and Aharon, if so, we might err and think that the great good that happened to them by their leaving Egypt, that they became at least a free people, and they received the Torah, we might attribute to Moshe and Aharon alone, and think that Hashem was not involved.

Therefore the Torah explained to us that it was not so, but rather “Moshe recorded their goings forth of their journeys”, that is, their going out and being brought to all these journeys, which involved great miracles, this was “according to the mouth of Hashem” - not according to those who took them out, that is, Moshe and Aharon, but rather according to the mouth of Hashem. But nevertheless, “these are their journeys”, that is, what forced them to be in these journeys was a result “of their going out”, that is, as a result of their being taken out by Moshe and Aharon.