“And the Children of Israel traveled” (Bamidbar 10:12). The procedure for breaking camp and starting to travel is described at length, including the order in which each Degel (set of three Tribes) started to move and when the Levi’im, who were responsible for transporting the Mishkan, did so as well. The following is a summary of that procedure:

First, the “Yehuda Degel” started out (10:14). The Mishkan was disassembled, and two of the three families of Levi’im started traveling, carrying it (10:17). Next, the “R’uvain Degel” traveled (10:18), followed by the third family of Levi’im (10:21), carrying the holiest parts of the Mishkan (the Aron, Shulchan, Menorah and both Mizbachos; see Rashi). The third Degel to travel was the “Efrayim Degel” (10:22), followed by the “Dun Degel” (10:25). The procedure seems pretty straightforward, putting aside whether they traveled in the same “box” formation they camped in, or traveled in a straight line, like “beam” (see Yerushalmi Eiruvin 5:1). Rashi (Bamidbar 2:9/17) says it was the former; even though this raises numerous issues, we will leave them on the side for now, and focus on another issue raised by Rashi’s comment (on 10:21), where he says that the time frame between the two groups of Levi’im, which had to be long enough for the first to be able to set up the Mishkan before the second one arrived, was “the travel time of two Degalim.” Since the first group of Levi’im left after the first Degel and the second group left after the second Degel, how could Rashi say they were separated by the travel time of two Degalim?

Sifsay Chachamim (30, on Rashi‘s commentary on 10:21) quotes Mizrachi (on Bamidbar 10:17), who explains the verse “and the Degel of Yehuda traveled” to mean “got ready to travel,” so that the description of the first group of Levi’im packing up and leaving afterwards doesn’t necessarily mean that they left after the first Degel had already left. Rather, the first group of Levi’im left at the same time the first Degel did. Therefore, by the time the second group of Levi’im started traveling, which was after the second Degel did, two Degalim had left. [The expression used for the first Degel (“vayisa”) is different than what is used for the other Degalim (“v’nusa”) and for the two groups of Levi’im (“v’nus’u”), with the former indicating that what follows happened concurrently while the latter mean it had already happened.] Nevertheless, this would not make a two-Degel time lag between the two groups of Levi’im. It was more than one (since the first group of Levi’im left with the first Degel), but it wasn’t a full two either. Additionally, Rashi says that the second group of Levi’im arrived with the last two Degalim; according to this, they would have arrived before the third Degel, not “with the last two.” [Some point out that on Z’vachim 61a Rashi says explicitly that the first group of Levi’im left after the first Degel, but it is unclear what Rashi’s wording really was, and whether that was what he meant.]

Nachalas Yaakov (on 10:17) takes it a step further, saying that the first group of Levi’im left even before the first Degel did, so there were a full two Degalim between the two groups of Levi’im. However, this goes against what Rashi had written on 2:9 (that the Levi’im were in the middle). Maskil L’Dovid understands Mizrachi and Sifsay Chachamim to also mean that the first group of Levi’im left before the first Degel (not with it), and then explains why that can’t be what Rashi meant. It is unclear what his own approach is; it sounds like he is saying that the first group of Levi’im left after the first Degel and the second group left after the third Degel, so that there was a two-Degel time lag between the two groups. However, the Torah seems pretty clear that the second group of Levi’im left before the third Degel, not after it. B’er Basadeh also understands Mizrachi and Sifsay Chachamim the way his rebbe, Maskil L’Dovid, did, and likewise explains why it can’t be what Rashi meant. His understanding of his rebbe’s approach (based on his drawing), is that the second group of Levi’im left after the fourth Degel (see L’vush below). The approach he prefers is the way I explained Mizrachi/Sifsay Chachamim above; I’m not sure why he didn’t think this is what they were saying.

Chizkuni adds a “period” in Rashi’s commentary after the words “the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari” (who were the first group of Levi’im), and says that the next words, “for two Degalim had previously traveled” is a separate thought. Rashi is therefore not telling us that two Deglim traveled between the two groups of Levi’im, only that the second group of Levi’im was preceded by two Degalim. However, since this was told to us in order to explain how there was enough time for the first group of Levi’im to reassemble the Mishkan before the second one arrived, telling us how many Degalim had traveled before the second group left (rather than who left in-between) is a pretty indirect way of telling us about the time lag between them. Besides, the first group of Levi’im is referenced again in the “new thought;” separating Rashi’s thought into two comments doesn’t seem to alleviate the issue. [It should be noted Chizkuni also says that the first group of Levi’im traveled “with” the first Degel (not “after” them), but he does not use this to explain Rashi seeming to say that two Degalim traveled between the two groups of Levi’im.]

L’vush (on 2:17, quoted in its entirety by Tzaida Laderech and referenced again by him on 10:21 after quoting Chizkuni) says that the first group of Levi’im left after the second Degel, while the second group left after the fourth Degel started traveling and reached them (at what had been the center of the encampment); since the area of the encampment was large (12 mil), it took time for the fourth Degel to reach where the Levi’im were. Therefore, even though the second group of Levi’im were in front of, or parallel to, the fourth Degel, they didn’t start moving until it had reached them. The bottom line (for our issue) is that the first group of Levi’im left after the second Degel while the second group left after the fourth Degel had started traveling, which created the time lag of two Degalim described by Rashi. The obvious problem with this approach is that the Torah is rather explicit that the second group of Levi’im left before the third Degel started traveling, let alone before the fourth one did.

This issue is compounded by how the procedure is described in B’raisa d’M’leches HaMishkan (13), where the first group of Levi’im didn’t start to pack up and leave until after the second Degel had left and the second group of Levi’im didn’t pack up and leave until after the third Degel left. Besides also having a one-Degel time lag between the two groups of Levi’im (not the two Rashi describes), the order doesn’t seem to jibe with the Torah’s description. Ramban (Bamidbar 10:17) suggests that the B’raisa doesn’t mean that the Levi’im left after the second and third Degalim did, but that they started to pack up when those Degalim started to prepare to leave; they actually left before the corresponding Degel started to travel, closely followed by that Degel. However, the B’raisa concludes by saying that the two groups of Levi’im traveled in-between the first two Degalim and the last two; according to Ramban, the third Degel traveled between the two groups of Levi’im.

Rav Chaim Kanievsky, sh’lita, in his commentary on the B’raisa, suggests that each group of Levi’im left at the same time as the Degel described as packing up and leaving before they did, so that the first group traveled concurrently with the second Degel and the second with the third Degel. While the B’raisa mentions the Levi’im after the Degel they traveled with, the Torah mentions them before their travel “partner,” allowing them to be describing the same procedure. If each group of Levi’im left together with a Degel, there’s no reason why the first group couldn’t be traveling behind the second Degel while the second group traveled in front of the third Degel, allowing both groups to be traveling in-between the first two and last two Degalim.

Getting back to Rashi, the question discussed by the commentators was based on the assumption that when Rashi discussed the first group of Lev’im arriving at the next encampment with enough time to set up the structure before the holy vessels arrived, the words “travel of two Degalim” referred to how much earlier. However, based on Rav Kanievky’s explanation, it can be suggested that Rashi really meant that the first group of Levi’im traveled after the first two Degalim, while the second group of Levi’im traveled with the last two Degalim, giving the first group enough of a head start to be able to set the Mishkan up before the second group arrived. As previously mentioned, Rashi not only mentions the first two Degalim with the first group (“who were preceded by two Degalim traveling”), but he also mentions the last two Degalim with the second group (“who came after them with the last two Degalim”).

If Rashi didn’t mean that there was a time lag of two Degalim between the two groups of Levi’im, but that the first group traveled after the first two Degalim (leaving at the same time as the second Degel) and the second group traveled in front of the last two Degalim (leaving at the same time as the third Degel), the fact that the time lag between the two groups of Levi’im was only one Degel (not two) isn’t an issue at all.