The Midrash which Rashi quotes employs a parable to explain the reason that Hashem chose to recount Bnei Yisrael’s travels. A king once took his ill son abroad to seek a cure for his illness. When they joyously returned home, the father reviewed their stopovers and in retrospect said, “Here you had a fever, at this inn you head hurt, etc.” Similarly, in this parsha Hashem enumerates for Bnei Yisrael the various places where they had angered Him. Although it is easy enough to understand, the parable does not seem consistent with the “maladies” to which the stopovers allude. The…
