The question is asked: What exactly do these words in the beginning of Parashas Maasei "מוצאיהם למסעיהם על פי השם" - "their journeys according to their goings forth by G-d's command" - mean?

     The Sephardic Gaon, R' Benzion Abba Shaul zt"l explains based on the following parable: An artist once drew a beautiful portrait which awed all who saw it. They asked him, "Whose portrait did you draw?" He responded that it was a portrait of a certain rabbi. The crowd immediately lost some of their former awe, since although the picture was indeed beautiful, it bore absolutely no resemblance at all to the rabbi whom the artist had mentioned.

     Similarly, a traveler will often make stops along the way. Even if everything at his rest stop is pleasant, if he had not planned initially to stop there, all of the beauty and excitement at being at that place will melt away. The Torah tells us that the various stops of the Jewish people were fortunate enough to be "according to their goings forth." Hashem had told them ahead of time, when they left each place, what their next stop would be, so that they did not merely "happen upon" any place where they stopped off. This is the intent of the Torah's added phrase.