Kadesh Barnea קדש ברנע
The oasis on the desert's edge from which the spies were sent and where forty years of wandering were decreed.
Kadesh Barnea is the point at which history might have turned differently. The people stand a few marches from the Land. At their own request twelve spies are sent; forty days later they return with fruit and with the words «the people who dwell there are strong». Ten of the twelve say: we cannot. The nation weeps through the night — a night tradition dates to the ninth of Av.
The sentence follows at once: forty years of wandering, a year for each day of scouting, until the generation of the Exodus has died. The next morning some attempt to advance without Moshe and the Ark, and are beaten back at Chorma.
The people return here in the fortieth year. Miriam dies, the well vanishes, and Moshe, striking the rock instead of speaking to it, forfeits his entry into the Land.