D’var Torah B’shalach

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them along the road to the land of the Philistines, even though it was nearby; for God said, "The people will change their minds and return to Egypt if they face war." (Exodus 13:17)
“God did not lead them” - This is analogous to a king who had a son and he sought to bequeath him an inheritance, and he said: "If I give it to him now, he is still young and unable to retain it; rather, (I will wait) until my son learns the laws and appreciates their significance, and then I will give it to him." So too, the Holy One blessed be He said: "If I take Israel into the Land now, they have not yet engaged in the mitzvot, and they do not know the matters of terumot and tithes, Rather, I will give them the Torah and then I will take them into the Land." (Shemot Rabba 20:15)
According to this midrash, the reason Torah was given to Israel in the wilderness, prior to the nation's entry into its Land was to allow the Israelites to learn the practical mitzvot which apply within the Holy Land, since it is through observance of these mitzvot that Israel will be able to maintain its Land.
Yefat Toar (Rabbi Shmuel Yaffe Ashkenazi [1525 – 1595]) comments that the midrash mentions the mitzvot of terumot and tithes because Israel's existence within its Land is dependent upon fulfilling the Land-dependent mitzvot, as the Torah states explicitly in connection with the mitzva of sh'mitta: "For the Land will be bereft of them, appeasing its sabbaticals by lying desolate without the people …" [Leviticus 26:43]
While Shemot Rabba limits its comment to the Land-dependent mitzvot, according to the approach of Midrash Sifrei [Deuteronomy 43], that the essential fulfillment of all mitzvot is only within the Holy Land, apparently, we may expand the comment and include all mitzvot within that which the Nation of Israel had to learn prior to entering its Land.
Ultimately, Torah, with its 613 mitzvot is Israel's national constitution. Uniquely in world history, the Nation of Israel received its constitution before it had its own land. (David Magence)
Shabbat Shalom!
The Va’ad