We're now rebuilding Israel, with God's help. Numbers is primarily a book of historical experience, life lessons. Other than rules of the trek itself, Divine commandments only occur when they naturally arise in the tale. There are NO permanent commandments in our portion and only 54 of the 613, per Sefer Hachinuch, in all of Numbers. The Kingdom of God is the Messianic goal of history.
Man is made man by history.
Dubnow predicted that Jewish post-Biblical history will have equally high impact on mankind. This may have been a reinforcement for the Ashkenazic choice of death over baptism to Christianity, especially for their young children, who were likely to succumb and convert. Prof. Hacker claims to find awe-full admiration for their sacrifice in the writings of Ramban and Rabbenu Yona, tho they don't specifically refer to the Crusades, and may oppose this martyrdom halachically. The Besht may have turned to the Kabbala, the Ari, and their liturgy in an effort to turn Ashkenazic Jewry toward warmer humanistic Sephardic roots and direction.