“And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall sound with the trumpets
and this shall be an ordinance forever, throughout your generations” – Numbers 10:8

[Here’s a thorough discussion of the 2 silver trumpets: The Two Silver Trumpets of the Levite Priests MusicoftheBible.com / www.musicofthebible.com/extra_trumpets.htm‎l

Commentary from Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H.Hertz, additional commentary by Seymour Rossel, The Torah Portion by Portion; translation by EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.  “ER” is Everett Fox comment, while “RA” is Robert Alter commentary, both have written English translations of the Torah.—Admin1.]

Numbers/Bamidbar 10

They were for summoning the congregation or the princes to the Sanctuary, as well as signals to begin the journey or in times of war.  The clarions were long and narrow, with an expanded mouth, as distinct from the Shofar, or ram’s horn of the Jubilee (Lev. XXV,9).  There is an illustration of these clarions among the spoils of the Temple, on the Arch of Titus.

of beaten work. Made out of a single plate of silver.

[RA]  two silver trumpets.  After all the lists of the early chapters of Numbers, the visual pageantry of the Tabernacle furnishings, and the deployment of the tribal troups with their banners, sound enters the text–in essence, musical flourishes, a pageantry of sound.  These particuar sounds are in the first instance the signal for the forward movement of the camp, and so propel the whole story from the long stasis of the stay at Sinai into the narrative of wanderings that constitutes much of what follows.  The hammered silver trumpets are more artfully wrought wind instruments than the shofar, the ram’s horn, with which they shasre some functions.  The shofar is used for the call to battle, and for coronations; these trumpets serve the distinctive purposes of signalling the march in the wilderness and accompanying cultic celebrations.

all the congregation. i.e. the representatives of the congregation, and the heads of families.

but with one.  A blast on one clarion was the signal for an assembly of only the princes of the tribes; on both, for all the congregation.

and when ye blow an alarm. Heb. teruah; a succession of short, sharp, separate notes.

camps . . . east side. Judah, with Issachar and Zebulun.

[RA] a long blast.  There is no scholarly agreement as to whether the Hebrew teru’ah  means “a long blast” and the other term teqi’ah “a short blast,” or the other way around.  The verb taqa’ has the primary meaning of “stab,” and by extension, a stabbing or penetration of breath through the aperture of a wind instrument.  This sense might perhaps lend itself better to the idea of a short blast.  Teru’ah also means “shout,” without the aid of an instrument, and might be more prolonged.

camps . . . south side.  Reuben, with Simeon and Gad.

an alarm for their journeys. i.e., a separate signal was to be blown for the startings on their journeys for each of the four groups of tribes (Nachmanides).

statute for ever. That only the priests may sound these sacred clarions.

[EF]  a law. That is, the priests will function as an institution in their capacity as trumpet-blowers.

remembered before the LORD your God.  The music of these clarions, by infusing both courage and cheerfulness in the hearers, will be the means of invoking the Divine aid against the foe; and thus shall Israel in this hour of danger ‘be remembered’ of God and saved.  That the usage of trumpets in war was viewed from this spiritual standpoint is attested by II Chron. XIII,12-16, as well as I Macc. IV,40;v,33.

[RA] let out a long blast  . . . and be remembered before the LORD.  Here the function of the trumpets is identical with that of the shofar.  The trumpet blast rallies the troops, perhaps frightens the enemy, and is imagined as a means for alerting God’s attention to Israel, calling them to mind, being a “remembrance” before Him.

day of your gladness.  Any public rejoicing, such as after a victory.  Tradition here confines the term to Sabbaths.

appointed seasons.  Passover, Feast of Weeks, the Day of Memorial, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.  These were all distinguished by special sacrificies; Lev. XXIII and Num. XXVIII and XXIX.

FROM SINAI TO MOAB

X,11-34.  THE DEPARTURE FROM SINAI

Ten months and nineteen days after the arrival at Sinai, the journeying towards Moab and the Holy Land began.  Guided by the Cloud they, in due course, encamped in the wilderness of Paran.

their stages.  As in XXXIII,2.  Most Jewish commentators take it to mean the order in which the journeying took place.

abode in the wilderness.  As a sign that they were to halt there.

Paran. North of the Sinai Peninsula.  Its eastern border is a line drawn from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba, apparently corresponding to the modern et-Tih.  Paran formed an important stage in the wanderings across the wilderness.  Before it was reached, there were two halting places, at the ‘Graves of Lust’ (XI,34-5) and Hazeroth (XII,16). 

[RA]  And the Israelites began on their journeyings. The marching order of hte tribes laid out in the next fifteen verses is a precise implementation of the tribal deployment detailed in chapter 2.

[EF]  first: This and other number designations in thsi passage refer to position, not time.

was taken down. i.e. used to be taken down, and apart, for the journey; the fabric of it, the boards, curtains, and other heavy portions that were packed upon the six wagons provided for the purpose (XII,3-9).

the bearers of the sanctuary. i.e. the holy things of the Sanctuary.

against their coming. i.e. before the arrival of the sons of Kohath with the Ark and the other holy vessels.  Finding the Tabernacle properly set up, the sons of Kohath would deposit therein the Ark and the other holy vessels.

[RA] bearers of the sanctuary. In contradistinction to the Gershonites and the Merarites, “bearers of the Tabernacle,” the burden of the Kohathites is not the structure itself but the cultic paraphernalia of the sanctuary.

and they would set up the Tabernacle by the time they came.  As elsewhere, biblical idiom is parsimonious in stipulating the antecedents of pronouns.  The first “they ” would have to refer to the Gershonites and Merarites, who carry the Tabernacle, the second “they ” would be the Kohathites.

the rearward. The work of such a rearguard would consist in collecting stragglers, in taking charge of such as had fainted by the way, and in finding and restoring lost articles.

29-32.  HOBAB

Moses requests his father-in-law to remain with them and act as their guide.

Hobab, the son of Reuel. According to Rabbinic tradition, Hobab is identical with Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses.  Reuel was the father of Jethro, or Hobab.  Exod. II,18, where the daughters of Jethro call Reuel their father, presents no difficulty.  The Rabbis rightly explain that children oft-times call their grandfather ‘father’.

[EF] Hovav:  There is some confusion about the name.  One tradition holds that he is identical to Yitro in Ex. 2:18f; yet there, Re’uel is Moshe’s father-in-law, while here he is a generation removed.

[RA] And Moses said to Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite.  We now leave the Priestly tabulations and pomp and ceremony and enter the first actual narrative episode of the Book of Numbers.  The name of Moses’s Midianite father-in-law is a bafflement that has been resolved not only by rather contorted harmonizing explanations.  In Exodus, he is called Jethro, who also seems to be identical with Reuel, while here he is Hobab son of Reuel.  It seems likely that these narratives draw on authentic ancient traditions about an alliance and kinship between Moses and the Kenite clan of the Medianites, and those traditions provided an etiological explanation for the peaceful cohabitation of the Kenites with the Israelites (compare Judges 4:17-22).  In the traditional variants of these stories about the Kenites.  Moses’s father-in-law may have been assigned different names.

We are journeying to the place.  No foreshadowing is allowed to intrude.  At this point, Moses, unwitting of the disasters that lie ahead, imagines that both he and the people he is leading are about to corss the wilderness and enter into the promised land.

the LORD has spoken a good thing.  Literally, “spoken good,” with the obvious sense of “promised to confer all manner of good things.”  By repeating the root in both verb and noun, Moses twice emphasizes (the second time in verse 32) that he means to have Hobab share in the good that God has promised Israel.

[RA] to may land and to my birthplace I shall go.  These words are probably an explicit allusion to God’s first command to Abraham, “Go forth from your land and your birthplace” (Genesis 12:1). Hobab asserts the desire to reverse that direction, to go back to his own homeland instaed of forging on to the land God has promised Israel.

instead of eyes.  As Midian bordered on Sinai and Paran, he was thoroughly familiar with that desert.  The Cloud, IX,15, was not a guide; it only indicated the times of breaking up and of resting. Hobab’s answer is not given; but it may be inferred from Judges I,16,IV, 11, that he yielded, and consented to be ‘eyes’ unto them in the desert.

[EF] you shall be for us as eyes:  More idiomatically, “you shall serve as our eyes.”

[RA]  do you not know our encampment in the wilderness?  Previously in Numbers, and before that in Exodus, there was a heavy stress on the idea that the cloud over the Tabernacle would guide the people. Here, by contrast, human agency is stressed:  Hobab, himself indigenous to the great wilderness to the south of Canaan, is to act as a native guide through this forbidding territory.  It is conceivable that this story registers an actual historical memory of receiving help of this sort from the Medianites.  Hobab’s response to Moses is not stated, but the later presence of his descendants among the Israelites suggests that he agreed to accompany them.  Perhaps the end of this story was excised editorially in order not to diminish the idea conveyed in the next two verses that it was the Ark with the accompanying cloud that led Israel through the wilderness.

33-34.  ON THE JOURNEY

they set forward.  These words mark the moment of actual departure from Sinai, which has been anticipated in the general statement of v.12.

three days journey. ‘When God commanded Israel to set out from Sinai, where they had received many laws, and continue their march, the Israelites were glad.  Instead of making a day’s march from Sinai as God had commanded them, they marched incessantly for three days.  They behaved like a boy who runs quickly away after dismissal from school, that his teacher might not call him back’ (Midrash).

the ark. On this special occasion only, when they started the journey, did the Ark go in front, in order to inspire them with confidence and courage (Ibn Ezra).  Otherwise the Ark and its appurtenances were carried by the Kohathites in the middle of the line of march.

went before them in the three days’ journey. this is the rendering of the AV (and Sforno, Luzzatto), and is a departure from the AJ which omits the words ‘in the’, and thereby attaches an impossible meaning to the text.

[RA] the ark . . . journeying before them a three day’s march.  Though the Ark was to lead the way, this three day’s distance is baffling, for in that case the Ark would not have been visible to the people who were supposed to follow it.  A common scholarly solution to the problem is to see the second occurrence of “a three days’ march” as an inadvertent scribal repetition (dittography) of the first.

was over them by day.  This phrase, taken in conjunction with Psalm CV,39, ‘He spread a cloud for a screen,’ would seem to indicate that the Cloud not only served the purpose of a signal but also of a shade, protecting the wanderers from the burning heat of the sun.

35-36  INVOCATION PRAYERS

These verses preserve the invocation prayers in connection with the going forward and the resting of the Ark in the wilderness; and we still feel the thrill of sacred enthusiasm that animated the men of old on hearing them.  They are used to this day at the opening and closing of the Ark, whenever the Torah is read in the synagogue.  These two verses are enclosed in inverted Nuns, to indicate either that they are not here in their original place (Talmud); or that they are taken from another source (possibly from ‘The Book of the Wars of the LORD’, see XXI,14) and form a distinct section, scroll, or even ‘book’ of the Torah.  Some of the Rabbis thought of the Book of Numbers as consisting of three parts (I-X,34; X,35,36;XI-XXXVI), and, in consequence, counted seven books of the Torah.  Thus, according to Rabbi Johanan, ‘Wisdom hath hewn out her seven pillars ‘ (Prov. IX,1) referred to the Seven Books of the Torah.

[EF] the cloud of YHWH was over them by day:  The phraseology is almost identical to the ending of the book of Exodus (40:38)–so everything in between, all of Leviticus and Num. 1-10, is in a sense bracketed.

when the Ark set forward. The Ark going forward at the head of Israel’s tribes typified God in front of His people protecting and helping them, and leading them on to final victory. ‘Through the wilderness Israel went, not knowing from what quarter the sudden raid of a desert people might be made.  Swiftly, silently, as if springing out of the very sand, the Arab raiders might bear down upon the travellers.  They were assured of the guardianship of Him whose eye never slumbered’ (Expositor’s Bible).

said, i.e. would say; the tense is the so-called ‘frequentative’.

rise up . . .be, scattered. ‘The impressive war-cry of truth against error, of righteousness against sin’ (Abrahams).  God’s enemies are the enemies of Israel.  When God arises against the hosts of Israel’s enemies, they scatter as the darkness before the sunlight.

[EF] 35-36 – In Hebrew manuscripts and published Torahs, these verses are enclosed by two inerted Hebrew letters, perhaps indicating some kind of early tradition about this poem as a separate unit that may belong somewhere else.

[RA] Rise O LORD.  These words attributed to Moses are often referred to as the Song of the Ark.  Although one recent scholar, Richard Elliott Friedman, has evidence of poetic structure and diction even in the brief fragment.  Rhythmically, these two versets contain, respectively, for and three stresses, a pattern sometimes found in lines of biblical poetry.  The word pairings, enemies/foes, scatter/flee, are a hallmark of parallelistic poetry.  the concluding line (verse 36) uses a bit of emphatic synonimity, “teeming myriads” (literally “myriads of thousands”) that is marked as poetic diction and also appears, with the order of “myriads” and “thousands” reversed, in the poetic blessing for Rebekah, Genesis 24:60.  “Rise,” as several commentators have noted, aslo has a military sense of “attack,” but the visual image of elevation is important—God, imagined as enthroned on the cherubim carved over the Ark, surges up like a warrior-king as the Ark is lifted to be carried forward.  In the Hebrew text, the unit that verses 35-36 constitute is bracketed off from what precedes and follows by inverted letters nuns.  This is a scribal device known from Late Antiquity for marking a piece of text that is out of place, or quoted from another source.  Some ahve conjectured that the Song of the Ark is actually a quotation from the mysterious Book of the Battles of YHWH mentioned elsewhere.  Whatever the source, the quotation may give only the opening lines of two poems rather than the integral text of the poems.  In any case, this is the first of several fragments of archaic Hebrew poetry quoted in Numbers.

unto the ten thousands of the families of Israel. The second ‘thousands’ is here equivalent to ‘families’ or ‘clans’.  Ehrlich takes the whole phrase as a synonym of God–and renders, ‘O Thou Who art the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel’—a most appropriate invocation addressed to God as the Ark returned from victory; II Kings II,12, where Elijah is addressed as ‘the chariot of Israel, and the horseman thereof’; or the Divine title, ‘the LORD of Hosts.’

‘Long after those desert days, a psalmist laid hold of the old prayer and offered it, as not antiquated yet by the thousand years that had intervened. “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; and let them that hate Him flee before Him” (Psalm LXVIII,2).  We too may take up the immortal though ancient words, and, at the beginnings and endings of all our efforts, offer this old prayer — the prayer which asked for a Divine Presence in the incipiency of our efforts, and the prayer which asked for a Divine Presence on the completion of our work’ (Maclaren).

[EF] divisions: Or alternatively, “thousands.”

[RA] Come back O LORD to Israel’s teeming myriads.  There is no explicit “to” in the Hebrew connecting “come back” with Israel’s myriads.  The absence of the preposition has inspired a variety of ingenious interpretations, but one should keep in mind that biblical poetic diction–especially in the case of the more archaic layer of Hebrew poetry–exhibits a great deal of ellipsis, which is, after all, a means of eliminating extra syllables and heightening the compactness of the utterance.  It thus seems reasonable to infer that “to” is implied here.

This explanation is from The Torah Portion by Portion by Seymour Rossel.  It discusses salient parts of this chapter:

Adonai spoke to Moses in the Sinai wildereness, on the first new moon of the second year after the Exodus from Egypt, saying:  Let the Israelite people offer the Passover sacrifice at its set time: you shall offer it on the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, at its set time; you shall offer it in accordance with all its rules and rites.

While the Torah here commands the Israelites to offer the Passover sacrifice one year after the first Passover (the night they were freed from Egypt), it says nothing about the seven-day holiday of Matzot that (Jews) today call Passover.  In early Israel, these were two separate holidays (se Emor).  The seven days of eating matzah could be celebrated by anyone, at home or while traveling.  But, as the law states, the Passover sacrifice could only be brought to the Mishkan on a set date.

This commandment is misplaced.  The Passover sacrifice should have come a month before the dedication of the Mishkan.  No one knows why the command was misplaced.  But the command led to an interesting incident:

There were some people who were unclean [because they had touched] a corpse.  [They] could not offer the Passover sacrifice on [the exact] day.  [They asked Moses and Aaron.]

“Why must we be forbidden from presenting Adonai’s offering at its set time with the rest of the Israelites?”

Moses said to them,

“Stand by, and let me hear what instructions Adonai gives about you.”

Adonai spoke to Moses, saying:  Anyone who is unclean or impure or on a long journey at the set time for Passover can delay the Passover sacrifice by one month.  But only for those reasons.  If any other person refuses to offer the Passover sacrifice, Adonai will punish that person severely.

Adonai adds that even a stranger living among the Israelites can offer a Passover sacrifice, but it must be according to the same laws all Israelites follow:  

“There shall be one law for you, whether stranger or citizen of the country.”

One Law for You

The statement of “one law for you, whether stranger or citizen” became a general rule, since the world ger or “stranger” can also mean “newcomer”.  Even now many non-Jews choose to live within the Jewish community.  Some follow Jewish laws, and some never do.  Some convert to Judaism, and some never do.  It makes no difference.  Our law is for us and for them.  This is hospitality.  Rabbi Nathan said that Abraham’s could welcome strangers coming from every direction.  And he said we should be like Abraham, welcoming every stranger, treating them as we treat our own family—or even better.  There should be “one law”.  What is good for us is what we should want for them too.

Of course, the idea that this law is for you, “whether stranger or citizen of the country,” must come from a time when the Israelites were “citizens” in their own “country”.

The Mysterious Cloud

On the day that the Mishkan was set up, the cloud covered the Mishkan, the Tent of the Covenant; and in the evening it rested over the Mishkan, looking like fire until morning.  It was always so: the cloud covered it, appearing as fire by night.  Whenever the cloud lifted . . . the Israelites would set out [and] where the cloud settled, the Israelites would make camp.

The Torah pictures the cloud over the Mishkan as a sign that Adonai was present.  Some modern scholars explain the cloud in another way.  By day the smoke from the sacrifices and the burning of incense in the Mishkan would become a cloud that made it difficult for the Israelites to see the Mishkan.  At night the smoke from the oil lamps on the Menorah made it seem that the cloud had turned to fire.  When it was time to pack up and travel, the priests were among the first to know.  They would take down the Mishkan and stop the sacrifices and the burning, and the cloud would “lift” or disappear.  Only when they settled in a new place did the cloud “settle” again above the Mishkan.  So the people knew that when the cloud “lifted” it was a sign that they were about to travel from one place to another.

Other scholars think that the idea of the cloud by day and the fire by night comes from a later time, when smoke pots were kept burning at the base of two huge pillars of Solomon’s Temple.  The smoke pots formed a cloud by day and a cloud of fire by night.  the tellers of the different parts of the Torah may have imagined that similar pillars of cloud and fire appeared to the Israelites in the wilderness.

Image from truth2U.org

However we explain the cloud and the fire, the Torah wants us to know that the Israelites were being guided by Adonai, commanded to move when Adonai was ready for them to move, and commanded to settle when Adonai wanted them to settle.  Adonai was in charge, and Adonai dwelled among the people in the Israelite camp.

—————————————————–

[Commentary from  Pentateuch and Haftarahs, ed. Dr. J.H.Hertz, translation by EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.–Admin1]

Numbers/Bamidbar 9

1-14.  THE SECOND PASSOVER

[A supplementary Passover on the same day in the second month for persons prevented by uncleanness and absence from participating in the Paschal sacrifice in Nisan.]

1 YHVH spoke to Moshe in the Wilderness of Sinai, 

in the second year of their going-out of the land of Egypt, 

at the first New-moon,

saying:

in the first month of the second year.  This date is earlier by one month than the date with which the Book of Number opens.  “You learn hereby that the narratives of Scripture are not given in strict chronological sequence’ (Sifri).  From Exod. XII,25, 5-10, it appears that the Passover there ordained was for celebration after the settlement in Canaan.  Special direction was, therefore, required for a Passover in the Wilderness.

in its appointed season.  ‘Even if the Passover falls on the Sabbath’ (Sifri).

3 on the fourteenth day after this New-moon,

between the setting-times,

you are to sacrifice it at its appointed-time; according to all its laws, according to all its regulations, you are to sacrifice it.

at dusk. Better, towards even (Friedlander); lit. ‘between the two evenings’l see on Exod. XII,6.

4  So Moshe spoke (instructions) to the Children of Israel, to sacrifice the Passover-offering.
5 And they sacrificed the Passover-offering 

in the first (New-moon), on the fourteenth day after the New-moon,

between the setting-times, 

in the Wilderness of Sinai.

According to all that YHVH had commanded Moshe, 

thus did the Children of Israel.

and they kept the passover.  According to Tradition, that was the only Paschal sacrifice offered in the Wilderness.

wherefore are we to be kept back?  lit. ‘why should we be made less?’ Why should we, owing to accidental and temporary defilement, be made inferior to the rest of Israel by not being able to participate in the Festival celebration?

8 Moshe said to them:

 Stand by, and let me hear what YHVH shall command regarding you.

9 YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying:
10 Speak to the Children of Israel, saying:

 A man, (any) man when he is tamei by reason of a (dead) person or is on a long journey,

 among you or among your generations, and sacrifices a Passover-offering to YHVH:

or be in a journey afar off.  So that he cannot reach the Sanctuary in time for the slaughtering of the sacrifice.

11 in the second New-moon, on the fourteenth day, between the setting-times,

he is to sacrifice it; together with matza (and) bitter-herbs they are to eat it.
12 They are not to leave (any) of it until morning,

a bone is not to be broken from it, 

according to all the law of the Passover-offering, they are to sacrifice it.

13 But a man who is (ritually) pure, or who has not been on a journey, 

and holds back from sacrificing the Passover-offering: 

cut off will that person be from his kins people, 

for the near-offering of Passover for YHVH he has not brought-near at its appointed-time; his sin he is to bear, that man.

cut off.  Not by a human tribunal.

14 Now when a sojourner sojourns with you

and sacrifices a Passover-offering to YHVH, 

according to the law of the Passover-offering and according to its regulation,

thus he is to sacrifice (it). One law (alone) is there to be for you, for the sojourner and for the native of the land.

a stranger. Heb. ger; a resident non-Israelite who had become a convert to the religion of Israel, and had undertaken to conform to the laws and precepts of the Torah.

so shall he do. He must observe all the ordinances of the Passover, whether in regard to the first or to the supplementary Passover, even as does a homeborn Israelite.

15-23.  THE FIERY CLOUD UPON THE TABERNACLE

This section connects with Exod.XL,34.  It was the invariable custom to start on the march when the Cloud rose from the Tabernacle, and to halt when and as long as it rested.

15 Now at the time that the Dwelling was set up,

the cloud covered the Dwelling over the Tent of Testimony,

and after sunset it remained over the Dwelling,

as the appearance of fire, until daybreak.

the cloud covered the tabernacle. As the manifestation of the Divine Presence in the midst of Israel.  It covered only the part of it in which the Ark was placed.

at even. The manifestation of the Divine Presence had the appearance of fire.

16 Thus it was regularly: 

 the cloud would cover it, 

 an appearance of fire at night.

17 According as the cloud was lifted up from the tent, 

 after that the Children of Israel would march on,

 and in the place that the cloud would take-up-dwelling, 

 there the Children of Israel would encamp.

and whenever the cloud was taken up.  This verse and the following to the end of the chapter are an amplification of Exod. XL,36-8.

18 By order of YHVH, the Children of Israel would march, 

and by order of YHVH, they would encamp;

all the days that the cloud dwelt above the Dwelling, they would remain-in-camp.

at the commandment of the LORD.  The Israelites were uncertain as to the duration of their sojourn in any place; but, looking upon the Cloud, as the symbol of the Divine Presence, they considered the Cloud’s movements as orders from on High, which they invariably obeyed.

19 Now when the cloud lingered over the Dwelling for many days, 

the Children of Israel would keep the charge of YHVH, 

and would not march on.
20 At such (times) as the cloud remained for a number of days over the Dwelling,

by order of YHVH they would remain-in-camp,

and by order of YHVH they would march on.
21 At such (times) as the cloud remained from sunset until daybreak,

when the cloud lifted at daybreak, they would march on

. Whether by day or by night,

when the cloud lifted, they would march on.
22 Whether two days or a New-moon or a year-of-days, 

when the cloud lingered over the Dwelling, dwelling over it, 

the Children of Israel would remain-in-camp, and would not march on; at its lifting-up, they would march on.
23 By order of YHVH they would encamp,

and by order of YHVH they would march;

the charge of YHVH, they would keep, 

by order of YHVH,through the hand of Moshe.

[In featuring the 3rd and 4th book of the Torah, namely Vayiqrah and Bamidbar, you will notice that we have sought the interpretation and teachings from rabbinical writings.  As many resources as we could find to interpret specific details we hardly can relate to in this day and age,

• we have quoted word for word from the commentary in enclosed parentheses [ ] from  Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H.Hertz;
• and sometimes, supplemented from the ArtScroll Tanach notes.
•  Here, we’ve added one more resource:  The Torah, Portion-by-Portion by Seymour Rossel.  

Featuring these rabbinical interpretations does not mean we fully agree with them; we are simply providing our website visitors some possible interpretations of the text under scrutiny. Actually, as descriptive narration, the texts are understandable even without further interpretation.
 

Recently, one of the search engine terms that a visitor entered sought clarification about the difference, if there was one, between the “Tent of Meeting” and the “Tabernacle”.  

Here’s an explanation by Seymour Rossel:

The Voice, the Tent, and the Mishkan.  

When Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with [Adonai], he would hear the Voice addressing him from above the cover that was on the top of the Ark of the Covenant between the two cherubim [sphinxes]; thus [Adonai] spoke to him.

So the portion ends where we began, with confusion about the Mishkan and the Tent of Meeting and how each was used.  In Exodus 33 (Ki Tisah) we heard how Moses pitched the Tent of Meeting “at some distance from the camp”.

Whoever sought Adonai would go to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp.  Whenever Moses went out tot he tent, all the people would rise and . . . gaze after Moses until he entered the Tent.  And when Moses entered the Tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance, while [Adonai] spoke with Moses . . .  Adonai would speak to Moses face to face, as one person speaks to another.  And [Moses] would then return to the camp; but his apprentice, Joshua son of Nun, a youth, would not stir out of the tent.

But in Exodus 40 (Pikudel) it is said that the Tent covered the Mishkan, and the cloud kept Moses out.

When Moses finished the work, the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the Presence of Adonai filled the Mishkan.  Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud had settled upon it and the Presence of Adonai filled the Mishkan.

As Naso ends it seems that Moses would enter the Tent whenever he wished to speak with Adonai.  He would hear Adonai’s “Voice” from above the Ark (which we know is in the Mishkan), and “thus [Adonai] spoke to him.”  Clearly, many different stories were woven together in the Torah, but out of them came one people.

God’s Throne:  Once the Mishkan was dedicated, the Ark of the Covenant became a sort of throne for Adonai.  The Torah says that it was in the Tent of Meeting, so that Moses went inside “to speak with” Adonai, he heard “the Voice” coming from above, from between the two sphinxes on top of the Ark.  

—Admin1.]

————————————-

Numbers/Bamidbar 7

THE OFFERING OF THE PRINCES

In this chapter we have the narrative of the presentation of the identical gifts by the princes of each of the twelve tribes at the dedication of the Altar.  This presentation took place at the time when Moses, after having completed the erection of the Tabernacle, anointed and sanctified it as well as the Altar and all the vessels connected with it (Lev.VIII,10,11).  Chronologically the present chapter follows immediately after Lev. VIII.  The offerings consist of gifts for the transport of the Tabernacle, and golden and silver vessels for the service of the Sanctuary, with sacrificial animals for the dedication ceremony.  They were offered on twelve separate days.  The narrative describing each in unaltered language, reflects the stately solemnity that marked the repetition of the same ceremonial day by day.  ‘None among the princes wished to outrival the others, but such harmony reigned among them, and such unity of spirit, that God valued the service of each as if he had brought not only his own gifts, but also those of his companions’ (Midrash).

on the day. At the time when.

over them that were numbered.  The leaders who were appointed to act with Moses in taking the census.

From ArtScroll:  The Midrash relates that, at first, Moses was reluctant to accept the leaders’ offerings, since God had not commanded that these offerings be brought.  The experience of Nadab and Abihu, who died when they brought unauthorized incense was a frightening precedent (Leviticus 10:,2).  But God told him that the intention of the leaders was pure and their offerings were worthy of acceptance.

Although their offerings were identical, each one is mentioned separately because each was brought to represent a different set of symbols.

they bore them upon their shoulders. It was not seemly that the holiest vessels should be placed on wagons.  Staves or poles had been provided so as to enable them to be borne on shoulders.

dedication-offering of the altar.  After having presented the wagons and oxen for the conveyance of the Tabernacle and its appurtenances, the princes offered further sacrifices for the dedication of the Altar.

Nahshon the son of Amminadab.  The names of the other princes and the order in which they are mentioned in the present chapter are the same as given previously in connection with the march.  ‘Nahshon was rewarded in this way for the devotion he had shown to God during the passage through the Red Sea.  When Israel, beset by the Egyptians, reached the sea, the tribes hesitated to enter the sea, and one urged the other to be the first to do so.  At that moment Nahshon, the prince of judah, fearlessly plunged in, firmly trusting that God would stand by Israel in their need’ (Midrash).

peace-offerings. Were an expression of the joyous gratitude of the worshipper to God.  Hence they were, in these instances, the most multiplied, as befitted an occasion of joy and of thankful communion with God.

The offerings of the princes were a favourite theme for the later Rabbinical homilists.  They held that, though the offerings of all the princes were identical, these had a different significance for each tribe.  From the time of Jacob, who foretold it to them, every tribe knew his future history to the time of the Messiah; hence, at the dedication of the Altar, each prince brought such offerings as symbolized the history of his tribe.  Apart from the significance that the offerings had for each tribe respectively, they were held also to symbolize the history of the world from the time of Adam to the erection of the Tabernacle.  The following comments on the gifts of the princes of Issachar (v.18), of Reuben (v. 30), and on v. 84 are fair examples of this symbolization.

prince of Issachar.  ‘The tribe of Issachar had good claims to be among the first to offer sacrifices, for this tribe devoted itself to the study of the Torah, so that the great scholars in Israel were among them; and then, too, it was this tribe that had proposed to the others the bringing of the dedication offerings.  As this was the tribe of erudition, its gifts symbolized things appertaining to the Torah.  The silver charger and the silver bowl corresponded to the Written and to the Oral Torah; and both vessels alike are filled with fine flour, for the two Laws are not antagonistic, but form a unity and contain the loftiest teachings.  The fine flour was mingled with oil, just as knowledge of the Torah should be accompanied with good deeds; for he who occupies himself with the Torah, who works good deeds, and keeps himself aloof from sin, fills his Creator with delight.  The golden spoon of ten shekels symbolizes the Two Tables on which God wrote the Ten Commandments, and which contained between the Commandments all the particulars of the Torah, just as the spoon was filled with incense.  The three burnt offerings, the bullock, the ram, and the lamb corresponded to the three groups of Priests, Levites, and Israelites; whereas the kid of the goats alluded to the proselytes, for the Torah was revealed not only for Israel, but for all the world; and a proselyte who studies the Torah is no less than a high priest’ (Midrash).

prince of the children of Reuben.  ‘The gifts of the tribe of Reuben symbolized the events in the life of their forefather Reuben.  The silver charger recalled Reuben’s words when he saved the life of Joseph, whom his brothers wanted to kill, for “the tongue of the just is as choice silver”.  The silver bowl, from which was sprinkled the sacrificial blood, recalled the same incident, for it was Reuben who advised his brothers to throw Joseph into the pit rather than to kill him.  The spoon of ten shekels of gold symbolized the deed of Reuben, who restrained Jacob’s sons from bloodshed, hence the gold out of which the spoon was fashioned had a blood-red colour.  The spoon was filled with incense, and so too did Reuben fill his days with fasting and prayer, until God forgave his sin with Bilhah, and his “prayer was set forth before God as incense.”  As penance for this crime, Reuben offered the kid of the goats as a sin offering; whereas the two oxen of the peace offering corresponded to the two great deeds of Reuben, the deliverance of Joseph and the long penance for his sin’ (Midrash).

The Total   

‘The gifts of the twelve princes of the tribes were equal in number as well as in the size and width of the objects bestowed.  None among them wished to outrival the others; and such harmony and unity of spirit reigned among them, that God valued the service of each as if he had brought not only his own gifts but also those of his companions.  The sum total of the gifts of the twelve princes of the tribes had also a symbolical significance.  The twelve chargers correspond to the twelve constellations; the twelve bowls to the twelve months; the twelve spoons to the twelve guides of men, which are:  the heart, the kidneys, the mouth, the palate, the windpipe, the esophagus, the lungs, the liver, the spleen, the crop, and the stomach.  “All the silver of the vessel that weighed two thousand and four hundred shekels,” corresponded to the years that had passed from the Creation of the World to the advent of Moses in the fortieth year of his life.  All the gold of the spoons, the weight of which was a hundred and twenty shekels, corresponded to the years of Moses’ life’ (Midrash).

Moses enters the Tabernacle    

he heard the Voice speaking unto him.  lit. ‘he heard the Voice making itself as speaking’; i.e. Moses was audibly addressed by a Voice, not as before on the peak of Sinai far away, but in the Sanctuary that was now in the midst of Israel: Exod. XXV,22.

‘Moses in his humility felt that his mission as leader of the people ended with the erection of the Tabernacle, as Israel could now satisfy all their spiritual needs without his aid.  But God said, As truly as thou livest, I have for thee a far greater task than any thou hast yet accomplished, for thou shalt instruct My children about “clean and unclean”, and shalt teach them how to offer up offerings to Me.  God hereupon called Moses to the Tabernacle, to reveal to him there the laws and teachings.  The Voice that called Moses was as powerful as at the revelation at Sinai, still it was audible to none but Moses.  Not even the angels heard it, for the words of God were destined exclusively for Moses (Midrash).

[‘The Priestly Blessing” . . . how many of us have not heard that in song, committed it to memory and recited it to one another at the end of our Sabbath worship.  “YHWH bless you and keep you; YHWH make His Face shine upon you and be gracious unto you and give you His shalom.”  This is the chapter from which that blessing is lifted, at the end after a discussion of the law of the Nazirite.  Commentary is from Pentateuch and Haftarah, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz; translation is EF/Everett Fox The Five Books of Moses.–Admin.]

Numbers/Bamidbar 6

THE LAW OF THE NAZIRITE

The previous chapter provided for the exclusion of certain forms of guilt and defilement from the pale of God’s people.  The present chapter offers an opening to the life of the devotee who, not content with observing what is obligatory, seeks austere modes of self-dedication.  The Nazirite vow includes three things;

1. the hair to remain unshorn during the period of the vow;
2. abstinence from intoxicants;
3. avoidance of contact with a dead body.

The Nazirite vow was often taken by men and women alike purely for personal reasons, such as thanksgiving for recovery from illness, or for the birth of a child.  The minimum period of the vow was thirty days, but we have instances of Nazirite vows extending over repeated periods of seven years.  Scripture records also life-long Nazirites, who, however, were not bound by all regulations of the temporary Nazirite.  Mention is also made of the Rechabites, who abstained from wine (Jer.XXXV), and, in later times, the Essenes, whose life was semi-monastic.  The institution disappeared in its entirety with the destruction of the Temple.]

Nazirite.  That is, one separated or consecrated.  Heb. Nazir.

Fast forward to the book of Shoftim/Judges XXIII,5: This comment is  from Artscroll (AS): 

The people once more fell into sinfulness and God permitted the Philistines to take control of the country.  Israel was not worthy of the complete salvation brought about in earlier times by such great judges as Deborah and Gideon, but God did not wish to let the Philistines go completely unpunished.  So He sent Samson, whom He endowed with superhuman strength, to carry out sporadic attacks against the Philistines.  Moreover, he was to do as a lone “vigilante,” so to speak, not as the leader of the people.  As a symbol of his holiness, and the source of his strength, he was to be a Nazirite from the womb, and even his very birth from a barren, infertile mother would be miraculous.

wine.  The priest had to refrain from wine during service in the Sanctuary (Lev.X,9), and the Nazirite’s whole life was conceived as service of God.

strong drink. A comprehensive term for intoxicating liquors other than wine.

vinegar.  Any preparation made from any intoxicant that has gone sour.

liquor of grapes.  Made by soaking grapeskins in water.

pressed grapes. Pressed grapes from which the wine has already been extracted (Talmud).

no razor come upon his head. The hair was regarded as the symbol of the vital power at its full natural development; and the free growth of the hair on the head of the Nazirite represented the dedication of the man with all his strength and powers to the service of God.

holy.  Here signifying separated, detached from ordinary mundane pursuits by leading a life of self-denial and self-dedication to God.

unclean for his father.  In respect to contact with a dead body, the ordinary Nazirite was as stringently bound as the High Priest (Lev. XXI,11).  Not so another class of Nazirite, called by the Rabbis the Samson type of Nazirite.

his consecration unto God.  lit. ‘the crown of his God’; the sign and symbol of his special consecration unto God; the hair of the Nazirite being to him what the crown was to the king and what the mitre was to the High Priest.

9-12.  INVOLUNTARY DEFILEMENT

beside him.  In the tent wherein he is (Rashi).

day of his cleansing.  The 8th day after his defilement.

for that he sinned. Although his defilement was involuntary, he should have avoided even the remotest possibility of defilement.  the Talmud explains that he was ordered to make atonement for his vow to abstain from drinking wine, an unnecessary self-denial in regard to one of the permitted pleasures of life.

shall hallow . . . that same day.  Renew his vow from the moment he has effected atonement.

shall consecrate.  Resume his life under the Nazirite rule for the whole period which he had originally intended.

guilt offering.  For the sin committed unwittingly through which his defilement overtook him.

shall be void.  Not be counted as part of the period during which the vow was valid.

13-21. RITES TO BE PERFORMED AT THE COMPLETION OF THE VOW

he shall bring it. i.e., he shall come with his consecrated head unshaven to the door of the Tent of Meeting.

he shall present his offering.  Which included all four ordinary sacrifices:

1. burnt-offering
2. sin-offering
3. peace-offering
4. and meal-offering

and shall take the hair.  As the Nazirite had during his vow worn his hair unshorn in honour of God, so when the time was complete it was natural that the hair, the symbol of his vow, should be cut off at the Sanctuary.  In the times of the Mishnah, a special room was assigned to the Nazirites for that purpose in one of the Temple courts.

the Nazirite may drink wine.  Presumably the other restrictions also fell away.

beside that for which his means suffice.  Apart from whatever else he may be able to afford over and above the offerings laid down in this chapter.

according to his vow . . . so he must do.  This warning concerning vows is clearly stated in Deut. III,24. ‘That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt observe and do; according as thou has vowed freely unto the LORD thy God, even that which thou hast promised with thy mouth.’

22-27.  THE PRIESTLY BLESSING

The simple and beautiful threefold petition which follows in v. 24-26 is known  as ‘The Priestly Blessing.’  It is as it were the crown and seal of the whole sacred order by which Israel was now fully organized as the people of God, for the march to the Holy Land. The Heb. text consists of three short verses, of three, five, and seven words respectively.  ‘It mounts by gradual stages from the petition for material blessing and protection to that for Divine favour as a spiritual blessing, and in beautiful climax culminates in the petition for God’s most consummate gift, shalom, peace, the welfare in which all material and spiritual well-being is comprehended’ (Kautsch).  The fifteen words that constitute these three verses contain a world of trust in God and faith in God.  They are clothed in a rhythmic form of great beauty, and they fall with majestic solemnity upon the ear of the worshipper.  The Priestly Blessing was one of the most impressive features of the Service in the Temple at Jerusalem, and holds a prominent place in the worship of the Synagogue.  In the Temple it was pronounced from a special tribune (duchan; hence the current name ‘duchaning’) after the sacrifice of the daily offering, morning and evening.  In the Synagogue, it was early introduced into the daily Amidah (Authorised Prayer Boo, p. 53).  Its pronouncement by the Priests is in Ashkenazi communities limited, as a rule, to Festivals when not falling on Sabbaths.  The ancient melody that accompanies its pronouncement by the Priests is in its original form weird and most impressive.  Since the Reformation, the Priestly Blessing is a constituent of the service in many Protestant Churches.

on this wise ye shall bless.  The Rabbis based on these words their specific regulations was to be pronounced.  Only a priest, and not ‘a stranger’, was to pronounce it; it was to be done standing, and with outspread hands; the priest must be sober when blessing; and it must be given in the Hebrew tongue.  These prescriptions have deep spiritual implications for all time.  A stranger cannot bless; blessing requires knowledge and loving understanding of the person or cause to be blessed.  Furthermore, to bless others is a difficult task, requiring readiness for sacrifice and prayerfulness.  And, unless the blessing is to prove a blight, he that blesses must be quite ‘sober’—the fanatic or he whose judgment is beclouded by hatred or prejudice can never truly bless anyone.  The requirement as to the language of the Blessing is as vital as any.  As far as the Jew is concerned, every measure on his behalf must be in the Sacred Tongue—i.e. translatable into Hebrew terms, and in line with Jewish history and Jewish ideals.

24. THE GUARDIANSHIP OF GOD

the LORD bless thee.  With life, health, prosperity.

thee.  Why is the singular used?  A current explanation is:  as the prerequisite of all blessing for Israel is unity, all Israel is to feel as one organic body.

and keep thee.  Or, ‘guard thee’; grant thee His Divine protection against evil, sickness, poverty, calamity.  The LORD is the Keeper of Israel.  He delivers our souls from death, keeps our eyes from tears, and our feet from stumbling.  The Rabbis gave a wide application to these three Heb. words:  May God bless thee, with possessions; and keep thee, from these possessions possessing thee.  May God guard thee from sin, and shield thee from all destructive influences that so often follow in the wake of earthly prosperity.

25.   THE GRACE OF GOD

His face to shine upon thee.  Light in Scripture is the symbol not only of happiness and purity, but also of friendship. To cause the face to shine upon  one is the Biblical idiom for to be friendly to him.  When God’s ‘face’ is said to be turned towards man and to shine upon him, it implies the outpouring of Divine love and salvation (Ps. LXXX,20).  In contrast tot his, we have the prayer, ‘Hide not Thy face from me.’

The Rabbis interpret the words, ‘make His face to shine upon thee,’ in a purely spiritual sense, to imply the gift of knowledge and moral insight.  ‘May He give thee enlightenment of the eyes, the light of the Shechinah; may the fire of Prophecy burn in the souls of thy children; may the light of the Torah illumine thy home’ (Sifri).

gracious unto thee.  This is more than ‘keep thee’ in the preceding verse.  May He be beneficent unto thee, and graciously fulfill thy petition.  The Rabbis understand in the sense of ‘May He give thee grace in the eyes of thy fellowmen’; i.e., may He make thee lovable, and beloved in the eyes of others.  Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa said:  ‘He in whom his fellow-creatures take delight, in him the All-present takes delight.’

26.  THE PEACE OF GOD

lift up His countenance upon thee.  Or, ‘turn His face unto thee’; turn His attention, His loving care unto thee.

give thee.  ‘Peace in thy coming in, peace in thy going out, peace with all men.  Great is peace, for it is the seal of all blessings (Talmud).  The Heb. shalom  means not only freedom from all disaster, but health, welfare, security, and tranquility; ‘the peace which alone reconciles and strengthens, which calms us and clears our vision, which frees us from restlessness and from the bondage of unsatisfied desire, which gives us the consciousness of attainment, the consciousness of permanence even amid the transitoriness of ourselves and of outward things’ (Montefiore).

‘Peace, say the Rabbis, is one of the pillars of the world; without it the social order could not exist.  Therefore let the man do his utmost to promote it.  Thus it is that the greatest Sages made a point of being the first to salute passersby in the street.  Peace is the burthen of the prayer with which every service in the synagogue concludes: ‘May He who maketh peace in His high heavens grant peace unto us!’ And so a twofold duty is indicated. We are not only to be peaceful ourselves, but to help others be peaceful also.  Peace is not only a personal, but a national ideal.

 There are, doubtless, occasions when war is defensible as a less evil than a disastrous and dishonourable peace.  There are worse things, it is true, than war; but the worst of them is the belief that war is indispensable.  such a belief is fatal to the ultimate establishment of universal peace.  The war-loving Jew is a contradiction in terms.  Only the peace-loving Jew is a true follower of his Prophets, who set universal brotherhood in the forefront of their pictures of coming happiness for mankind, predicting the advent of a Golden Age when nation should not live up sword against nation, nor learn war any more’ (Morris Joseph).

Peace is no negative conception and is not the equivalent of inactivity.  Whether for the individual or for society, it is that harmonious co-operation of all human forces towards ethical and spiritual ends which men call the Kingdom of God.  The Prophets longed for a Messianic peace that should pervade the universe, and include all men, all peoples—that should include also the beasts of the field; Isaiah XI,6-10.

put My name.  Announce to the children of Israel the blessed and beneficent nearness of the living God.  In this prayer on behalf of Israel, the priests pronounced over the people the Ineffable Name of God.  Outside the Temple, Adonay was invariably substituted for the Tetragrammaton.

and I will bless them.  i.e. the children of Israel.  The Israelites say, Why didst Thou order the priest to bless us?  We want Thy blessing only.  And God replies, It is I who stand by the priests and bless you (Talmud).  The priest was no Mediator; and no priest would say, I bless the children of Israel.  God is the source of, and He alone can give effect to, the blessing pronounced by the priests.  They were merely the channel through which the blessing was conveyed to the Israelites.

[To make their camp a worthy home of the Divine Presence (Shechinah), the Israelites were cautioned to free their camp of tumah, “ritual contamination” (Ramban).  What constitutes ‘uncleanness’ might be surprising since here, it seems to focus on physical or material impurities, those associated with disease, waste, death and the like. If we fail to associate these with impurities connected with behavior, morality and spirituality, then the lesson is wasted on shortsighted learners. 

The latter part of this chapter deals with how to determine if a wife has committed adultery, on no other basis than a husband’s suspicion.  The test for innocence or guilt seems strange, intended to have some kind of a psychological effect on the ‘suspectee’ . . . perhaps it worked in those days, perhaps it works even today since there are body-language experts who now analyze facial, hand and bodily movement to explain if a person is lying or not. 

A petty but laughable example: my sister and I were always irritated by a neighbor’s chicken which would come pecking on our garden and messing up my sister’s flowering plants; we would joke about one day catching the chicken and making a chicken dish out of it.  An opportunity came, we caught the chicken and pretended we would cut its neck and defeather it . . . we intended to just play with it and not really go through with it, but as my sister pretended to cut its neck, the ultra-sharp knife cut deep enough for blood to spurt, so we panicked and went through with the plan we had only joked about and intended to have fun with.  We cooked our favorite chicken dish and as we sat down to eat, our neighbor came by to ask if we had seen his chicken . . . we both jumped up, covered the chicken dish with our hands and said exactly the same words at the same time:  “WHAT CHICKEN????” We laughed about it later each time we’d retell the story, but it’s an example of how a guilty complex works. I think our neighbor knew . . . but was nice enough to let it go.

 Commentary from Pentateuch and Haftarah, ed. Dr. J.H.Hertz; translation by EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.–Admin1]

Numbers/Bamidbar 5

[1-4.  REMOVAL OF UNCLEAN PERSONS FROM THE CAMP]

put out of the camp every leper.  After detailing the arrangement of the camp and the ordering of the march, there follows the injunction that the ceremonial purity of the camp is to be safeguarded.  Three classes of unclean persons are to be excluded:

1. the leper
2. one that hath an ‘issue’ (see Lev. XV)
3. one who has become polluted by contact with the dead (Num. XIX,11-22).

According to the Rabbis, the first was to be excluded from the whole camp.  Those afflicted with issues were excluded from the Sanctuary proper and he Levite encampment around the Sanctuary.  One who had had contact with the dead was only excluded from the Sanctuary proper.  Later in Canaan there were special houses outside the cities for lepers.

5-10.  Restitution for Wrongs.  The removal of physical impurities must be accompanied by the removal of moral wrongs.

any sin . . . against the LORD. i.e. any of the wrongs current amongst men.  Bachya, the renowned Jewish moralist, takes these words to mean:’Any wrong which a man commits against his fellow is at the same time treason against God.’

a trespass against the LORD.  Breach of trust or wrongful misappropriation of the property of another; see Lev. V,14. The laws there laid down in regard to restitution and the bringing of guilt offering are here repeated, with further provisions in v. 7 regarding public confession, and in v.8 regarding the property of a wronged person who died without leaving any kinsman to whom restitution might be made.

shall make restitution for his guilt. i.e. he shall restore that which he guiltily holds in his possession.

if the man have no kinsman.  According to the Talmud, the reference is to the case of a proselyte who dies and leaves no heirs, as every Israelite would have some near or distant relative.  For the meaning of the term goel, ‘kinsman,’ see on Lev. XXV,25.

the priest’s.  He was to receive it as the representative of God; Lev. XXIII,20, ‘they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.’

heave-offering of all the holy things.  The priest’s due from any contribution brought to the Altar.  It constituted his maintenance and was regarded as his legal property.

every man’s hallowed things hall be his.  Every man who brings a gift to the Altar may allocate it to any priest he choses, and no fellow-priest may dispute his right to it.

[11-31.  ORDEAL OF JEALOUSY

The ordinance was intended to remove the very suspicion of marital unfaithfulness in the midst of Israel.  As such crime is destructive of the foundations of social order, it was necessary to arrive at certainty in cases of doubt, and at the same time to afford protection to the innocent wife against unreasonable jealousies.  If a husband suspect his wife of unfaithfulness, he may bring her to the Sanctuary for an oath of purgation and the drinking of ‘the water of bitterness’.  If she is innocent, no injuries result; if guilty, the combined oath and ordeal produce physical effects that proclaim her guilt to the world.  This law is the only explicit instance in Scripture of trial by ordeal, an institution that was well-nigh universal in antiquity and a regular feature of Western European life down to the late Middle Ages.  In Israel, the Ordeal of Jealousy was abolished by Johanan ben Zakkai soon after the Destruction of the Temple.  From that time, divorce alone was customary in cases of well-proved faithlessness.]

if any man’s wife go aside.  From the right path and become suspect in the eyes of her husband.  By a slight change of punctuation the Heb. verb can be translated, ‘if any man’s wife commit folly,’ and the Rabbis base thereon the saying ‘No one sinneth unless the spirit of folly has entered into him.’

she being defiled secretly. Even the presence of one witness to such defilement ruled out the Ordeal procedure.  She was then tried on the evidence.

spirit of jealousy. i.e. an uncontrollable impulse.  The Rabbis required the husband first to prohibit the woman, in the presence of witnesses, to hold any further communication with the man suspected; and then only, in case of the wife’s disobedience, could the husband subject her to the Ordeal.  The Ordeal could not be made use of if there was any connivance on the part of the husband.

and shall bring her offering for her. i.e. on her account; the offerings required in her case.

the tenth part of an ephah. A little under seven pints.

of barley meal.  Offerings usually cosisted of fine rather than coarse meal, and the ingredient was wheat rather than barley.  It was thus to indicate the abased condition of the suspected woman.

no oil . . . nor put frankincense thereon.  These symbols of joy and festivity would not harmonize with the grievous nature of the occasion (Philo).

bringing iniquity to remembrance.  Unlike other offerings, it is a reminder not of Divine mercy, but of the guilt to be discovered and to be punished by God.  Dillman considers this phrase to be the technical term for accusation.

before the LORD. Near the Altar of burnt-offering; in later times, to the eastern gate of the Temple.

holy water. Taken from the brazen laver which stood near the Altar (Exod. XXX,18).

dust.  Also holy, in virtue of the place whence it was taken.

an earthen vessel.  Cheap and coarse, like the offering itself.

the hair . . . go loose.  As a sign of mourning (Lev.X,6), or in token of her shame, as it was a sign of lack of morality for a woman to appear publicly with her hair unloosed.

in her hands.  To make her feel the severity of the ordeal to such an extent that she volunteer a confession of her guilt.

water of bitterness.  Water which produces woeful results (Rashi).

that causeth the curse.  Better, that brings the guilt to light (Luzatto, following the Samaritan version).

being under thy husband. i.e. as a wife under the authority of her husband, and therefore bound to be faithful to him. The priest begins with the assumption of innocence.

be thou free from this water. Be unpunished by it.

a curse and an oath.  So that people employ thy name both as a warning example and as an imprecation.

Amen.  Its original meaning is ‘So be it!’ A solemn affirmation to a preceding statement.  Whosoever answers Amen to an oath, it is as if he had himself pronounced that oath.

In later times, Amen  becomes in the Synagogue—as distinct from the Temple—the regular liturgical response of the worshippers.  It was often doubled at the end of a psalm or prayer. Great spiritual value was attached by the Rabbis to the reverent response of Amen in prayer. ‘Whosoever says Amen with all his strength, to him the gates of Paradise shall be opened.’ Amen is now one of the commonest words of human speech.  Three great Religions have brought it into the daily lives of men of all races, climes, and cultures.

in a scroll.  On anything that can receive writing (Mishnah). In Roman times, a royal proselyte to Judaism , Queen Helena, donated a tablet of gold to the Temple, with the chapter of the Ordeal of Jealousy written on it, and the priests would transcribe the oath from that table.

blot them out. Or, ‘wash them into the bitter water.’ A symbolical action to indicate that the curse is in this manner conveyed to the potion.

make the woman drink. This is said by anticipation, because she did not really drink it till after the offering; v.26.  The translation should read, ‘and when he shall make the woman  to drink the water that brings the guilt to light, the water that brings the guilt to light shall enter into her and become bitter.’ The solemnity of the oath, and the awe-inspiring ritual which accompanied it, might of themselves deter a woman from taking it, unless she were supported by the consciousness of innocence (Speaker’s Bible).  

and become bitter.  lit. ‘for bitterness’; i.e. proving unpleasant and injurious.

that causeth the curse.  Better, that bringeth the guilt to light.

she shall be cleared.  Acquitted and proved innocent; and as Divine compensation for the suffering she had undergone, she would bear offspring—an indication of God’s favour in Scripture.

clear from iniquity. Of having cast suspicion on one who is innocent (Sforno).   The Rabbis, however, inferred from these Heb. words that the Ordeal proved ineffective if the husband was himself guilty of immorality.

shall bear her iniquity.  Should she be proved guilty.

[As former Messianics with opportunities to teach Bible, we used to connect many details in the “Old” Testament with the “New” (supposedly updated and not simply a continuation of the former), and particularly the ‘ministry’ of Jesus as the Christian Messiah/Savior/Son-God.

One question we would ask of our students:  “Why do you think Jesus began his ministry at age 30 and not earlier?” The answer?  Well, because a Levite who would serve in the Sanctuary had to begin his service at 30 years old.

 It did occur to us that Jesus was not of the tribe of Levi and supposedly was from the tribe of Judah (think of all the associations with that tribe that fits him).  So how did we explain the discrepancy, that is, if anyone even noticed or bothered to ask?  Oh well, Jesus’ priesthood is not of the ‘OT’ priesthood criteria since under the new dispensation (God’s New Covenant with the Christian Church, the New Israel of NT superseding the Israel of OT), the priesthood of Jesus would be of Melchizedek (a gentile) who was not only priest but also King, according to the NT Book of Hebrews.

But all that is history now.  As we re-read the Torah more carefully, minus Christian baggage, and IN CONTEXT as all books should be read, we see even more discrepancies that we figure, in the old days of our Christ-centeredness, we were actually forcing round pegs into square holes and were selective in our ‘prefigurations’.

This chapter is self-explanatory; it gives specific instructions to the different families belonging to the tribe of Levi who were given specific assignments in connection with service at the Sanctuary, or the Tabernacle in the wilderness.  

Not everyone served as priest; others’ assignments were more mundane — carry the portable items, keep them clean, and so on. And so, we should clear up our misunderstanding of “qodesh” . . . “holy” . .. . “set apart” . . . . Don’t use the expression ‘holier than thou’ anymore, if you’re thinking someone is more righteous than you are.

Think about this:  the ‘high priest’ (Aaron’s line) is the holiest line among the holiest tribe of the holiest people.  They have simply been set apart from the rest of Israelites to perform specific functions of service at the Sanctuary. Being ‘set apart’ for special service to God does not make them ‘holier’ in terms of being more righteous than other tribes, unless they acted so; though of course, there are expectations of them in connection with their specific service.  If YHWH’s instruction says so, do so to the last detail.  That goes for ALL of Torah that is applicable to today’s context.

[The commentary is from Pentateuch and Haftarahs, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz which uses the JPS/Jewish Publication Society version; our preferred translation is EF/Everett Fox The Five Books of Moses.—Admin1]

Bamidbar/Numbers 4

NUMBERING OF THE LEVITES QUALIFIED FOR SERVICE AND RULES OF SERVICE

1-20.  THE KOHATHITES AND THEIR DUTIES

A second mustering of the Levites for the service to be performed by those who were between the ages of 30 and 50.

the sons of Kohath.  They are given priority because they were of the family of Moses and Aaron.

the service.  lit. ‘warfare’; perhaps implying that the Levites formed an organized body appointed for God’s work under the command of superior officials, as were the rest of the Israelites, who were numbered for war (McNeile).

to do work.  In connection with the transport of the sacred objects.

about the most holy things.  The Ark, the Table, the Candlestick, the Altars, the Veil, and ‘the vessels of ministry’ (v.12).

Aaron shall go in.  To cover up the holy vessels in the ways prescribed.  The Kohathites would thus only have to carry the vessels, without actually touching them.

the veil of the screen.  The Veil which acts as a screen.

shall put thereon.  Upon the Ark already covered with the Veil.

all of blue.  Emblematic of the blue of the heavens—‘the like of the very heaven for clearness’.

the staves thereof.  The poles with which the Ark was furnished for the purpose of transport; Exod. XXV,14.

the table of showbread.  lit. ‘bread of the Presence’ (Exod. XXV,30). . . consisting of 12 loaves of wheaten flour, corresponding in number to the tribes of Israel.  It was placed on the table on the Sabbath, arranged in two rows, and left there until the following Sabbath.  When the loaves were removed, they were eaten by the priests.  The symbolic meaning of the showbread is a matter of conjecture.  Maimonides confessed, ‘I do not know the object of the table with the bread upon it continually, and p to this day I have not been able to assign any reason to this commandment.’  Most commentators understand the Presence-bread a an expression of thankfulness and standing acknowledgment on the part of the children of Israel that God was the Giver of man’s daily necessities.

upon a bar.  As the Candelabrum possessed no staves, it could not be carried in the same manner as the Ark and Table were. It was therefore placed with its appurtenances into a bag-like receptacle, and this was then slung on a pole.

and upon the golden altar.  The Altar of incense; Exod. XXX,1:  No sacrifices were offered on it, and it was so called only because of its resemblance to the altar of burnt-offerings. pure gold. Since the altar of incense was located in the Holy Place, and not in the Court with the altar of burnt-offering, the metal was gold.

the ashes from the altar.  According to Lev. VI,5,6, the fire on the Altar of sacrifice was never allowed to be extinguished.  But in all probability the command concerning the perpetual fire did not apply to the period of transit.  Rashi says that the heavenly fire which descended on the Altar used to crouch beneath the wrappings like the figure of a lion at the times of the journeyings, and was rendered innocuous by means of an intervening plate of bronze.

Image from www.israel-a-history-of.com

the charge of Eleazar.  His was the duty of superintending the distribution for transport of the oil for light, the sweet incense, the continual meal-offering, and the anointing oil.

cut ye not off. i.e. take care that the Kohathites do not incur death through any negligence or want of consideration on your part.

The lower members of the priesthood are not to be present when the unity of the Sanctuary is being destroyed by being taken apart, as they would lose all reverence for the Sanctuary if they were to witness it.

Image from www.israel-a-history-of.com

Image from www.israel-a-history-of.com

everyone who entered the working-force, for serving-tasks in the Tent of Appointment:
44 those counted of them were, by their clans, by their Fathers’ House: three thousand and two hundred.

Image from judaism.cot

[The privilege of the first-born . . .  still exists to this day in families of most if not all cultures, prominent in royal families where the first child if specifically male, becomes the successor to the throne.  Surely this ‘privilege’ is rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the pronouncements of YHWH in these very chapters of Numbers/Bamidbar, for where else would the tradition/practice have come from?  

Of course, the child that first inhabits the mother’s womb and emerges in birth [opens the womb) naturally brings delight to all parents of any race and culture, particularly if male.  Most cultures give prominent status to the firstborn male, sometimes to the detriment of daughters, eldest or not, who after all, lose their family names when they take on their husband’s name in marriage.

The prominence of the first-born male existed in other ancient cultures.  In Egypt, the last plague was against the first-born of the Egyptians as well as beasts; in our understanding, it was against the first-born even of any Israelite who did not believe in the Word of YHWH delivered by Moses, particularly if they did not appropriate for themselves and their households the very specific instructions to be obeyed to the last detail on the night of Passover. Since Scripture is silent if any Israelite disbelieved, we conclude there were none; after all, what slave, Hebrew or not, would not wish to be liberated from bondage to the Egyptians?

When we inter-relate incidents and declarations involving the first-born, we begin to wonder what is the point?  Well, perhaps it is because Israel is declared by YHWH as His first-born, among other metaphors (servant, wife). And there are expectations demanded of YHWH’s firstborn son, clearly defined in the Torah. Israel is YHWH’s firstborn, and there is no other FIRSTBORN even if CAPITALIZED in any revised version of the Hebrew Scriptures, such as the Christian Old Testament.  

Commentary is from Pentateuch and Haftarahs, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz; translation is by EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.—Admin1]

———————————————————-

Bamidbar/Numbers  3 

generations. As no descendants of Moses are named, ‘generations’ is here equivalent to happenings; i.e. the chapter relates what happened to Aaron and his sons at the hand of Moses, who appoints the Levites ministers unto them (Ehrlich).

in the day that the LORD spoke.  “When the LORD spoke.’

Nadab and Abihu.  (from Leviticus X:1-5).  Aaron’s eldest sons—their death points the moral, ‘Boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day ay bring forth!’  That day promised to be the happiest in Aaron’s life. As he, the High Pirest, was moving about in his magnificent robes and performing the solemn duties of his exalted office, how elated he must have been!  Yet soon his two sons were lying dead at his feet.

offered strange fire. Unconsecrated fire, not from the Divinely kindled flames on he Altar.  On the very day of the consecration of the Sanctuary they ventured to change an essential of the Service in obedience to a momentary whim.  In the circumstances, and in view of their office, it constituted an unpardonable offence.  The Rabbis, observing that the narrative is followed by an injunction that the priests were not to drink intoxicating liquor before performing their duties, state that Nadab and Abihu had dared to enter the Sanctuary under the influence of drink.  Another suggestion is that they had consulted neither Moses nor Aaron in taking the step they did; and that this deliberate disregard of their elders sprang from unfilial jealousy.  they asked themselves, ‘When will these old men die? How long must we wait to lead the congregation?’  It was an impious ambition that led them to commit the unhallowed deed which called down terrible retribution for them.

in the presence of Aaron.  In his lifetime.

keep his charge.  Do the bidding of Aaron and all the priests in the performance of their duties.

of the whole congregation.  They are the messengers or agents representing the laity of Israel at the service of the Sanctuary.

wholly given. lit. ‘given,given’; the repetition is emphatic, and expresses complete surrender.

from the children of Israel. i.e. from amongst the children of Israel.  God had decreed that the Levites should be thus separated and distinguished from the main body of Israelites.

keep their priesthood.  Not neglect the duties which are specifically theirs by falling bak upon the Levites as substitutes.

instead of every first-born. The sacredness of the first-born, and the priestly functions which they are enjoined to perform, date from the time of the slaying of the first-born in the land of Egypt.  At the worship of the Golden Calf, the first-born forfeited their special priestly privileges through their participation in that idolatrous worship.  The Levites were chosen in their stead, in recognition of their firm and faithful stand at that hour of apostasy.

Mine they shall be.  The Levites.

every male from a month old and upward.  The Levites were numbered in this manner because they were substitutes for the first-born, who, by Divine command, were to be redeemed ‘from a month old’.

21-26. The Gershonites were to encamp on the western side of the Tabernacle, and were charged with carrying its tapestry.

27-32. The Kohathites encamped to the south of the Tabernacle, and had charge of transporting its holy furniture—the Ark, the Table, the Candlestick, the Altars.

Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest.  Eleazar was himself a Kohathite through his father Aaron and his grandfather Amram; hence he ranks as the prince of Levi, and is invested with the supervision of all the other overseers.

33-37. The Merarites were to the north of the Sanctuary and were charged with transporting its boards, bolts, pillars, and sockets.

those that were to pitch . . . eastward.  The most honourable place in the camp, and the most convenient for constant and direct access to the Sanctuary.

twenty and two thousand.  This total of 22,000 Levites falls short by 300 of the separate totals of the divisions mentioned in this chapter.  The Talmud explains the discrepancy by saying the Levites were taken and counted instead of the first-born of the Israelites and as a ‘redemption’ for them.  Hence, their own first-born who amounted to 300 had to be excluded, as being ineligible for the purpose of redeeming other first-born.

40-51. The substituttion of the Levites for the first-born.

twenty . . . and thirteen.  The first-born number 273 more than the Levites; and as no substitutes were available for the redemption of this extra 273, they had to be redeemed independently, by a payment of five shekels apiece, as the redemption price of a male child under five years old who has been vowed unto God; (in Lev. XXVII,6 from a month old.  No valuation is placed in regard to a child under a month old.  In Jewish law there are no mourning rites to be observed for a child who dies within a month of birth.)

At first sight, the numbers in these chapters present definite difficulties.  Six hundred thousand adult males imply a total population of over two million.  How did such a large multitude live on the arid peninsula of Sinai, whose present population is under 10,000?  But Scripture nowhere affirms that the Israelites lived for forty years upon the natural produce of the desert, but that they were fed miraculously with manna (Exod. XVI,4,35).  And unless miracles are prejudged to be impossible, account must be taken of the miraculous provision made for the sustenance of the Israelites till the time that they entered Canaan.  Moreover, the resources of the Wilderness must not be judged by present conditions.  The word ‘Wilderness’ doe not mean a barren tract, but an uninhabited country, which may be very fertile.  And traces exist to show that the ‘Wilderness’ not only could but did support at one time an extensive population.  For a powerful presentation of evidence that this whole region had a higher rainfall, and was much more productive, at the time of the Exodus than now, see Huntington’s ‘The Climate of Ancient Palestine’ (Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, vol. XL,1908).

The other objection is that the number of first-born males is given as 22,273—a very small number in proportion to the total number of males.  What is meant is the number of first-born males under twenty years of age at the time of the census.  the law did not have retrospective force, so as to include all first-born sons throughout the nation who themselves were fathers or grandfathers at the time.

[And so the census begins, according to tribe.  The head count of each tribal group runs into not a few thousands but huge numbers which is mindboggling when you think that this is only a segment of the population that left Egypt.  If one man or one family ventured out into the wilderness and tried to survive without food and water, it is formidable enough but think about the odds of a million or more slaves who left in a hurry with simple necessities (if they even owned anything) . . .  how fortunate indeed that their “exodus” was at the instigation of the Creator of the universe Who would also be their Provider as well as their Protector . . . not to forget, their new Master. Could a people be more fortunate?

image by ubdavid.org

A note about the images from Images for israel encampment around tabernacle– Report images — there is a wide assortment from this source; including the Christian insistence on showing how the formation around the Tabernacle resembles a cross, typical of Christian agenda to keep using “Old Testament” to prefigure the Christian concept of God.  Obviously, we opted for depictions with no doctrinal bent because while it is true that pictures speak a thousand words, they are also affected by the point of view of the portayer/cameraman, if careful thought and not just random spur-or-the-moment snapshot went into the picture/photo. It’s difficult enough to shed Christian baggage when reading Christian “OT” so we need to quit seeing Jesus or the cross in the Hebrew Scriptures.  He was not there except in Christian forced thinking and interpretation. Let’s listen to the Sinai Revelator and not a religion that developed for political reasons so many millinnia later.

So here again, the commentary from Pentateuch and Haftarahs, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz; the spelling of words is British and sometimes Christian terminology is applied — sample, “lay” in referring to tribes not belonging to the tribe of Levi.  As in all previous posts, you will notice a discrepancy in the ‘wording’ because the translation used by P&H is from JPS (Jewish Publication Society) while the translation we prefer for this website is EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.—Admin1]

—————————————————————-

 ARRANGEMENT OF THE CAMP, AND ORDER OF THE MARCH

Bamidbar/Numbers 2

Image from: rastafarirenaiisance.wordpess.com

with his own standard.  Or, with his own division. The Heb. degel  may mean the larger field-sign of every division of three tribes, or the army corps itself.  The latter is the meaning attached to the word in the recently discovered Jewish papyri at Elephantine.

ensigns.  The smaller banners carried at the head of the different tribes.

According to the Talmud, a pictorial emblem was engraven on the ensign of each tribe.  Thus, on that of Judah was depicted a young lion, as a mark of Judah’s prowess and in accordance with Jacob’s blessing (Gen. XLIX,9).

round about the tent of meeting.  The tribes differed as regards standards and ensigns, but they constituted one people,, whose common centre was the Tent of meeting.

The whole encampment was in the form of a quadilateral, lying four-square with the Tabernacle in the centre.  the central portion was called in the Talmud, the Camp of the Shechinah.  Nearest to it, and surrounding it on all four sides as a protecting cordon, were the camps of the Levitical families.  Beyond these and enclosing them was the camp of the Israelites—the tents of the twelve lay tribes, divided into four sections, each of which bore the name of its leading tribe.

Image from docstoc.com

3 Those encamping eastward, toward-sunrise: the contingent of the Camp of Yehuda, according to their forces.

Now the leader of the Sons of Yehuda: Nahshon son of Amminadav;

4 his force and their count: four and seventy thousand, and six hundred.
5 Those encamping alongside them, the tribe of Yissakhar.

The leader of Yissakhar: Netan’el son of Tzu’ar;
6 his force and their count: four and fifty thousand, and four hundred.
7 The tribe of Zevulun- 

the leader of the Sons of Zevulun: Eliav son of Heilon;
8 his force and their count: seven and fifty thousand, and four hundred.
9 All the accountings of the Camp of Yehuda: a hundred thousand and eighty thousand and six thousand, and four hundred, by their forces;

first are they to march.

with the camp of the Levites.  The Levites bearing the Tabernacle with all its parts and accessories are to have their position in the centre of the line of march.  The Tabernacle, symbolizing the Divine Presence, should always be ‘in the midst of the children of Israel.’

as they encamp, so shall they set forward.  The repeated emphasis on discipline is noteworthy.  Israel—God’s army—however great in numbers, is nothing, unless order and discipline reign in the midst thereof.  ‘Order is heaven’s first law.’

Image by ids.org.

 18 The contingent of the Camp of Efrayim, according to their forces, seaward-the leader of Efrayim: Elishama son of Ammihud;

Image from amazon.com

[In addition to the commentary from Pentateuch & Haftarahs, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz, we are adding commentary from The Torah for Dummies by Arthur Kurzweil which he calls “A Reference for the Rest of Us!”  This book, while teaching Torah, also updates readers on rabbinical interpretation of their Scriptures, thereby giving us a glimpse into one major world religion— Judaism.  We figure, the more we learn from as many Jewish sources as we can get our hands on, the better for all zealous learners like ourselves who can avail of the trails already blazed by Jewish resource persons like Kurzweil who is helping “dummies” — as in clueless gentiles — to understand the Hebrew Scriptures which has been retitled in the Christian Bible as “Old Testament,” unfortunately. For a downloadable ebook, please go to amazon.com.—-Admin1.]

———————————————-

Like each of the other books in the Torah, the book of Numbers has a different name in Hebrew: Bamidbar (bih-mid-bar; in the wilderness).  It’s somewhat understandable that the Greek translation is “the book of Numbers” because the book begins with a lengthy census of the Children of Israel in the desert.  But the book of Numbers is really an account of the 40 years the Israelites spent wandering from Egypt to the Promised Land, the Land of Israel.

The trip didn’t have to take as long as it did.  If the Children of Israel had followed a straight route, the journey would have taken far less time.  But the 40 years in the desert  . . . transformed the Children of Israel into a nation capable of defending itself and establishing itself as an organized group.  The trials in the desert (of which there were many) forged them into a nation with a deep commitment and faith and obedience to God.  Also, enough time passed in the desert for a new generation to be born — a generation without the slave mentality that those who left Egypt unfortunately couldn’t fully shake.

Image from patternsofg-d.com

Counting the Children of Israel

The book of Numbers begins with a command by God to Moses and his brother Aaron to take a census of the Israelites.  In the following sections, I explain the results of the census of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and tell you about an exception to the census:  the tribe of Levi.

Organizing the Twelve Tribes of Israel

The purpose of the census was to count those members of each major family (sometimes called a tribe) who were qualified for military duty, defined by the Torah as all males over age 20.  Each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel descends from one of the 12 sons of the patriarch Jacob, whose name was changed by God to “Israel.”  The sons of Jacob/Israel were literally the “fathers” of the tribes, as each tribe bore the name of one of the sons.  When the Children of Israel left Egypt, they did so as tribes — that is, as huge family groups each of whom descended from one of the sons of Israel.  When the Children of Israel arrived at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, they camped around the mountain as tribes.  When they finally arrived in the Holy Land, they settled in separate areas as tribes.  Each tribe had its own flag, traits, special abilities, and other distinctive characteristics.

Each tribe also was organized patrilineally, or by the father, during the census.  My last name, for example, is Kurzweil because it’s customary to take the last name of your father, who took the last name of his father, and so on.  This is exactly how the census and the tribes of Israel in the book of Numbers were organized — by the father:

 “Take a census of the entire community of the Children of Israel and do it following the paternal line” (Numbers 1:2).

Here’s the result of the census:

• Asher: 41,500
• Benjamin:  35,400
• Dan:  62,700
• Ephraim: 40,500
• Gad: 45,650
• Issachar: 54,400
• Manasseh: 32,200
• Naphtali: 53,400
• Reuven: 46,500
• Shimon: 59,300
• Yehuda: 74,600
• Zebulun: 57,400

The total came to 603,550 male Israelites over 20 years of age divided among 12 tribes.  In Jewish literature throughout the ages, this number is often rounded to 600,000.

It has been taught that the word “Israel” which actually means “a person of God,” can also be an acronym for the phrase Yesh Shishim Ribo Otiot LaTorah, which means “There are 600,000 letters in the Torah.”  In Chapter 14, which covers writing a Torah scroll, you see that this claim isn’t literally true.  There are actually a little over 300,000 letters in the Torah.  But Jewish spiritual tradition suggests that the figure of 600,000 comes from a special way of counting not only the letters but also other marks that appear on a Torah scroll.  The Jewish people are taught to see themselves as “letters in the Torah.”  In Chapter 14, which covers writing a Torah scroll, you see that this claim isn’t literally true.  There are actually a little over 300,000 letters in the Torah.  But Jewish spiritual tradition suggests that the figure of 600,000 comes from a special way of counting not only the letters but also other marks that appear on a Torah scroll.  The Jewish people are taught to see themselves as “letters in the Torah” and as part of a whole.  It’s a goal in life for each Jewish person to find his or her own letter —that is, his or her own special task that belongs to nobody else.

Appointing the Levites to serve in the Tabernacle

The only people not counted in the census were those from the tribe of Levi, who were put in charge of the Tabernacle and its holy items.  (The Tabernacle was the portable holy space set up each time the Israelites stopped their wandering in the desert . . . .)  

The beginning of the book of Numbers says,

“Take a census of the entire assembly of the Children of Israel

according to their families,

according to their fathers’ household”

(Numbers 1:2).  

After the Torah gives the numerical result of the census of each tribe, it says,

“The Levites according to their fathers’ tribe were not counted among them” (Numbers 1:47). 

The text of the Torah goes on to say,

“God spoke to Moses saying, ‘But you shall not count the tribe of Levi, and you shall not take a census of them . . . you shall appoint the Levites to be in charge of the Tabernacle’” (Numbers 1:48-50).

• Kohanim (ko-ha-neem; priests) were the priests who served in the Tabernacle and performed the ritual sacrifices.
  
• Leviyim (leh-vee-eem; the priests’ assistants) took the Tabernacle apart before the Israelites traveled, carried the parts of the Tabernacle as they traveled, and constructed the Tabernacle when the Israelites stopped.  The Leviyim also sang every day in the Tabernacle.

Image from rastafarirenaissance.com

When the Tabernacle was built, each tribe had a specific spot around the structure of the Tabernacle in which to set up camp.  The Torah provides detailed instructions as to how the Tabernacle was to be set up at each rest stop:

• The Tabernacle was built in the middle.
• The Levites set up their tents around the Tabernacle.
• The other families set up their tents around the tents of the Levites in a precise formation detailed in the Torah.
• A special flag assigned to each tribe by God was displayed.

The Torah doesn’t give reasons for the arrangement of the tribes in their precise configuration, but Torah commentators throughout the ages have weighed in on the issue and have come up with many ideas, from the mystical to thoughts about the creation of order itself.  Some commentators point out that the beginning of the Torah speaks of the original chaos of existence and that the precise details of the layout of the camp of tribes suggest that it’s a task of humankind to bring order to the world, to harness its energy and elevate it.

Looking at a Few Important Laws

The Torah has a habit of sticking important commandments and laws in seemingly strange places.  Right in the middle of one subject you can find a divine edict that appears to have little to do with the surrounding text. But every detail of the Torah has divine intention; nothing in the Torah is left up to chance.  Many commentators throughout the ages have offered insights to explain why it is that, on the surface, some passages don’t seem to fit, but when you look at them on deeper levels, the connections are meaningful.

A good example of this characteristic of the Torah is the number of important teachings that appear in the book of Numbers right after the census.  I review some of the most prominent and important ones in the following sections.

Confessing sins

The Torah teaches the importance of confession.  If you do something wrong to another person, you have to make it up to the person by abiding by the instruction of Jewish law.  For example, when something is stolen, in some cases the thief has to pay double the value of the object.  But he also has to confess, out loud, to God.

The book of Numbers says,

“He must confess the sin he has committed” (Numbers 5:7).  

The great Jewish sage Maimonides defines the process of confession in his writings.  According to Jewish law, that process has three essential parts:

• Acknowledgment of the sin
• Remorse for the sin
• Resolution that the sin will never be committed again.

Every infraction of the Torah deserves confession.  If you gossip, steal, desecrate Shabbat, eat non-kosher food, lie, slander, worship idols, embarrass someone publicly, fail to give charity, judge someone too harshly, commit adultery, and so on, confession is essential.

Addressing Adultery

Like it or not, polygamy was practiced in ancient times.  Specifically, it was the practice of one husband with more than one wife, not the reverse.  Suspicion of adultery, therefore, meant suspicion that a wife was intimately involved with a man other than her husband.  In Numbers 5:11-29, the Torah outlines what’s done in the case of a suspected adulteress.

The central part of the process is this:  A priest created a special mixture that the suspected woman had to drink.  If she was guilty, the drink caused her belly to burst and her sexual organs to rupture.  The suspected woman was allowed to refuse the drink and proceed to dissolve the marriage.  It’s likely that a woman of faith who was guilty wouldn’t want to drink the formula and would probably confess.

Throughout the ages, commentators have offered a variety of ways to look at this process, most of them focusing on the importance of the sanctity of marriage.  The procedure has traditionally been seen as one involving divine intervention; it worked by way of a miracle.  But the fear that the ritual procedure would actually work surely served as a deterrent.

The laws of the Nazirite

Numbers 6:1-21 presents an interesting option for someone who wanted to enter into an intense state of discipline, constraint, and spiritual devotion.  The category is known as nazir (nah-zeer; separated or consecrated), and the person who made a vow to be a nazirite had to commit himself to do the following for at least 30 days:

• Abstain from wine
• Refrain from cutting one’s hair and beard
• Avoid dead bodies and graves

Jewish tradition teaches that the primary purpose of entering into this state is to combat sexual temptation.  But becoming a nazirite was also part of a process of fighting pride as well as acquiring spiritual gifts and even the power of prophecy (according to some).

The Priestly Blessing

One of the most well-known passages in the entire Torah is the Priestly Blessing.  In the book of Numbers, God directs Moses to tell Aaron and his sons (all of whom are priests) to bless the Israelites with the following words:

May God bless you and keep you.

May God shine His face upon you and be gracious to you.

May God direct His providence toward you and give you peace.

Numbers 6:24-27

Jewish tradition teaches that the priests held their arms up over

the people as they blessed them.  They also held their fingers in a special way and brought their hands together.  When the fingers of each hand are positioned properly, they form the Hebrew letter “shin,” which is the first letter of Shaddai (shah-die), a name for God that implies God’s infinite power and strength.

Do you remember how Star Trek’s Mr. Spock held his hand when he gave the Vulcan sign and said, “Live long and prosper?” Leonard Nimoy the actor who played the part, based this hand configuration on the blessing of the priests as taught in Jewish tradition.

A numbers of laws are connected to the Priestly Blessing, including the following:

• While customs vary, the blessing is part of the daily liturgy and is also part of the liturgy of most major Jewish festivals.
• A priest must not be under the influence of alcohol when he recites the blessing.
• Many parents recite the blessing each Friday evening at the Shabbat table to bless their children.

Witnessing Some Wild Events in the Desert

The book of Numbers records many incidents that took place as the Children of Israel traveled through the desert during the 40 years of wandering.  It’s understandable that an experience like wandering in the desert for so many years could provoke rebellion and impatience.  Much of the book of Numbers describes these kind of incidents, all of which were ultimately designed by God to strengthen the Israelite’s faith, resolve, and trust in God.  

God was grooming Israel not simply to be a nation

but to be a holy nation,

steadfast in its faith and dedication to God

and God’s commandments.

Complaining about manna

One incident occurred when some of the Israelites complained that they were fed up (no pun intended) with eating manna everyday.  Even though the manna was delicious and one tradition says that it would taste like anything one wanted it to taste like, some of the children of Israel wanted meat.  They said,

“We also remember the fish we ate in Egypt, along with cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.”

Moses spoke to God and told Him that some of the people were complaining bitterly.  God told Moses to tell the people to prepare to receive all the meat they wanted.  In fact, the Torah says,

“God is going to give you meat and you will have to eat it.  You will not eat it for a day or two, nor five nor ten nor twenty days.  You will eat it for an entire month until you are stuffed and sick of it” (Numbers 11:18-20).

And that’s just what happened.  The Torah records that lots of people became ill and died.

The journey in the wilderness for 40 years was designed by God to forge the Children of Israel into a spiritual nation steadfast in its faith and trust in God.  God’s reaction to their petty complaints served, as most good punishments should, to strengthen the people and to show them that the best approach is to trust in God.

Miriam’s sin and punishment

A brief but important incident involving the siblings of Moses, Miriam and Aaron, is recorded in Numbers 12:1-15.  Miriam spoke privately to Aaron about Moses, questioning the state of Moses’s marriage and also questioning whether Moses was the only one to whom God spoke.  This gossip was punishable by God, so God punished Miriam by giving her the condition known as tzarat (a punishment for evil speech and gossip in particular).

Aaron pleaded with Moses, asking him to pray on behalf of Miriam.  Moses said, El nah refa nah-la (O Lord, make her well).  Moses prayed, and in a week Miriam was cured.

This story isn’t an illustration of a cruel and harsh God but rather of the process of purification, discipline, and the highest standards necessary to prepare the Jewish people for their task and role as a priesthood for the world.

The report of spies to the Holy Land

The Torah indicates that God’s intention was to get the Children of Israel from Egypt to the Holy Land as soon as possible, but entry into the Promised Land took preparation, from the hardships in Egypt to the trials in the desert.  After all, the Promised Land is unlike anywhere on the earth; for the Jewish people, it’s the focal point of physical life.

When the Israelites were getting close to their destination, God instructed Moses to send out a group of men to take a peek at the Promised Land.  Moses gathered on representative from each of the 12 tribes and gave them the assignment to find out the following;

• What kind of a land is it?
• Are the people living there strong or weak?
• Are they few or many?
• Are their communities open or fortified?
• Is the land good or bad?
• Is the soil rich or weak?
• Are there trees?
• Bring back some samples of the fruit growing there.

The men set off to investigate the Promised Land.  The Torah describes their 40-day journey in Numbers 13:1-14:10.  When they returned, they issued their report to Moses, Aaron, and the entire community; here’s what they found:

• The land is flowing with milk and honey.
• The fruit is terrific.
• The people are aggressive types.
• Their cities are fortified.
• The people are giants.  we felt like tiny grasshoppers.

When the people heard the report, they shouted, complained, and wept.  As was their practice, they complained to Moses and told him that they wished they had never left Egypt.  They wanted to know why God would bring them to a place where they would be killed, and they even considered deposing Moses, appointing a new leader, and going back to Egypt! At this point, the Torah says that Moses and Aaron “fell on their faces” (Number 14;5).

Two of the 12 spies spoke up gave this minority report:

• The land we explored is fantastic.
• If God brought us this far, we can enter the land.
• It is indeed flowing with milk and honey.
• Don’t rebel against God.
• Don’t be afraid of the people who are there.
• God is with us — don’t be afraid.

The community didn’t much care for this report and threatened to stone the two spies to death.

By this time, the Torah indicates, God was growing impatient.

 “How long shall this nation continue to provoke me?

How long will they not believe in Me,

despite all the miracles that I have done?”

(Numbers 14:11).  

Moses pleaded with God to forgive the people, and his words included one of the most important descriptions of God:  

“God is slow to anger,

great in love,

and forgiving of sin and rebellion”

(Numbers 14:18).

Moses was successful in convincing God to forgive the Israelites’ rebellion. But God said,

“I will grant forgiveness as you requested . . .

but I will punish all those who tried to test me . . .

They will not see the land I promised to their ancestors”

(Numbers 14:20-23).

The only exceptions were Caleb and Joshua, the two spies who issued the minority report.  They saw the Promised Land.  The rest of the Children of Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years and eventually died.  Only the children and grandchildren, who weren’t in Egypt and weren’t part of all the rebellions against God in the desert, entered the Land of Israel.

Who does Moses think he is?

Korach’s rebellion

As the book of Numbers makes clear in verses 16:1-35, things didn’t go smoothly for Moses, and Korach’s rebellion was just one more headache.  Korach was a great grandson of Levi and therefore a great grandson of the patriarch Jacob.  He was also a wealthy man who decided to gather some followers and stage a rebellion against Moses.  Why?  Korach challenged Moses’s leadership and expressed the desire to be the High Priest.  He said to Moses,

“All the people in the community are holy . . .

why are you setting yourself above everyone else?”

(Numbers 16:3).  

The Torah says that Korach had 250 followers, and among them were some of the most well-known leaders of the Israelites.

The great Torah commentators are actually somewhat sympathetic to Korach.  After all, Korach wanted to serve God and wanted to participate more fully in the spiritual activities in the Tabernacle.  But someone else got there first when Moses selected Aaron to be the High Priest at the direction of God.

In the face of Korach’s rebellion, Moses prayed for divine guidance and told Korach that he and Aaron should both bring pans of fire and burn incense at the altar.  They did as Moses had instructed, and ultimately the ground opened up and swallowed Korach and his cohorts.  Then a fire descended from heaven and destroyed all the people who supported the rebellion.

The Torah reports that the entire community protested so much that God was about to destroy them too.  Aaron offered a sacrifice, and although 14,700 people died, the plague against them stopped.

The great Torah commentators have a lot to say about Korach and his rebellion.  They make a major point:  Korach acted based on jealousy and ego, not on a pure desire to do God’s will.  The moral of this story from the book of Numbers is made clear in the famous book of the Oral Torah called The Sayings of the Fathers:

 “Any controversy which is for the sake of Heaven will endure:  and that which is not for the sake of Heaven will not endure.  What is a controversy that is for the sake of Heaven?  

The controversy between Hillel and Shammai.

 And which is not for the sake of Heaven?  

The controversy of Korach and all his faction” (Avot 5:17).

In other words, there’s nothing wrong with questions or challenges of authority — as long as the motives are pure.

Getting water from a rock

The book of Numbers relates that at a certain point the Children of Israel didn’t have any water (Numbers 20:2-12).  The people once again “gathered against Moses and Aaron” (Numbers 20:2).  As they had in the past, the people demanded to know why Moses brought them into the wilderness from Egypt, where they had enough to eat and to drink, to the desert, which they described as a “terrible place” (Numbers 20:5).  Moses and Aaron prayed to God for guidance.

God told Moses to take the staff and gather the people. God then instructed Moses to speak to the rock and promised that water would come out of the rock; God said that the rock would provide enough water for the people and for their animals.  Moses angrily said to the people,

“Listen to me, you rebels.  

Shall we bring water from this rock?”

(Numbers 20:10).  

At that moment, Moses lifted his hands and struck the rock twice with the staff.  A great quantity of water began flowing from the rock, providing the community with plenty of water.

But God didn’t tell Moses to strike the rock in anger; God asked Moses for faith.  As a result of the anger that Moses expressed by striking the rock, he and Aaron were punished.  God said to them,

“Because you did not believe in Me . . .

you will not bring this congregation

to the Land that I have given them”

(Numbers 20:12).

 This episode in the Torah has great significance, not only as a story about the importance of having faith in God but also as an illustration that Moses was just a human being.  Unlike other religious traditions in which followers end up revering and even worshipping their leaders, in Judaism, Moses may have been the greatest prophet and teacher but he also was mortal, imperfect, and punished for his errors.

The death of Aaron

The death of Aaron, brother of Moses, High Priest, and ancestor of all priests forever, seems like an aside in the Torah text.  Numbers 20:27-29 says,

“Moses did as God commanded

in full view of the whole community.  

They went up Mount Hor.  

Moses stripped Aaron of his robes

and gave them to Aaron’s son, Eleazar.  

Aaron died there on the mountaintop.  

When Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain,

the Israelite community saw that Aaron had died

and the people mourned for thirty days.”

And that’s about it.  The rest is up to the Oral Torah (known as the Talmud); which fills in the blanks and helps you to picture the scene.  One well-known story from the oral tradition teaches that Moses woke up early and approached his brother Aaron.  Moses told Aaron that during the night he (Moses) was studying the story of Adam and Eve and was thinking about the fact that Adam brought death into the world through his sin.  Moses told Aaron that death was inevitable for both of them and asked Aaron how much more time he thought they had.  Aaron said that he didn’t think they had too much longer to live, and then Moses told Aaron that god said it was Aaron’s time to die.

Judaism is a tradition that considers life to be sacred and holy, and yet it faces death realistically.  When God decides that it’s a person’s time to die, it may be sad for those left behind, but it’s different for the deceased, whose soul continues on beyond the body. (Jewish views on death).

Balak and Bilaam

Belief in angels is an important part of Jewish life.  The Torah story of Balak and Bilaam is partly about an angel (Numbers 22:1-24:25).  After almost 40 years in the desert, the Children of Israel were finally close to the Promised Land.  The rich and successful King of Moab, Balak, felt threatened by Moses and the Israelites because they’d successfully battled a few kings during their wandering.  Balak contacted Bilaam, a prophet, and told him to curse the Children of Israel.  Bilaam refused after God told him not to do it.  After repeated orders from Balak to curse the Children of Israel, Bilaam continued to receive prophetic messages from God to refrain from cursing the Israelites.

Bilaam traveled to see Balak, but on the road his donkey suddenly stopped, refused to continue, and veered off the road.  Bilaam beat the donkey until it began to speak, telling Bilaam that it had never failed him, so the beating wasn’t justified.  The donkey said that it stopped moving because it saw an angel standing before them wielding a sword.  Bilaam then saw the angel a well and knew that it was sent by God.  Had the donkey not stopped, Bilaam would have been killed by the angel’s sword.

Like every story in the torah, the episode of Balak and Bilaam is rich with meaning.  One of my teachers says that a major moral of the story of Balak and Bilaam is that everyone ultimately answers to God.  Balak used his position as King to attempt to pressure and use a prophet of God for his own evil reasons.  Jewish tradition addresses the question of why good things happen to bad people in different ways.  The Torah utilizes the story of Balak and Bilaam to remind the reader that the sinner will ultimately fail, even if he’s a king with everything going for him today.  A benevolent God will give him enough rope and then exact a penalty.  Napoleon met his Waterloo, and Bilaam was disgraced by his she-ass.

One of the most well-known verses in the Torah comes from Bilaam (Numbers 24:5).  When Balak sent Bilaam to the top of the mountain to curse the Israelites, God caused the opposite to happen:  Bilaam saw the Israelites and said, Ma-tovu oha-leicha Ya’akov; (How good are your tents, O Jacob).  These are the very words that Jews recite whenever they enter a synagogue to pray.

The boundaries of the Holy Land

Near the end of the book of Numbers, the Torah defines the precise boundaries of the Holy Land.  Needless to say, the impact of these verses continues to reverberate today.  After centuries, the Jewish people have reclaimed the Holy Land, and in 1948, with the support of the United Nations, the Jewish people established the modern state of Israel.  Some Jews have lived in the region throughout history, but since the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Jewish people have mostly lived in exile.  But they’ve held onto the dream of returning to the Holy Land promised by and given by God as recorded in the Torah.

Chapter 34 of the book of Numbers provides the exact details of the boundaries of the Holy Land.  The Torah begins by defining the extreme southeast border, then the western boundary, followed by the north, east, and south boundaries.  One of the reasons the precise boundaries are important is that there are some commandments in the Torah that are only applicable for people who are actually in the Holy Land.  One example is the Sabbatical Year.  In Leviticus 25:1-6, the Torah states that God says,

“When you come to the land that I am giving you,

the land must be given a rest period.  

For six years you may plant your fields . . .

but the seventh year

is a Sabbath of Sabbaths for the land.  

It is God’s Sabbath during which

you may not plant your fields

nor prune your vineyards . . . “

This is just one of many Torah commandments that’s dependent on precise knowledge of the boundaries of the Holy Land.  Of course, the precise boundaries also have profound political implications.  The Holy Land is the ancient homeland of the Children of Israel.  Since the time when the Jewish people were conquered and banished, Jews have been well-known victims in the lands of other people.  The worst chapter of Jewish history occurred a mere 65 years ago during the Holocaust, when one out of every three Jews in the world was murdered.  Today, the Jewish people have reclaimed their Promised Land and have a security that they haven’t known for many centuries.