Comentario sobre Números 1:2

למשפחתם — [TAKE YE THE SUM OF THE CONGREGATION …] AFTER THEIR FAMILIES — in order to ascertain the number of individuals in each tribe.

שאו את ראש, to organise them so that they could proceed to the land of Israel immediately, without delay, each one of them knowing to which unit (flag) he belonged. At that point, no war of conquest had even been envisaged, the assumption having been that G’d would remove the inhabitants of the land of Canaan so that no face-to-face encounter would even be necessary. Evidence from Isaiah 17,9 suggests that in fact, at least partially, this even occurred after the 40 years in the desert. The prophet there reports that once again, as at the time when the Emorite and the Hittite abandoned their cities in the face of the advancing armies of the Israelites, history will repeat itself. [based on the Septuagint. Our author assumes that Isaiah may have referred to the tribe of the Girgashi, quoting Jerusalem Talmud Sh’viit 6,1 Ed.]
At any rate, due to the sin of the spies the seven Canaanites nations survived another 40 years during which they added to their sins so that at the end of that time G’d did not merely exile them but exterminated them.

שאו את ראש כל עדת בני ישראל, "Count the whole community of Israel, etc." We need to know why the Israelites had to be numbered at this time. Rashi quotes a Midrash according to which G'd ordered the census as soon as He was ready to again allow His Presence to dwell amongst the Israelites (after the sin of the golden calf). This is insufficient to answer our question. If the census had only been an indication of G'd's reconciliation with His people He should have ordered it to take place before the month of Nissan when the Tabernacle was inaugurated, not a month later.

שאו את ראש כל עדת, from this point on the Israelites were headed for the land of Israel, and all males over the age of 20 were enlisted in the army for that purpose, because on the 20th of the second month the Torah speaks of the people leaving the region of Mount Sinai, the cloud having lifted off the Tabernacle and begun to move ahead of the people. (Compare Numbers 10,11). In that chapter, verse 29, Moses invited his father-in-law Yitro to accompany the people who were now “journeying” toward the promised land. G’d issued the command to count the people so that one could keep track of how many soldiers there were. [and know if any would have become casualties in any battle. My words. Ed.]

שאו את ראש, “take a census of the whole community.” Rashi on Numbers 31,26, explains the use of the expression שאו ראש, as “take a count of the heads,” [in the sense of according value to the head of each person so counted. Ed] Nachmanides [who apparently had a different version of Rashi in which the words שאו ראש are compared to the command to an executioner to behead his victim Ed.] who understood these words in a derogatory sense, raises the question why it should be interpreted derogatively. He points out that in Midrash Rabbah on this verse the interpretation is one that is complimentary to the Jewish people, quoting G’d as telling the people that He had given them the highest rank, ראש, among the nations in a number of areas. One example for the admissibility of such an interpretation is when Joseph interprets to the head of the cupbearers of Pharaoh that he will be reinstated to his former position, saying ישא פרעה את ראשך, “Pharaoh will raise your head, etc.” (Genesis 40,13) On the other hand, should the Israelites fail to qualify for G’d’s benevolence, the same words may signal their impending destruction, as in the case of the chief of the bakers who was also told of his impending fate by Joseph employing the same introductory words.

The number of each tribe. But not each and every family — because the Torah does not mention a count of families in the subsequent verses, only a count of the tribes (Gur Aryeh). You might ask: Then why did it write “according to their families”? The answer is that through the families they knew the count of the tribes, as the Torah writes (v. 18), “and they were registered by family ancestry” implying that they were not known by the name of their tribe. Therefore, one must say that it was by their families that Moshe and Aharon knew which tribe they were from.

V. 2. שאו את ראש. Siehe zu Schmot 30, 12 ff. Nach den dort in Versen 12 und 16 gegebenen Bestimmungen war eine jede solche Zählung durch eine Halbschekelspende von jedem zu Zählenden zu vollziehen, die zusammen dann als הקדש בדק הבית für die Bauzwecke, des Heiligtums, על עבדת אהל מועד, zur Verwendung kamen. Durch diese Spende, in welcher ganz eigentlich ein jeder jüdische Mann nur nach seiner Leistungstreue für das Gesetz "gezählt" wird, spricht sich ebenfalls eine jede Zählung als im Dienste des Heiligtums und für dessen Zwecke vollzogen aus und steht auch durch diese Zählungsform dieses das vierte Buch einleitende Kapitel im unmittelbaren Zusammenhange mit dem ערכים ונדרי הקדש Kapitel, mit welchem das dritte Buch geschlossen.

שאו את ראש בני ישראל , “take a census of the sum of Children of Israel;” according to Rav b’chor shor, this census was performed by means of each person included handing over a shekel, as opposed to the census in Exodus 30,13, where only the total number of Israelite males between the ages of 20 and 60 was of interest. Here we find that the number counted in each tribe is listed separately, and they were listed according to families, i.e. each individual was of consequence. In Numbers, in the fortieth year after the Exodus it was of interest to number of members of each tribe all of whom had replaced the generation that had been condemned to die in the desert. This latter count did not include a single person who had been counted by Moses and Aaron at this time.

שאו את ראש, “take a count of the sum;” seeing that within twenty days the Israelites would break camp and start marching toward the Holy Land, as reported in chapter 10 verse 29 of this Book. There it has been spelled out: נוסעים אנחנו אל המקום, “we are about to set out on the journey to the place, etc;” (Moses speaking to his fatherinlaw Yitro).

לבית אבתם BY THE HOUSE OF THEIR FATHERS — One whose father belongs to one tribe and his mother to another tribe shall take his stand with the tribe of his father (cf. Bava Batra 109b).

במספר שמות, at that time, the names of the individuals reflected their specific individuality, in recognition of their individual virtues. [They were not merely named after their fathers or other departed relatives. Ed.] References to names reflecting an individual’s virtues are found in Exodus 33,17 when G’d said to Moses that He would ואדעך בשם, “I have singled you out by name;” the generation which eventually entered the Holy Land were not described as being counted במספר שמות (Numbers 26,2). The Torah there refers only to the people counted being of military age, i.e. above 20.
[The author, true to his concept of the highpoint of Jewish history having been the revelation at Mount Sinai, followed by an ongoing spiritual descent, only briefly and partially reversed on a few occasions, sees this as a further example of the generation which did enter the Holy Land already being inferior to the ones experiencing the revelation, i.e. before the sin of the golden calf and the spies. Ed.] The count of the Israelites at this point assumed that the very people being counted would each enter the Holy Land unless some sin occurred which would interfere with this lofty vision.

Maintained in his father’s tribe. Meaning that if his father was from one tribe and his mother was from another tribe, he would be maintained in his father’s tribe. However, it does not refer to [a case where] his father was from one family and his mother was from another family, even if they were from the same tribe, as would be understood from the plain meaning of the verse. Because what difference would there be if the father was from the Chanochite family and the mother was from the Paluite family, and consequently they were included among the Chanochites? Since both were from the tribe of Reuven, there would be no difference whether he is established in the family of the father or the mother.

Before investigating the reason for this delay in the census we have to remember that the previous census which is reported in Parshat Pekudey (38,26) gave the number of the male Israelites over the age of twenty as 603,550. This was six months after the sin of the golden calf when the half shekel contributed by each male Israelite over the age of 20 represented his soul's ransom. This number exceeded the number of male Israelites above the age of 20 who left Egypt by (about) 3550 although in the interval during the episode of the golden calf many Israelites had died or had been executed by the Levites because they had participated in the worship of the golden calf. If it had taken only 6 months to replenish their number as reported in Parshat Pekudey, how do we account for the fact that between then and now the number had not increased by even one? Surely a number of Israelites had reached the age of twenty in the interval between the census which is mentioned in Parshat Pekudey and that reported here? It is unlikely that any of these people died during a period they were all busy with performing the commandment to bring their contributions for the Tabernacle.

עדה .כל עדת בני ישראל, wie דעה ,לדה ,שנה usw. von יעד, verwandt mit יחד: sich für ein bestimmtes Ziel vereinigen, bezeichnet die für eine gemeinsame, Bestimmung und durch die Gemeinsamkeit dieser Bestimmung Vereinigten: die Gemeinde, die somit nicht durch ein äußeres Machtgebot, sondern durch ein gemeinsames Inneres Gemeinde wird. בני ישראל ist das ganze jüdische Volk, innerhalb dessen die עדה die selbständigen Träger und Wahrer der Gesamtaufgabe: der Erfüllung des göttlichen Gesetzes, bilden. Was hier עדה heißt, ist oben Schmot 30, 12 durch לפקדיהם ausgedrückt, welches denselben Begriff wiedergibt. פקודי בני ישראל sind diejenigen, deren die jüdische Gesamtaufgabe "denkt", die damit "Beauftragten" "Betrauten", es ist dies jeder "Mann" in Israel. Es handelt sich somit nicht um eine Volkszählung, es wird nicht die Seelenzahl ermittelt, sondern es soll sich herausstellen, auf wie viel "Männer" in Israel das Gesetz zu zählen habe.

לגלגלתם BY THEIR POLLS — i. e. by means of shekels — “a beka a head (לגלגלת)”, as was prescribed on a previous occasion (Exodus 38:26).

Through the shekolim. Rashi wishes to answer why they were counted. Surely a plague comes when one counts them [directly]. Therefore he explains that it was done “through the shekolim.”

Our question is reinforced when we consider a comment in Pessikta Zutra according to which the words ויהיו כל הפקודים in Numbers 1,46 are proof that as long as the Israelites were occupied with the work pertaining to the Tabernacle not a single one of them died. This comment seems very far fetched if it is based only on the expression ויהיו, "they remained (alive)." When we look at the numbers presented here we are bound to conclude that more of the people died after the people commenced with the work of the Tabernacle than during the episode of the golden calf!

למשפחותם לבית אבתם. Es traten aber die einzelnen Männer nicht sofort und unvermittelt zur Volksgemeinde hin. Es hat vielmehr der große, alle umfassende Kreis der Gemeinde noch zwei Arten konzentrischer Kreise. Es bildet sich die Gemeinde aus Stämmen und jeder Stamm aus Familien. Es sind somit die Männer in ihrer Zusammenhörigkeit zur Familie und die Familien in ihrer Zusammenhörigkeit zum Stamme zu zählen, und die Stämme zusammen bilden die Gesamtzahl der עדת בני ישראל.

However, according to our understanding of Shekalim 1,3 the members of the tribe of Levi were included in the count of the people who had contributed a half shekel per person. We may conclude that in our verse the Levites were most certainly not included in the census seeing that the Torah commands that they be counted separately. The question is then resolved quite easily. In fact, the reason the Torah added the apparently redundant comment that the Levites were not included in the sum of the census given here (1,47), was precisely in order to make this point. It emerges that the natural increase of the Israelites between the time the work on the Tabernacle began and the second month of the second year of their wanderings was equivalent to the entire number of Levites who had been counted on the previous occasion. If the Torah had concluded the paragraph ending with verse 47 with the words: "as G'd had commanded them" as it did at the end of the paragraph dealing with the flags in 2,33, I would have concluded that the mention of the Levites not being included in the count was only to show that the Israelites complied with G'd's instructions not to lump them together with the other tribes. The fact that the Torah did not add these words proves that G'd wanted to alert us not to be surprised at the fact that the number of people counted was so small, relatively speaking, and at first glance did not appear to reflect a natural increase in the population of the Jewish people.

משפחה von שפח, verwandt mit ספח, anschließen, und שפע, das wie שפעת יהוא (Kön. II. 9, 17) שפעת גמלים (Jes.60, 6), שפעת סוסיו (Ezech. 26, 10) eine gesammelte und räumlich zusammenhaltende Menge bedeutet, bezeichnet mit vorgesetztem משפחה ,מ־, das Moment, das die einzelnen in natürlichen Gruppen verbindet und hält: die Familie; das Familien bildende Moment ist aber die gemeinsame Abstammung und die die Frau in das Haus des Mannes überführende Ehe. — בית אבותם: aus Stellen wie Kap. 2, 2. 32. 34; 7, 2; 17. 17. u. 18 und sonst, ist mit Entschiedenheit klar, dass unter בית אב die Stammeseinheit verstanden ist. Die einzelnen gruppieren sich zuerst in Familien, und die Familien gehen wieder durch die gemeinsame Abstammung ihrer Väter aus Einem Hause in Stämme zusammen, sowie sämtliche Stämme zuletzt wieder in die höhere Einheit der Abstammung aus einem Hause, in das "Haus Israel"; בית ישראל aufgehen. Nach ihrem Auseinandergehen aus dem einen gemeinschaftlichen Urstamme heißen die Stämme: מטות, eigentlich Äste (vergl. Ezech. 19, 11-14), nach ihrer Zurückführung der einzelnen abgestammten Familien in den gemeinsamen Ursprung: בתי אבות. Das eine בית ישראל bestand somit aus zwölf בתי אבות, jedes בית אב aus mehreren משפחות, welche die erste Einheit bildeten, die die einzelnen in Gruppen verbanden. Der aus der Volksgesamtheit zu einer besonderen Einheit ausgeschiedene Stamm Levi zeigt dieselbe Gruppierung im kleinen. Für ihn ist לוי, was für das Gesamthaus Israels ישראל ist. לוי's Söhne גרשון קהת ומררי bilden בתי אבות (Kap. 3, 24 u. 30, 35), deren Söhne לבני ושמעי ,עמדם ויצהר חברון ועוזיאל ,מחלי ומושי bilden die משפחת הלוי לבית אכתם (daselbst 18-20). Diese Tatsache, dass die Gesamtnation immer als ein Haus, als בית ישראל, als Söhne Eines Mannes, als בני ישראל, angeschaut und genannt wurde, und andererseits innerhalb dieser einen Einheit gesonderte und doch derselben sich unterordnende und von ihr umfasste, besondere Einheiten, משפחות ,בתי אבות erhalten und in Beachtung bleiben, bildet die Eigenart der jüdischen Nationalität. Durch die Auffassung der Nation als "Haus Israels" und aller Nationalen als "Söhne Israels" ist der Begriff der jüdischen "Nation" davor geschützt, als gegenstandslose Einheitsidee sich zu verflüchtigen oder in die Scheineinheit einer Elitenrepräsentanz als Fiktion sich zu retten, wird er vielmehr wesentlich immer und immer in der vereinten wirklichen Allheit seiner Glieder gedacht, die durch ein gemeinsames Innere eins sind, und deren jedes ein konkretes Teil dieser Einheit darstellt. Auch als die Nachkommen des einen jüdischen Mannes Israel zu sechsmalhunderttausend Männern angewachsen waren, waren sie alle noch Glieder "Eines Hauses" Söhne "Eines Mannes", Ein Gepräge in Geist und Herz, Eine Aufgabe, Ein Geschick als Erbschaft durch die Jahrtausende tragend. Und mitten in dieser Grundeinheit und unter deren Einfluss die größte Mannigfaltigkeit in Stammesund Familieneigentümlichkeit geflissentlich und sorgfältig gepflegt, auf dass — wie wir dies bereits wiederholt im Bereschit angedeutet — die Eine große Menschenbestimmung, wie sie das Gottesgesetz gezeichnet, unbeirrt durch jede Besonderheit, in der ganzen Mannigfaltigkeit der Charaktere, Anlagen, Berufsarten und Lebensstellungen, für die Gesamtmenschheit mustergültig zur Verwirklichung komme. Jeder Stamm in seiner Besonderheit und jede Familie in ihrer Eigenart haben die gemeinsame Aufgabe des Hauses Israels in ihrer Besonderheit und Eigenart zu verarbeiten und erziehend und bildend auf ihre Glieder und in ihren Gliedern zu vererben. Darum treten hier nicht die Hunderttausende ל des Hauses Israels als ungegliederte Menge zur Volksgemeinde hin, sondern למשפחתם לבית אבתם: nach Familien, und diese Familien nach ihrer Stammeszusammengehörigkeit. Es wird die Männerzahl eines jeden Stammes aufgenommen, und zwar die Familien eines jeden Stammes gesondert. Und jede Familie במספר שמות, es wird jeder namentlich bei der Zählung genannt, damit tritt jeder bewusstvoll in der Bedeutung seiner Persönlichkeit zum Ganzen hin, und zwar כל זכר לגלגלתם, es hat sich jeder persönlich selbst zur Zählung mit seinem halben Schekel einzufinden und denselben als der und der von der und der Familie und dem und dem Stamme abzugeben, oder es war die Stammes- und Familienzusammengehörigkeit bereits durch vorgängige Gruppierung ausgesprochen. Jedenfalls war jedem zur Zählung Kommenden sein persönliches, sein Familien- und sein Stammesverhältnis zum Bewusstsein gebracht, und ward er "als solcher" zum Ganzen gezählt. — Implizite ist durch למשפחתם לבית אבתם zugleich der Grundsatz gegeben, dass sich der Stammescharakter, ob שמעוני ,יהודי ,לוי ,כהן usw. und ebenso im Erbrecht die Familienverwandtschaft durch den Vater und nicht durch die Mutter vererbt, משפחת אב קרוי׳ משפחה משפחת אם אינה קרוי׳ משפחה (B. B. 109 b u. 110 b). גלגלת, eigentlich: Schädel, steht bei Zählungen für das konkrete, körperlich gegenwärtige Individuum. Bei einer Masse zusammenstehender Menschen bieten sich zunächst die Köpfe als zu zählende Einheit dar. Bei der jüdischen Zählung wurden aber nicht die Köpfe, sondern) בקע לגלגלת Schmot 38, 26) für jeden Kopf eine Schekelhälfte gezählt.

The meaning of the words in Pessikta Zutra is abundantly clear. The author wants to justify the totally disproportinate natural increase in the number of male Israelites above twenty during such a short period of time as יום כפור of the first year and the beginning of Iyar of the second year by reminding us that no Israelite died during the period they were busy assembling the materials for the Tabernacle and constructing it. G'd waited with this census until this date so as to ensure that the total number being counted would not be smaller than the number mentioned in Parshat Pekudey. Deuteronomy 4,11 which ascribes the fact that the Israelites are alive as of that date to their having cleaved to G'd provides the basis for the statement by the author of Pessikta Zutra that no one died during the period under discussion.