Comentario sobre Números 26:53

לאלה תחלק הארץ TO THESE THE LAND SHALL BE DIVIDED, and not to any who are now less than twenty years old; even though they become included among those who are twenty before the division of the land, — for they were seven years in conquering it and seven years did they take in dividing it — for no one received a portion in the land except these 601,000 and if one of these had six sons, they received only their father’s portion (cf. Bava Batra 117a).

לאלה תחלק הארץ בנחלה, "To these the land will be shared out as an inheritance, etc." On the word לאלה our sages in Baba Batra 117 comment as follows: Rabbi Yoshiah holds that the subject of the word are the people who participated in the Exodus. He bases himself on the additional data in verse 55 לשמות מטות אבותם ינחלו, 'they shall inherit according to the names of the tribes of their fathers.' How do I then fulfil the instruction of the Torah which wrote לאלה, i.e. 'to these' i.e. to people present now at this time? The word is meant to exclude people who were not yet 20 years of age at the time they left Egypt." Rabbi Yonathan holds that the land was distributed only to the people who actually set foot in the land, i.e. the men under the leadership of Joshua. He bases himself on the word לאלה. As to the meaning of the words לשמות מטות אבותם ינחלו, Rabbi Yonathan feels that in this instance the Torah applied yardsticks other than the normal ones to the laws of inheritance. Usually the living inherit the dead; in this instance the dead inherited the living. Thus far the statements of these two scholars.

Even if they reached twenty before the apportioning of the land. Meaning [the verse implies that] you shall apportion the land “among these” 601,730 mentioned above who came to the land of Israel, in accordance with the view of Rabbi Yonasan (Bava Basra 117a). However, [there is a difficulty that] the verse did not need to mention this, given that we would know it from [the verse], “The land shall be apportioned as an inheritance according to the number of names” which comes afterwards, teaching that the land was apportioned to those mentioned above. Thus, what does the Torah mean to teach [by saying] “among these” which implies an exclusion, [i.e.] among these, but not among others. [Rashi answers:] The exclusion is that [the division] was specifically “among these” who were twenty years of age and above, but not others [even if they reached twenty before the apportioning of the land]. Re’m.

V. 53. לאלה וגו׳. Die hier על ירדן ירחו im Anblick des Landes Gezählten sind diejenigen, unter welche das Land zur Verteilung kommen soll, also alle die männlichen באי הארץ, welche über zwanzig Jahre alt waren, und zwar במספר שמות. Verstehen wir diesen Ausdruck recht, so wäre damit gesagt, dass alle die bei der Zählung zum Ausspruch gekommenen Namen eine Parzelle des Landes, als das nach ihnen genannte, ihnen eigene Gebiet erhalten sollen. Es sind aber bei der Zählung die Namen der Stämme, die Namen der Familien und die Namen der über zwanzig Jahre alten männlichen Individuen einer jeden Familie zum Ausspruch gekommen: למשפחתם לבית אבתם כל זכר לגלגלתם (V. 4. Kap. 1, 2). Das Land soll demnach so verteilt werden, dass jeder Stamm, und in jedem Stamm jede Familie, und in der Familie jedes zwanzig Jahre alte männliche Individuum sein kenntlich gesondertes eigenes Gebiet erhalte. So tritt auch überall sofort bei der Verteilung unter Josua die Norm למשפחתם bei jedem Stamme hervor (Josua 15) und sind שמיטין und יובל dadurch bedingt, dass nicht nur das Land im allgemeinen in Besitz genommen und etwa auch nach Stämmen verteilt, sondern dass diese Verteilung bis auf Familien und Familienhäupter und Individuen vollzogen worden. מנין אתה אומר כיבשו ולא חלקו חלקו למשפחות ולא חילקו לבתי אבות ואין כל אחד ואחד מכיר את חלקו יכול יהיו חייבים בשמטה ת׳ל שדך שיהא כל אחד ואחד מכיר שדהו כרמך שיהא כל אחד ואחד מכיר את כרמו — (ת׳׳כ בהר). Es erscheint dies als eine Verwirklichung des von uns schon wiederholt bemerkten Grundcharakters der jüdischen Nation, dass die größte Stammes- und Familienmannigfaltigkeit innerhalb der ebenso großen geistigen und sittlichen Einheit wesentlich zur Bestimmung des Volkes des göttlichen Gesetzes gehört (siehe Bereschit Kap. 25, 11 und 48, 3). Jeder Stamm, jeder Zweig, jedes Haus war eine besondere Eigentümlichkeit, die auf dem gemeinsamen Gesetzesboden ihre eigene und geeignete Stelle zur Entfaltung erhalten sollte, wie ja die liebste und trauteste Bezeichnung der Einsetzung Israels in das Gottesland נטיעה "Pflanzung" lautet.

לאלה, “to these,” i.e. to the heads of these fifty seven families enumerated in this chapter the land will be divided up as ancestral inheritance. Each would receive a share corresponding to the number of family heads that had been numbered.

I have seen a Baraitha in the Sifri which offers a third approach to our verse. The word לאלה is understood to exclude the unworthy members of the Jewish people, the wicked. As proof they cite the sons of the spies and the people who had complained against Moses and G'd on various occasions. In order to bring the approach of the Baraitha into accord with that of Rabbi Yoshiah who holds that the land was distributed to the people who participated in the Exodus, we have to translate the word לאלה as כאלה, i.e. "to people such as these righteous ones who make up the nation as of this day." Just as only the righteous ones who left Egypt share in the inheritance, seeing they and their children died already, so also at this time only Israelites who were righteous would receive their share of the land. It would appear that this exegesis which denies the wicked their share in the Holy Land is not at odds with our own approach (that of Rabbi Yoshiah) that the word was intended to exclude the people who were below the age of 20 at the time of the Exodus. The word לאלה simply excludes anyone who does not meet the standards, be it because he was too young or because he was too wicked.

I have noted that Rashi explains the word לאלה as reflecting the approach of Rabbi Yonathan i.e. not to those who are below 20 even though they had reached that age before the actual distribution took place. This seems hard to understand. After all, Rabbi Yonathan already exploited the exegetical value of the word ואלה to inform us that the land was distributed according to the present number of Israelites as distinct from the number of Israelites (of comparable age) who participated in the Exodus. By referring to the line לשמות מטות אבותם ינחלו, Rabbi Yonathan had already proved that the number of people present now were not the only criterion in determining who was to get how much. How then can Rabbi Yonathan use the word לאלה to teach us also that youngsters under the age of twenty did not participate in the division of the land?

I am certainly not prepared to quarrel with Rashi regarding the principle that people under twenty were not included in the lottery for distribution of the land even though Rabbi Yonathan did not say so specifically. It is possible that the word לאלה could supply us with two separate למודים, exegetical insights. However, it does not necessarily have to be so. It is equally possible that the word only excluded the principle that the key to the distribution were the people who had participated in the Exodus. What we have to examine is why Rashi did not follow the accepted way of understanding Rabbi Yonathan's words.

I have seen a comment by Rabbi Eliyahu Mizrachi who explains the words of Rashi and did not even mention the difficulty there is in Rashi's commentary when we consider the words of the Baraitha. I claim that Rashi was perfectly aware of the thrust of Rabbi Yonathan's interpretation. However, Rashi thought that the words לאלה prove conclusively that the land was to be distributed only to people who were alive at that time and who had reached the age of twenty. It was the latter detail Rashi wanted to tell us as something new. Rashi took for granted that the land was to be distributed only to people who actually would enter the Holy Land.

במספר שמות, according to the number of names. The Torah means that the number of families which have been enumerated in chapter 26 were to be the basis for the distribution, i.e. 57 families. Each of these 57 families was to be given a tract of land commensurate with the size of the family. This can be reconciled only with the opinion of Rabbi Yonathan. According to Rabbi Yoshiah who holds that the land was distributed basically to the people who left Egypt the land should have been distributed between 63 families instead of between 57 as we have learned from Bamidbar Rabbah 21 that 6 families of those enumerated at the time of the first count no longer appeared in the count. According to Rabbi Yoshiah the tribes of these 6 families would be accorded their share instead. It is, possible however, that even Rabbi Yoshiah would agree that the words "according to the number of families" would refer to the families who participated in the Exodus. [I believe there is a misprint here and it should say that even Rabbi Yonathan agreed that only the words במספר שמות refer to the people who participated in the Exodus taking part in the distribution. Ed.]