Commentaire sur Les Nombres 7:12

ביום הראשון ON THE FIRST DAY — That day received ten crowns (was distinguished in ten different ways): it was the same day as was the first day of Creation, the first day on which the princes offered etc., as it is set forth in Seder Olam 7 (cf. Rashi on Leviticus 9:1 and Note 2 thereon).

המקריב ביום הראשון, the one who presented (his gift) on the first day, etc. Why did the Torah have to write the words את קרבנו, (what else did he offer)? Perhaps the Torah wanted to emphasize that the princes each paid for these sacrifices (gifts) out of their own pockets. It was not paid for by the respective tribe's treasury. Sifri item 48 derive this from the repetition of the words: "this was the offering of so and so," after each report of the prince who offered his sacrifice. The reason the Torah also wrote קרבנו, "his offering," before listing the nature of the offering is because the offering consisted of two aspects. 1) acknowledgment of the exceptional merits of the prince bringing the offering; 2) the offering itself. Bamidbar Rabbah 13,10 extols Nachshon's merits for instance, telling us details of his accomplishments. The words הקריב את קרבנו mean that in addition to the visible aspect of the offering there was an invisible aspect, i.e. the devotion to G'd of the person offering the gift. It is well to remember that whenever a person offers an offering to G'd as a gift, such an offering is accompanied by the forces of sanctity which surround such a person. Moreover, it is the nature of the offering to activate various "branches" of sanctity. Our verse testifies that Nachshon succeeded in "offering his sacrifice," i.e. to imbue it with the "sparks" of sanctity and to thereby accomplish all that it is possible to accomplish by means of such a gift-offering.

נחשון בן עמינדב למטה יהודה, “Nachshon, son of Aminadav, of the tribe of Yehudah.” It is noteworthy that the title of these princes, i.e. נשיא, is mentioned with all of them except with the prince of Yehudah. This was a lesson to the other princes to be humble and not to introduce themselves with their title when asked who they were. A classic example is when Yehudah begs Joseph to accept him as a slave instead of his brother Binyamin, and he says ישב נא עבדך תחת הנער עבד לאדוני, “let your servant take the place of the lad as your servant, my lord.” (Genesis 44,33) We find similarly that David is described as דוד הקטן Samuel I 17,14, [although as opposed to his older brothers he had already been the king’s court musician. Ed.]

ויהי המקריב ביום הראשון נחשון בן עמינדיו, “The prince who brought his offering on the first day was Nachshon son of Aminadav of the tribe of Yehudah.” As mentioned previously, the tribe of Yehudah usually is found in the lead, in the matter of the flags, the tribal offerings, warfare, and even distribution of the land of Israel (Joshua chapter 15). In the future, during the period of the ultimate redemption, the tribe of Yehudah will again be in the forefront (Zecharyah 12,1).
There is what appears to be a grammatical anomaly when the Torah describes the offering of Nachshon with the word וקרבנו, “and his offering,” whereas the offerings of all the other princes are introduced with the word קרבנו, “his offering.” We would have expected the reverse seeing that Nachshon’s offering did not follow the offering of anyone before him. The Torah used the extra letter ו as a veiled warning to that tribe or individual not to consider the fact that he had been the first in that procession of princes as something to boast about. On the other hand, the way the Torah describes the offering of each of the other princes could allow each one to think that his offering had been the first of the string. This idea is reinforced by the absence of the title נשיא, prince, in connection with Nachshon, whereas each of the other princes has his title mentioned alongside his name.

But not that he solicited [payment]. Meaning that the meaning of the lamed in למטה יהודה (of the tribe of Yehudah) is not like the lamed of אמרי לי (say for me) (Bereishis 20:13), in which case it would have meant “for the tribe of Yehudah” — that he solicited payment from his tribe and brought it forward. Thus the meaning of למטה is like ממטה (from the tribe). (Gur Aryeh) You might ask: Why did it write למטה? It should have written “the one that brought his offering on the first day [was] Nachshon the son of Aminadav, leader of Yehudah” as it writes for the other leaders. Then it would not have had to write that it was the offering of Nachshon. It appears that the answer is that the verse comes to say that this leader did not merit greatness — to offer first — because of who he was. All of the leaders were equivalent [in their personal qualities]. Rather it was because of his tribe, the tribe of Yehudah, who were fitting be first. Thus the Torah writes “of the tribe of Yehudah” meaning that he was secondary and his significance came to him by virtue of his tribe, the tribe of Yehudah who were the primary factor.

V. 12. ויהי המקריב וגו׳. Es geschah die Darbringung ganz in der Reihenfolge der Kap. 2 für die Lagerung und Wanderung gegebenen Stellung und Gruppierung der Stämme (siehe daselbst).

ויהי המקריב ביום הראשון, “and the prince who was the first one to present these offerings, etc.” The Torah underlines the fact that Nachshon was the first of the twelve princes to present this offering, although merely reading the list would have made this clear, as it wanted us to know that although he did not possess the seniority to be the first, he was accorded that honour. Seeing that in the future the tribe of Yehudah would provide the first Royal dynasty with the appointment of King David, this development, as predicted by Yaakov on his deathbed, is hinted at here. Alternately, he was accorded this honour seeing that he was the brother-in-law of Aaron the High Priest.

נחשון בן עמינדב, “Nachshon, son of Aminadav.” He has not been accorded his title here as have all the other princes, i.e. “prince of such and such a tribe,” in order that he should not feel proud for having been chosen to be the first one to offer this sacrifice. The other princes were all given their title when mentioned as recognition of the fact that none of them protested Nachshon having been chosen to be the first one.

למטה יהודה [NACHSHON THE SON OF AMINADAB,] OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH — By these words Scripture merely states his genealogy after his tribe, and they do not mean that he collected the offerings from his tribe and offered them on their behalf. Or perhaps it does state למטה יהודה only to intimate that he collected the offerings from his tribe and then brought them? Scripture, however, states, (v. 17): this was the offering of Nachshon — he brought it of that which was his own (Sifrei Bamidbar 48).

למטה יהודה, of the tribe of Yehudah. The Torah omitted the word נשיא prince, although this title is used in connection with all the other princes when they are introduced as offering their respective gifts. The reason for this is that Nachshon was on a spiritually sufficiently high level to have qualified as the first one to bring this offering even if he had not been the prince of his tribe. The status of most of the other princes was due only to their having been elected as princes of their respective tribes. The Torah also wanted us to know that Nachshon did not think of himself in terms of his title, his position, but considered himself as "one of the people." Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehoshua in Tanchuma on verse 48 make an attempt to interpret the respective names of the princes as describing each prince's special accomplishments. According to their reasoning Nachshon's name reflects that he was the only one willing to risk his life by marching into the sea of reeds before Moses was given instructions to split the sea. The letter נ in his name can be exchanged for the letter ל seeing he confronted the spirit of the waves נחשול when he precipitously entered the sea and became the catalyst which led to the splitting of the sea of reeds (the following letters are sometimes used interchangeably ד,ל,נ,ת for the letter נ).

ביום הראשון, “on the first day, which was the first day of the month of Nissan.”