Commentaire sur Les Nombres 26:3

וידבר משה ואלעזר הכהן אתם AND MOSES AND ELEAZAR THE PRIEST SPOKE WITH THEM — They spoke with them (אתם; cf. 5:5) regarding this: that the Omnipresent had (given command to count them.

וידבר משה..בערבות מואב, And Moses spoke…in the wilderness of Moav, etc. Why did the Torah have to write that Moses addressed the people "in the wilderness of Moav?" If the location really was of the essence to our understanding what Moses had to say it should have been mentioned when the commandment was introduced, i.e. in verse 1. The reason may be connected to the Midrash we have quoted that Moses had to hand over the people entrusted to him after they had been counted. You will find that whenever counts took place the location is mentioned by the Torah. When we heard about the number the Israelites comprised at the time of the Exodus, the Torah supplied the location, i.e. Ramses. When the Israelites were counted at the beginning of the Book of Numbers we were told that it was in the desert of Sinai. So it may be no more than natural that here too the Torah decided to supply the location for where the count took place. It was here, near the river Jordan opposite the town of Jericho that the loyal shepherd of the Jewish people, Moses, completed his mission. The Torah mentioned that it was after the plague to show that in spite of the plague which had cost so many Jewish lives the total number of Israelites had not shrunk but had considerably increased when we remember that at the first count the whole tribe of Levi had been included and the number given by the Torah was "approx 600.000." This was a testimony to Moses's leadership who could prove he had not lost any of his sheep. This then is the reason why the Torah did not write the location in verse 1. The location was not related to the count but to the fact that Moses used the count to complete his mission and "hand over his flock" to G'd or to a new leader.

They spoke with them concerning this; that the Omnipresent had commanded to count them. Rashi means to say that the word אתם ["them"] refers to the words that they spoke to Israel, in order to exclude [the alternative], so that you should not understand it like אתם ["with them", meaning] that they spoke with Bnei Yisroel.

VV. 3 u. 4. וידבר וגו׳ אתם. Nicht ויפקד אתם, sondern וידבר אותם, es wurde, wie dies bei der ersten Zählung Kap. 1 u. 2 angeordnet war: למשפחתם לבית אבתם במספר שמת כל זכר לגלגלתם, es wurde ein jeder namentlich als zu dem und dem Hause und der und der Familie gehörig genannt. Nicht das Wissen der Gesamtzahl, das "Zählen" war das wesentliche Ziel, sondern das Genanntwerden eines jeden einzelnen nach seiner Abstammung, seiner Familien- und Stammesangehörigkeit für seine nationale Gesamtbestimmung als יוצא צבא בישראל, war das Wesentliche und gab jedem einzelnen das bewusstvolle Selbstgefühl seiner Bedeutung für seines Hauses, seiner Familie, seines Stammes Anteil an der Lösung der gemeinsamen nationalen Aufgabe. Was dort mit dem למשפחתם וגו׳ במספר שמות וגו׳ ausführlich gesagt ist, das ist hier in dem Ausdruck וידבר אותם prägnant zusammengefasst: sie sprachen jeden einzelnen besonders aus. Es war aber bei der Veranlassung, welche diese Zählung hervorrief, von besonderer Bedeutung, dieses Aussprechen eines jeden einzelnen deutlich zu bezeichnen, da ja eben in diesem "Ausspruche" eines jeden einzelnen nach seiner Abstammung sich die geschlechtliche Reinheit der Familien dokumentierte, ein Grund, welcher auch wohl die gerade bei dieser Zählung hervorgehobene Nennung der Familien eines jeden Stammes motivieren dürfte.

Moshe and Elozor the kohein spoke. This was a language of leadership, because Bnei Yisroel were scattered among the cities across the Yardein, and only the camp and the Tent of Meeting stood in one place. When they were commanded to count, Moshe and Elozor announced that anyone twenty years of age and over should come to the designated place.

וידבר משה ואלעזר הכהן אותם, “Moses and Elazar the priest spoke with them;” They told them that G-d had commanded that another census be taken. An alternate interpretation: the word אותם (spelled without the letter ו) means that they spoke “with” the people not to the people. Compare Ezekiel 16,60: וזכרתי את בריתי אותך בימי נעוריך, “I remembered My covenant with you made when you were in your youth.”.

לאמר SAYING they said to them (what they said to them was): You must be counted FROM TWENTY YEARS OLD AND UPWARDS.

You must be counted… For the word “saying” does not refer to “Moshe and Elozor … spoke.” Rather, it refers to that which came afterwards, namely, “From twenty years of age and above…” Thus the verse is saying as follows: “Moshe and Elozor the kohein spoke of them,” meaning these words, “on the plains of Moav, by the Yardein near Yericho.” And what were these words that they said? “Saying from twenty years and above…” This is what they spoke to them about.

You might argue that the introduction שאו את ראש suggests that G'd did order a census, quite independently of the considerations we have mentioned; the answer is that the words שאו ראש were not intended to demand a census. After all, even if it turned out that the number of the Israelites had shrunk considerably, who would attribute this to their leader? What comparison is there between a shepherd entrusted with sheep and a leader entrusted with people? We would answer that the count now represented the same idea as the one after the golden calf episode. We had been told at the time that when a pack of wolves have attacked a flock, the shepherd counts the remaining sheep to determine the amount of damage he sustained. When many Israelites had died as a result of the golden calf episode, G'd wanted to count how many had survived. In this instance too, many Israelites had died as the result of the debacle at Shittim so that a count to establish how many had remained alive was called for. Moses exploited this opportunity to do his "own thing," i.e. to demonstrate that he had not lost any of "the sheep" under his care. By mentioning the location in connection with what Moses said (verse 3) instead of in connection with what G'd said (verse 1) the Torah was able to make this point. Alternatively, Moses added verse 4 to show that the count was not his own idea but that he carried out G'd's instructions by conducting it.

Gewiss aber war dies "Aussprechen" der sechsmalhunderttausend Individuen nicht das Geschäft zweier Männer, und auch hierbei Mosche und Elasar, wie bei der ersten Zählung, von den נשיאים assistiert. Das וידבר heißt also nicht sowohl: sie sprachen aus, als: sie ließen aussprechen, brachten zum Ausspruch. Mosche und Elasar waren nur die Anordnenden, und erklärt dies das: לאמר am Schlusse des Verses. Sie ordneten an, dass jeder vom zurückgelegten zwanzigsten Jahre aufwärts, ganz nach der Anordnung der ersten Zählung, ausgesprochen werden sollte. Eigentümlich ist die Akzentsetzung, die mit dem Etnach auf מואב dies bedeutsam von על ירדן וכו׳ trennt. Es sind damit eigentlich zwei Sätze gebildet und das וידבר משה וגו׳ zu על ירדן ירחו in wiederholt: וידבר וגו׳ אותם בערבות מואב und וידבר וגו׳ אותם על ירדן ירחו. Damit wäre dann der Zählung ein zweifacher Zweck erteilt: בערבות מואב in Beziehung zu dem in dieser Örtlichkeit vorgegangenen Peorereignis, wie wir bereits entwickelt, und: על ירדן ירחו mit Hinblick auf die bevorstehende Besitznahme von Palästina (siehe V. 53).