Commentaire sur Les Nombres 34:19

למטה יהודה, for the tribe of Yehudah. We need to explore why the leaders of the tribes of Yehudah, Shimon, and Benjamin are not given the title נשיא in our paragraph. Perhaps the reason is connected to the fact that the names of these three tribes appear quite close to the words ונשיא אחד נשיא אחד in verse 18 so that the Torah saw no need to repeat the word נשיא again. Starting with verse 22 the names of the tribes are so far removed from verse 18 that the Torah saw fit to add the title נשיא when mentioning the leader of the respective tribes.

ואלה שמות האנשים: למטה יהודה, וגו', ”and these were the names of the men: representing the tribe of Yehudah was Calev, son of Yefuneh.” Seeing that the tribes of Reuven and Gad already had received their ancestral heritage they were no longer in need of a נשיא , a “leader.” There are different opinions as to why the list of the leaders of the nation when the conquest began begins with Yehudah.on this occasion. One opinion holds that when the lottery took place Yehudah’s parchment came up first. All the tribes listed here had a leader described by the Torah with the title נשיא, except Yehudah, Shimon, and Binyamin. In the case of Yehudah, seeing that Calev was a venerable and well-known personality there was no need to give him a title for his authority to be accepted by the members of his tribe. Shimon did not have a new נשיא, seeing that the last one, Zimri, had disgraced himself so badly. The title held no allure for the members of that tribe as its significance had been debased. Binyamin actually did have a נשיא in the person of אלידד, whose name has been spelled אלדד in Numbers 11,26 before he had been elevated to the status of prophet. Seeing that a prophet is on a higher spiritual level than a mere “leader,” referring to him here a נשיא would have indicated a demotion. I do not know why the Torah found it necessary to introduce each one of these men as למטה בני פלוני,.... “of the tribe of so and so…” with the exception of the tribe of Yehudah. Both here and in the story of the spies Joseph is mentioned in addition to Menashe, because he had displayed especial fondness of the Holy Land.

VV. 19 — 28. ואלה שמות האנשים. Die Reihenfolge, in welcher hier die Stämme und ihre Vertreter behufs der Landesverteilung genannt werden, entspricht in bemerkenswerter Weise ganz der Lage, in welcher, von Süd nach Nord gerechnet, die Stämme neben einander und nach einander ihre Niederlassung im Lande erhielten. Juda, Simeon, Benjamin, nahmen den Süden ein, — Dan, Menasse und zwischen beiden Efrajim die Mitte, — Jissachar, Sebulun, Ascher, Naftali den Norden. Wenn später die durchs Los zu treffende Gebietsanweisung der Stämme durch den Ausspruch der אורים ותומים göttliche Bestätigung erhielt (siehe Kap. 26, 55), so war bereits deren providentielle Voraussichtbestimmung in diesen Sätzen und ihrer Reihenfolge gegeben. — Alle Stämme werden hier bei Anordnung der Landesverteilung als מטה בני־ aufgeführt, למטה בני דן ,למטה בני שמעון usw. nur von Juda und Benjamin heißt es: למטה בנימן ,למטה יהודה. Vielleicht liegt diesem die Anschauung zu Grunde: מטה בני begreift den Stamm als höhere Einheit, welcher die einzelnen בני־ sich unterordnen. Juda und Benjamin aber, auf deren Gebiet das Nationalheiligtum errichtet werden sollte, sollen eben darum nicht als höhere Einheit der ihnen Zugehörigen, sondern selbst nur in ihrer Zuhörigkeit an die nationale Gesamtheit, als "Zweig" des nationalen Ganzen gedacht werden, daher nicht: מטה בני בנימן ,מטה בני יהודה sondern: מטה מטה בנימן ,יהודה. Vielleicht erklärt sich daraus auch noch eine Eigentümlichkeit. Bei allen Stämmen werden die Vertreter nach ihrer Würde ausdrücklich als נשיא aufgeführt, nur nicht bei Juda, Simeon und Benjamin. Erwägen wir, dass Judas und Benjamins Gebiet als nächste Peripherie des auf ihrem Boden zu errichtenden Gottesheiligtums gedacht werden konnte, und dass Simeons Gebiet eigentlich nur eine Enklave von Juda bildet: so mochte es an die Hand gegeben erscheinen, dem Gedanken an die im Heiligtume repräsentierte Herrschaft Gottes und seines Gesetzes gegenüber keines andern in der Beziehung seiner Herrscherwürde zu gedenken.

למטה יהודה, of the tribe of Yehudah. Moses began enumerating the family heads which would start the process of allocating ancestral tracts of land with the members of the tribe of Yehudah, as his name came up first when the lots were drawn. In this instance, Calev would be the head of the tribe.

I have a seen a comment in the name of Rabbenu Nissim that there was no need to write the word נשיא in connection with the tribe of Yehudah as everybody knew that it was Calev ben Yefuneh. In the case of the tribe of Shimon the reason was that this tribe was not worthy of having a leader with the title נשיא in view of the affair with Zimri. In the case of the tribe of Benjamin, there was no need to mention that Eldod held the title נשיא, as he held a better title having been a prophet already since the time the 70 elders had been chosen in Numbers 11,16-29. Calling Eldod a "prince" would have amounted to a demotion rather than a promotion for him.

Perhaps one may add that the term נשיא was not allocated to the temporary leader of the tribe of Yehudah seeing that this tribe would produce a king for the entire nation, not just a prince for itself. A similar consideration may have applied to the tribe of Benjamin seeing that the realisation of a Jewish Kingdom, i.e. the first king of Israel, Saul, would come from that tribe. As far as the absence of a mention of a prince for the tribe of Shimon is concerned, the reason advanced was quite adequate.