Musar sur Les Nombres 2:38

איש על דגלו . The Arizal used to say that just as there were four flags in the camp of the Israelites, so the Jewish people are made up of four "classes," each one observing their own respective customs. He divided them into the Sefardim, Ashkenazim, Catalonians and Italians. Each group remains loyal to the customs handed down by its ancestors, and each set of customs is valued equally in the eyes of G–d.

When the sages in the Talmud speak about the bones of such a bachelor swelling up, they take into consideration that Adam described his wife as עצם מעצמי, "a bone of my bones” (Genesis 2,23), and that man therefore is not complete until he has been paired with the remainder of his bones. Failure to do this causes damage to his bones, leaves him physically incomplete. The reason the time limit is twenty years is that at that age a Jewish man is subject to military duties, and the Torah refers to him as איש, man (Numbers 2,2 et al). The relationship between military duty and fulfillment of the commandment to be fruitful is also alluded to in Genesis 1,28 where G–d links the commandment to "be fruitful and multiply" with the command to "conquer" the earth.

The Ineffable 4-lettered Name which forms part of the force that stimulates the activities originating in the emanation called תפארת, consists of 12 permutations of these letters, which were symbolized amongst the Jewish people by the four camps of four different flags, three tribes to a flag. The first flag was inscribed with the permutations of G–d's Name where the first letter י of that name was used at the beginning in the following manner: י-ה-ו-ה, י-ה-ה-ו, י-ו-ו-ה; the second flag was inscribed using these permutations by commencing with the letter ה of the Name in the following manner: ה-ה-י-ו, ה-ה-ו-י, ה-י-ו-ה; the third flag was inscribed using these permutations by commencing with the letter ו of the Name in the following manner: ו-ה-י-ה, ו-ה-ה-י, ו-י-ה-ה -; the fourth flag was inscribed using these permutations by commencing with the (last) letter ה of the Name in the following manner: ה-ו-י-ה-, ה-י-ה-ו, ה-ו-ה-י. [ Pardes Rimonim points out that the respective first letters of each of the הויות described make up the Ineffable Name י-ה-ו-ה. Ed.] The four seasons of the year correspond to the 3 times four months, and the 12 signs of the zodiac are the מזלות represented by the four flags according to four basic principles. Each flag was assigned to three encampments, i.e. three tribes, and had a specific purpose. The Torah (Numbers 2,2) describes this as איש על דגלו לאותות, "Each man was assigned a certain task according to the symbols on the flag he belonged to." The arrangement of the tribes and their respective מזלות, was in the following order: First, the flag of the טלה, האש, sign of the ram, fire. Around this flag were encamped the tribes featuring the zodiac signs אריה, lion and קשת, archer, respectively. This was followed by the flag featuring the שור, עפר, bull, earth, around which were encamped the tribes featuring the zodiac signs virgin and goat, respectively. This was followed by the flag featuring the zodiac sign , אויר, תאומים, twins, air, around which were encamped the tribes featuring the zodiac signs balance and water-carrier. This was followed by the flag featuring the zodiac sign , מים, סרטן, cancer, water, around which were encamped the tribes featuring the zodiac signs scorpion and fishes. There were 4 flags corresponding to the 12 tribes, each flag the focal point of a group of 3 tribes (cf. Pardes Rimonim).

Nachmanides, in his commentary on Numbers 2,2, states that the flag of the camp of Yehudah featured the image of a lion, in accordance with Genesis 49,9, which compares him to a lion. The flag of the camp of Reuben featured the image of Adam, reminding us of the דודאים containing the letters "אדם," as we read in Genesis 30,14. The flag of the camp of Ephrayim featured the image of an ox, שור, seeing Moses had described Joseph as בכור שורו הדר לו, in his blessing in Deut. 33,17. Lastly, the flag of the camp of Dan featured the image of an eagle, based on Deut. 32,11, "כנשר יעיר קנו,” "like an eagle who rouses his nestlings." This was appropriate since Dan's position as the rearguard of the army required him both to protect the rear and hurry up the slow moving ones in front of him to move faster. The overall effect of these camps and their flags corresponded to the vision of Ezekiel of the מרכבה, as we have mentioned earlier. [Although Yonathan ben Uzziel has the flag of Dan displaying a snake instead of an eagle, as in Genesis 49,17, this need not contradict Nachmanides, since the Tziyoni quotes Kabbalists as saying that the body of the picture was indeed a snake, but that the snake had the wings of an eagle. The latter suggests the attribute of mercy, רחמים.]

There are numerous difficulties with this commentary. How could Moses say to G–d that he was unable to count the Jewish people, when the fact is that he did count them? Firstly, does not the Torah report that the count was 603,550 Israelites of the ages that were to be counted (Numbers 2,32)? Secondly, What did G–d mean when He told Moses that he had misunderstood the verse in Hoseah as meaning that the Jewish people were not capable of being counted? This implied that G–d did not intend them to be counted! Thirdly, The verse in Hoseah speaks about a prophecy intended for the distant future. This proves that at the present time the Jewish people were not so numerous that they could not be counted; there would come a time in the future, however, when they would be too numerous to be counted!

כי בי-ה ה' צור עולמים

Yehudah is an example of the first aspect of the pillar Torah that we have cited. Our sages say that during all the forty years that the Israelites wandered in the desert the bones of Yehudah kept turning over within his coffin, and that Moses prayed to G–d שמע ה' קול יהודה ואל עמו תביאנו, "please G–d listen to the voice of Yehudah and restore him to his people" (Deut.33,7). The Talmud Sotah 7 explains that during all these years Yehudah had not been assigned a seat in the celestial academy, had not made proper progress in his studies, and had not succeeded in reconciling what he studied with the halachic decisions. Moses prayed that this should change. In the case of David, however, we find that since his learning matched the halachic decisions it is rated extremely high, and that is why it is said of him וה' עמו, "that G–d was with him, i.e. approved of David's halachic pronouncements. (compare Samuel I 18,14, and Shabbat 56 on that verse.) Yissachar is an example of the second criterion that is required for Torah to be a true pillar supporting the world, i.e. his full time dedication to Torah study. Zevulun is an example of the third criterion, that of supporting Torah scholars financially. To underline the esteem the Torah has for that kind of Torah support, we find that tribe referred to as מטה זבולון, i.e. not ומטה זבולון, to show that he was in a class by himself (compare Baal Haturim on Bamidbar 2,7). He is shown the same deference in Deut. 33,18, when he is mentioned before Issachar, who was his senior.