Musar untuk Bilangan 4:2

Another statement we find in the Midrash there is: "If someone whispers to you; was not Gershon the firstborn? Why did the Torah accord superior rank to Kehat and his descendants and counted the Gersonites only afterwards? – Answer such inquiry by pointing out that the Kehatites carried the Holy Ark which is the Holy of Holies, and because Aaron who performed service in the Holy of Holies was a descendant of Kehat." Gershon, by comparison, was holy, but not "holy of holies." In order to demonstrate that Gershon had not forfeited his status as the firstborn amongst his brothers, the Torah writes: "נשא את ראש בני גרשון". Just as the Torah employs the expression ראש, when it instructs the Kehatites to be counted, so it employs the same expression when the count of the Gersonites is to be taken. (This term is missing when the Merarites are being counted in 4,29). Seeing that the Torah uses the expression גם הם, "also them," when it introduces the count of the Gersonites, one might have interpreted this as proof that they are considered inferior to the Kehatites.

שאו את ראש . The word את is difficult, as well as other apparently superfluous words. Even if we allow for the fact that Shimon Ha'Amsuni explained every את in the Torah and when he was stymied by one particular את in the verse "et hashem elokecha tira,” he abandoned his attempt altogether (compare Pesachim 22b). The fact remains that we have to explain whatever we can. Rabbi Akiva explained also the one et that had stymied Shimon Ha-amsuni by saying that not only G–d but also Torah scholars must be shown reverence (Bechorot 6). Another difficulty is that when counting the Israelites, the word את appears in front of the word כל, i.e. Numbers 1,2, שאו את ראש כל עדת בני ישראל, thereby joining the Israelites to the previous "אהל מועד", whereas when the Levites are counted in 3,15, the word כל appears after the object of the count, the בני לוי. It says viz: פקוד את בני לוי לבית אבותם למשפחותם, כל זכר וגו', instead of as in 1,2, שאו את ראש כל עדת בני ישראל. Still another unusual inconsistency is found when we compare the respective counts of the Kehatites, Gersonides and Merarites. The Torah writes in 4,2: "נשא את ראש בני קהת," and in 4,21 we read: "נשא את ראש בני גרשון," whereas in 4,29, we read: בני מררי למשפחותם, לבית אבום תפקוד אותם, without the word את. Why this change in the wording? Nonetheless, the word את, is mentioned also with מררי, in 4,30: כל הבא לצבא לעבוד את עבודת אהל מועד. On the other hand when the Torah describes the function of the Kehatites in 4,3, it says: כל בא לצבא לעשות מלאכה באהל מועד." Strangely, the word את is missing here. When the function of the Gersonides is discussed in 4,23, the word את is also missing.