Commento su Numeri 7:48

אלשמע בן עמיהוד. Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korchah are quoted in Tanchuma on our verse as saying that the name Elishama suggests that whereas "Joseph listened to the commands of G'd, he did not listen to the command of his mistress to sleep with her. He did not make common cause with the wicked." Joseph did not desist from sinning because he was not tempted but because he was obedient to G'd's imperatives as he pointed out to the wife of Potiphar when he described giving in to his urge as a sin against G'd (Genesis 39,9). This is what is meant by Elishama, i.e אלי שמע, "he listened to Me." Our sages in Sotah 36 explained that at the crucial moment he had a vision of the face of his father. Clearly, this is a reference to a divine image which resembled the face of Jacob. After all, his father was in Canaan and had no inkling of what temptation his son faced at the time not even knowing that Joseph was still alive. What Joseph beheld in the vision was what is known as אביר יעקב אלוקי ישראל. When the sages in the Midrash spoke of the wicked in the plural, they may have referred to many similar temptations that Joseph withstood successfully. The reason the same idea occurs a second time in the name of the father of Elyasaph, i.e. עמיהוד is to hint what the Torah told us in that verse in Genesis that he did not listen to Mrs Potiphar who requested that Joseph agree to be physically close to her. Joseph preferred to remain close to G'd, i.e. עמי הודו.

ביום השביעי נשיא לבני אפרים, “on the seventh day (it was the turn) the prince of the tribe Ephrayim.” This day was the Sabbath, as the first day of these inaugural offerings was presented on the first day of the week, to symbolise the day on which G–d began to create the universe we live in. Seeing that the original Joseph had been observing the Sabbath, long before it had become designated a day of rest for the Jewish people, a descendant of his was honoured by presenting his offering on that day. The sages deduce the fact that Joseph observed the Sabbath from Genesis 43,16 in which the word, והכן, “he had prepared it,” appears an allusion to the fact that the animals he served his brothers had been slaughtered and prepared on the day before. The Torah, in Exodus 16,5, had instructed the Jewish people to prepare for the first Sabbath after the manna fell from heaven and to prepare their food from it before the onset of the Sabbath, seeing that they had received a double portion on that day. Normally, no offerings of individuals are allowed to be offered on the Sabbath. Seeing that the founding father of the tribe of Ephrayim had honoured the Sabbath when this had not been required, the Sabbath honoured him by allowing him to offer his sacrifice on that day. This is also recalled in Psalms 60,9: לי גלעד ולי מנשה ואפרים מעוד ראשי יהודה מחוקקי, “Gilead and Menashe would be Mine; Ephrayim My chief stronghold, Yehudah My scepter.” Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said that if someone would question the right of Elijah the prophet to have built a private altar on Mount Carmel in his confrontation with the priests of the Baal during a period when this was absolutely forbidden, the psalmist answered that לי גלעד, “He did it at My command.” Rabbi Shimon be Lakish added: if someone were to tell you that Gideon performed seven acts all of which were violations of the Torah’s commandments, including building a private altar, sacrificing on it though he was not a priest, using wood from an idolatrous tree for firewood, etc; (compare Judges chapters 6-25-26) this is what the psalmist had in mind when he said: לי מנשה, Menashe is Mine, i.e. Gideon from the tribe of Menashe did all this at G–d’s instruction. If someone were to tell you that Joshua desecrated the Sabbath when he marched around Jericho for seven days in a row, one of which must have been the Sabbath, (Joshua 6, 3-4) all of this was done at the express command of Hashem It is therefore not so strange to read that G–d permitted the “desecration” of the Sabbath on this occasion by allowing the prince of the tribe of Ephrayim to present his inaugural offering on the Sabbath. This incident is referred to by the psalmist quoted earlier as: “Yehudah My scepter” יהודה מחוקקי. If someone were to tell you that David violated a negative commandment, G–d said that what David did was similar to what a scribe does when he inscribes (as an illustration what is forbidden to write on the Sabbath) The psalmist refers to this in Psalms 51,15, with the words: אלמדה פשעים דרכיך וחטאים אליך ישובו, “by my actions I teach the transgressors Your ways, and the sinners will return to You.” Midrash Tanchuma section 28, on our portion goes as far as quoting The Talmud in tractate Avodah zarah folio 4 where we find Rabbi Yochanan saying, quoting Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai having said: “if David became guilty of a gross misconduct in the episode with Bat Sheva, this had been allowed to happen only in order to teach the common people that it is possible to do penitence, both as an individual sinner, i.e. David, or, as in the case of the people sinning at the golden calf, for a community, to do penitence, without the world having come to an end for either that individual or that community.

ביום השביעי, “on the seventh day;” this day was a Sabbath; permission was granted to not interrupt this string of sacrifices of which G-d had told Moses that they should be offered on consecutive days. (Verse 11)