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הם העמדים על הפקדים THEY WHO STOOD OVER THE COUNTING — They stood with Moses and Aaron when they counted the Israelites, as it says,“With you [Moses and Aaron] there shall be [a man from each tribe]” (Numbers 1:4).

העומדים על הפקודים, “the ones who supervised the census.” According to Rashi, each prince had stood beside Moses and Aaron when the members of that prince’s tribe were being counted. He based himself on Numbers 1,4: ואתכם יהיו איש איש למטה איש ראש לבית אבותיו הוא, “and with you there shall be a man of every tribe, everyone head of his father’s house.” Therefore the construction of ויביאו את קרבנם, “they brought their atonement offering for counting the people of Israel,” is justified. We find another example of such an offering as atonement for counting in Numbers 31,50 after the successful punitive campaign against Midian, [both the soldiers who found that there had been no casualties, and the huge amount of booty collected. Ed.]

כי תשא, “when you take a census, etc.” Nachmanides writes that the words כי תשא את ראש mean: ”when you take a census of the people, etc.,” they shall each give a half shekel as atonement for having legally forfeited their claim to life. Moses is to take the sum total of these half shekels and make use of them in connection with the sacrificial service in the Sanctuary. From these words in the Torah, Moses concluded that he was meant to conduct such a census at that time. Moses acted upon this, and this is why we read in 38,25 that the money from the census was used to provide the silver sockets of the beams in the Tabernacle. The fact that the Torah does not record Moses as being told to collect these monies from the people concerned shows that they had brought them along at the same time they brought the diverse donations for the construction of the Tabernacle. This is why there was no need for Aaron and the tribal princes to accompany Moses when he would go to the individual tents in order to collect the half shekel needed for each person’s contribution to the daily communal offerings as Moses was required to do during the census related in the Book of Numbers. (compare Numbers 1,4) Rashi raised the problem of how it was possible that two censuses seven months apart could produce the identical number of males between the ages of 20 and sixty, and his answer is that actually these censuses were taken in the same calendar year, one being the Jewish year which commences on the first of Nissan, the other the calendar used by the gentiles, which is based on the years since the creation begins on the first day of Tishrey, and that the first census took place immediately after Moses had returned from his last ascent to Mount Sinai, the day after the Day of Atonement, whereas the second census, as pointed out in Numbers 1,1-2, took place on the first day of Iyar of the year following. The reason why the numbers appear to match is that as far as the ages of the people counted were concerned, they celebrated their respective birthdays according to the day and month in which they had been born, whereas for the purpose of army service a single day during the year (presumably the first of Nissan) was the day on which all those who had attained the age of 20 during the preceding 12 months were now considered as 20 years of age. Personally, (Nachmanides speaking) I do not believe that there was a problem to begin with. The first count was made during the first year of the Israelites’ wanderings, when the tribe of Levi had not yet been counted separately. In other words, the remarkable thing is not that the counts show the same total both times, but the remarkable thing is that in a period of 7 months the number of Israelites of the ages of 20 and up had increased to such an extent that the absence of any Levites during the second count was not even noticed in the final tally. The very fact that before the second census the Levites were specifically excluded from the total for the 12 tribes, is clear proof that during the first census the tribe of Levi was counted on exactly the same basis [not from 30 days and up, instead of from 20 years and up Ed.] as per the directives in the Book of Numbers. Seeing that we are entitled to assume that numerous people died between the Exodus and that time, at which time the Israelites were described as approx. 600000 strong, the natural increase was quite remarkable. I believe further, that the donations (money) mentioned in our paragraph here and the one mentioned in Numbers chapter 1, the purpose of which was to raise equally sized donations for financing the mandatory daily communal offerings, could not have been raised as part of that census either, as suggested by Rashi. If Rashi were correct, why should the members of the tribe of Levi not also have been required to contribute their half shekels for the communal offerings that were offered on their behalf? Furthermore, the people who were required to contribute half shekels for the communal mandatory offerings were all those who had demonstrated signs of puberty, by having at least 2 pubic hairs. It is clear therefore that the purpose of the census in our chapter, i.e. the three donations hinted at, were 1) for atonement, i.e. ½ shekel by each male above the age of 20, 2), contributions for the building of the Tabernacle, and 3) the emphasis on everyone passing the turnstile not contributing either more or less than ½ a shekel were people above the age of 13 (with two pubic hairs) whose contribution to the purchase of mandatory communal offerings, would enable them to benefit from the atonement provided by the offering of these communal sacrifice if and when due.