Chasidut do Liczb 31:49
וַיֹּֽאמְרוּ֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה עֲבָדֶ֣יךָ נָֽשְׂא֗וּ אֶת־רֹ֛אשׁ אַנְשֵׁ֥י הַמִּלְחָמָ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר בְּיָדֵ֑נוּ וְלֹא־נִפְקַ֥ד מִמֶּ֖נּוּ אִֽישׁ׃
I rzekli do Mojżesza: "Słudzy twoi zliczyli poczet wojowników poruczonych nam, a nie ubyło z nich nikogo;
Kedushat Levi
Exodus 30,12. “when you take a census of the Children of Israel according to their numbers, each shall pay the Lord a ransom for his person when being counted.”
Seeing that G’d so loves the Jewish people that He feels personally oppressed by their troubles, He gives them an advice on how to save their lives/souls from the attacks of the evil urge.
It is a fact that the “life”, i.e. continued existence of all phenomena in the universe, however exalted they may appear, is due only to the brightness that emanated from the Creator Who had to restrain Himself by garbing Himself in various veils of appropriate thickness in order to prevent His brightness from fatally harming the creatures He exposed to it, and He has to provide them with nourishment to enable them to remain alive.
We have an explicit Biblical verse in Nechemyah 9,6 spelling this out; we read there: ואתה מחיה את כולם, “and You keep them all alive,” [by providing appropriate sustenance. Ed.] If this applies to the universe’s creatures generally, how much more so does it apply to G’d’s favorite nation, the Jewish people. (Compare psalms 135,4-“for the Lord has chosen Yaakov for Himself.” The Jewish people are a means through which G’d illuminates the universe, as we know from Isaiah 2,5: בית יעקב לכו ונלכה באור ה', “House of Yaakov, let us walk by the light of the Lord.”) From internalizing the meaning of these verses we come to the conclusion that when we pass through a period of distress and troubles, one that has been brought about by G’d’s having to discipline us, He Himself is also experiencing part of this pain. We have already mentioned elsewhere that the root of evil befalling the Jewish people is actually one manner in which G’d reveals that He is –“G’d.”
Our verse commencing with: כי תשא את ראש בני ישראל וגו' לפקודיהם, reminds us of the meaning of the root, as we find it in Numbers 31,49 לא נפקד ממנו איש, ”not a single one of our number is missing.” [After the 12000 men who took part in the punitive campaign against Midian had returned. Ed.] G’d tells Moses that if he is interested in raising the status of the Jewish people from their depressed state, (after the sin of the golden calf), he is to see to it that each of the men between 20 and 60 pray to the Lord to redeem them from the attacks of the perennial antagonist, Satan who is always at work trying to seduce them into transgressing His commandments. [Contribution of a half shekel to the Temple treasury is merely a symbolic gesture of atoning for the guilt stemming from their involvement in that sin. Ed.]
Seeing that G’d so loves the Jewish people that He feels personally oppressed by their troubles, He gives them an advice on how to save their lives/souls from the attacks of the evil urge.
It is a fact that the “life”, i.e. continued existence of all phenomena in the universe, however exalted they may appear, is due only to the brightness that emanated from the Creator Who had to restrain Himself by garbing Himself in various veils of appropriate thickness in order to prevent His brightness from fatally harming the creatures He exposed to it, and He has to provide them with nourishment to enable them to remain alive.
We have an explicit Biblical verse in Nechemyah 9,6 spelling this out; we read there: ואתה מחיה את כולם, “and You keep them all alive,” [by providing appropriate sustenance. Ed.] If this applies to the universe’s creatures generally, how much more so does it apply to G’d’s favorite nation, the Jewish people. (Compare psalms 135,4-“for the Lord has chosen Yaakov for Himself.” The Jewish people are a means through which G’d illuminates the universe, as we know from Isaiah 2,5: בית יעקב לכו ונלכה באור ה', “House of Yaakov, let us walk by the light of the Lord.”) From internalizing the meaning of these verses we come to the conclusion that when we pass through a period of distress and troubles, one that has been brought about by G’d’s having to discipline us, He Himself is also experiencing part of this pain. We have already mentioned elsewhere that the root of evil befalling the Jewish people is actually one manner in which G’d reveals that He is –“G’d.”
Our verse commencing with: כי תשא את ראש בני ישראל וגו' לפקודיהם, reminds us of the meaning of the root, as we find it in Numbers 31,49 לא נפקד ממנו איש, ”not a single one of our number is missing.” [After the 12000 men who took part in the punitive campaign against Midian had returned. Ed.] G’d tells Moses that if he is interested in raising the status of the Jewish people from their depressed state, (after the sin of the golden calf), he is to see to it that each of the men between 20 and 60 pray to the Lord to redeem them from the attacks of the perennial antagonist, Satan who is always at work trying to seduce them into transgressing His commandments. [Contribution of a half shekel to the Temple treasury is merely a symbolic gesture of atoning for the guilt stemming from their involvement in that sin. Ed.]
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Kedushat Levi
Based on the considerations outlined, we will try and explain why we have been commanded to eat Matzah on Passover and to offer certain sacrifices in the Temple, and why on the festival of Shavuot we have been commanded to present two loaves of bread which had to consist of leavened dough, as well as a thanksgiving offering consisting partly of unleavened breads and partly of leavened breads.
Matzah alludes to creatures who serve the Lord due to the impact upon them of G’d’s miracles; even the plain meaning of the text in Exodus 12,15-17 alludes to this as it contains a commandment to eat matzah as a reminder to future generations of the speed, i.e. suddenness, with which the Egyptians reversed their attitude as the masters of the Jews, to driving them out with all possible speed as we know from Exodus 12,39 which tells us that the departure of the Jews from Egypt occurred in such haste that they did not even have time to allow the dough for next day’s bread to rise before baking. Consuming the meat of the Passover took place in similar haste, the people being dressed while eating it, ready to begin marching at any moment. (ibid, i.e. ויאפו את הבצק עגות מצות וגו', “they baked the dough into matzah cakes etc.,) The symbolic acts that we, the descendants of the generation of Israelites leaving Egypt at that time, perform on the anniversary of that event, all reflect the suddenness and haste in which the redemption literally overtook them. These acts mirror the impact that G’d’s miracles had on the Jews at that time. In contrast to this, when the same people arrived in the desert of Sinai, prior to receiving the Torah, seven weeks later, they had time to prepare themselves for that event for three days, i.e. the miracles that occurred in connection with that event did not take them by surprise. By that time they had come to realize that G’d’s performing miracles was something “natural,” not supernatural, seeing that the source of these “miracles” was the same Creator Who had performed the greatest miracles by creating the universe. When they reflected that out of all the phenomena in the universe that they were aware of it was only G’d Who could have created them by merely uttering the necessary words, they no longer needed “miracles” to persuade them that there was such a power, [even though it remained invisible. Ed.] To reflect their new found insights, the offerings presented on the festival of Shavuot did not require matzah as a symbol of the Israelites’ recognition that their redemption had been a miracle, in the sense of something supernatural performed by G’d.
The Talmud in B’rachot 54, when stating that 4 types of individuals need to offer thanksgiving offerings (containing also leavened breads) after they had been saved by means of a miraculous event, reflects the sages’ recognition that for the people concerned the miracle had been performed in order that they serve G’d first of all because He demonstrated His ability to transcend the laws of nature. Subsequently, the people who had learned this lesson would become accustomed to serving the Lord for the same reasons that the Jewish people served Him starting with their experiences at Mount Sinai. This is reflected in the part of the thanksgiving offering consisting of leavened breads. The very fact that this offering consists of these apparently contradictory ingredients, indicates that the person offering it is aware of his own spiritual/philosophical progress.
Looking at the history of the Jewish people during their march through the desert, the sin of the golden calf represented a spiritual regression to the level of needing miracles to keep them aware of the greatness of the Lord and the duty to serve Him. The Jewish people only recaptured even the first level of serving the Lord, i.e. through the help of miracles to remind them of Him and His power at the time when the Tabernacle was inaugurated, almost nine months after their having worshipped the golden calf. According to Nachmanides, this is the reason why the Tabernacle is referred to as משכן העדות, “Tabernacle of Testimony,” i.e. its consecration bore testimony to the fact that the people had regained their spiritual level as it had been at the time when they had been redeemed from slavery in Egypt.
The word פקודי in our verse needs to be understood in the sense of something being lacking, absent, as we know from Numbers 31,49 ולא נפקד ממנו איש, “not a single man from us is missing.” [after the punitive expedition against the Midianites) The word appears in a similar sense also repeatedly in the Book of Samuel. Ed.] The Torah hints that even with the completion of the Tabernacle, the former lofty spiritual level of the Jewish people as it had been at the end of the revelation at Mount Sinai had not been restored.
Matzah alludes to creatures who serve the Lord due to the impact upon them of G’d’s miracles; even the plain meaning of the text in Exodus 12,15-17 alludes to this as it contains a commandment to eat matzah as a reminder to future generations of the speed, i.e. suddenness, with which the Egyptians reversed their attitude as the masters of the Jews, to driving them out with all possible speed as we know from Exodus 12,39 which tells us that the departure of the Jews from Egypt occurred in such haste that they did not even have time to allow the dough for next day’s bread to rise before baking. Consuming the meat of the Passover took place in similar haste, the people being dressed while eating it, ready to begin marching at any moment. (ibid, i.e. ויאפו את הבצק עגות מצות וגו', “they baked the dough into matzah cakes etc.,) The symbolic acts that we, the descendants of the generation of Israelites leaving Egypt at that time, perform on the anniversary of that event, all reflect the suddenness and haste in which the redemption literally overtook them. These acts mirror the impact that G’d’s miracles had on the Jews at that time. In contrast to this, when the same people arrived in the desert of Sinai, prior to receiving the Torah, seven weeks later, they had time to prepare themselves for that event for three days, i.e. the miracles that occurred in connection with that event did not take them by surprise. By that time they had come to realize that G’d’s performing miracles was something “natural,” not supernatural, seeing that the source of these “miracles” was the same Creator Who had performed the greatest miracles by creating the universe. When they reflected that out of all the phenomena in the universe that they were aware of it was only G’d Who could have created them by merely uttering the necessary words, they no longer needed “miracles” to persuade them that there was such a power, [even though it remained invisible. Ed.] To reflect their new found insights, the offerings presented on the festival of Shavuot did not require matzah as a symbol of the Israelites’ recognition that their redemption had been a miracle, in the sense of something supernatural performed by G’d.
The Talmud in B’rachot 54, when stating that 4 types of individuals need to offer thanksgiving offerings (containing also leavened breads) after they had been saved by means of a miraculous event, reflects the sages’ recognition that for the people concerned the miracle had been performed in order that they serve G’d first of all because He demonstrated His ability to transcend the laws of nature. Subsequently, the people who had learned this lesson would become accustomed to serving the Lord for the same reasons that the Jewish people served Him starting with their experiences at Mount Sinai. This is reflected in the part of the thanksgiving offering consisting of leavened breads. The very fact that this offering consists of these apparently contradictory ingredients, indicates that the person offering it is aware of his own spiritual/philosophical progress.
Looking at the history of the Jewish people during their march through the desert, the sin of the golden calf represented a spiritual regression to the level of needing miracles to keep them aware of the greatness of the Lord and the duty to serve Him. The Jewish people only recaptured even the first level of serving the Lord, i.e. through the help of miracles to remind them of Him and His power at the time when the Tabernacle was inaugurated, almost nine months after their having worshipped the golden calf. According to Nachmanides, this is the reason why the Tabernacle is referred to as משכן העדות, “Tabernacle of Testimony,” i.e. its consecration bore testimony to the fact that the people had regained their spiritual level as it had been at the time when they had been redeemed from slavery in Egypt.
The word פקודי in our verse needs to be understood in the sense of something being lacking, absent, as we know from Numbers 31,49 ולא נפקד ממנו איש, “not a single man from us is missing.” [after the punitive expedition against the Midianites) The word appears in a similar sense also repeatedly in the Book of Samuel. Ed.] The Torah hints that even with the completion of the Tabernacle, the former lofty spiritual level of the Jewish people as it had been at the end of the revelation at Mount Sinai had not been restored.
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