Komentarz do Liczb 10:36

‘שובה ה [AND WHEN IT RESTED HE SAID] שובה O LORD — Menachem ben Seruk renders it (the word שובה) by an expression denoting “rest”. Similar is (Isaiah 30:15) “In rest (בשובה) and tranquility shall ye be saved” (cf. Ibn. Ezra).

שובה, may Your rest be here with us, as per Psalms 132,14 זאת מנוחתי עדי עד, “this is My resting-place for all times.” Even though You will display Your presence in front of Israel in order to chase out their enemies, may the resting place of the Shechinah be in our midst.

Twenty-two thousand. “Myriads” and “thousands” refer to two myriad and two thousand, for if not so, Scripture should say only “Come to rest Hashem, among the myriads of Yisroel,” because “a myriad” on its own always refers to ten thousand. And we do not find anywhere that Scripture mentions thousands in conjunction with myriads.

'ובנחה יאמר וגו, “and when it rested he would say, etc;” Moses would say when the cloud came to rest above the Tabernacle: ‘may the hundreds of thousands of Israelites rest in this place without diminishing in numbers. May their next departure find them without any of them being absent or missing.’ Compare (Deuteronomy 30,3)

ובנחה, “and when it came to rest, etc.” the spelling of this word appears defective and it is to be read as if it had been written with the letter ו at the end instead of the letter .ה

רבבות אלפי ישראל [GIVE REST O LORD UNTO] THE MYRIADS OF THOUSANDS OF ISRAEL — This teaches us that the Shechinah does not rest upon Israel if they are less in number than twenty-two thousand (Yevamot 64a; Sifrei Bamidbar 84:5).

ה' רבבות אלפי ישראל, another description of an attribute of G’d, not unlike that of ה' צבא-אות אלפי ישראל. The reason why G’d is accorded the attribute “G’d of Hosts,” is only on account of the hosts (armies) of Israel.” The reason Moses said: רבבות אלפי ישראל, this is reminiscent of Psalms 68,18 רכב רבותים אלפי שנען, perhaps at that time the total number of Israelites including women and children amounted to that number.

ובנחה יאמר שובה,”and when it came to rest, he (Moses) would say: “return O Lord, etc.” This was necessary as the cloud had previously been inert. Moses wanted the cloud to actively “dwell” above the camp of the Israelites.

רבבות אלפי ישראל, “unto the tens of thousands of families of Israel.” The expression means that Moses wished for the Presence of the glory of the Lord to be manifest in the midst of the tens of thousands of families comprising the Jewish people. רבבות, this is one of the words that loses the prefix letter ב, such as we find the first time already in Exodus 31,17: כי ששת ימים, which we would have expected to be: כי בששת ימים, “for during six days.” The author quotes a number of such examples, singling out: Genesis 38,11. An alternate interpretation: the meaning of the line: קומה ה' ויפוצו אויביך, “arise O Lord so that Your enemies will scatter,” is the standard prayer we ought to recite whenever engaging on a journey.

The line commencing with: 'שובה ה, is the prayer to let the traveler complete his journey without mishap, so that when counting his companions he will find that none were lost during the journey. The author quotes Deuteronomy 30,3, ושב ה' אלוקיך את שבותך, “and the Lord your G’D will return with your captives, etc.,” to support his view.

The word ושוב there is to be understood as if Moses had said: והשיב, “He will bring back.”