Comentário sobre Números 9:1

בחדש הראשון [AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES] IN THE FIRST MONTH — The section which appears at the commencement of this Book was not spoken before Eyar (the second month; cf. Numbers 1:1): you learn, therefore, that there is no “earlier” or “later” (no chronological order) in the Torah. But why, indeed, did not Scripture open the Book with this section? Because it implies something disparaging to Israel (Sifrei Bamidbar 64:1) — that during all the forty years they were in the wilderness they offered only this single Passover sacrifice (Tosafot on Kiddushin 38b s. v. הואיל)

IN THE SECOND YEAR AFTER THEIR COMING OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, IN THE FIRST MONTH. From here the Rabbis have deduced the principle:⁵⁸Sifre Beha’alothcha 64. Pesachim 6b. “There is no [strict] chronological order in the narrative of the Torah” [for the census mentioned at the beginning of this Book of Numbers was on the first day of ‘the second’ month in the second year, and the present chapter about the Passover was in the ‘first month’ of the same year]! Now the reason for this delay [in mentioning the section concerning the Passover] was that since this fourth book [of the Torah] comes to mention the commandments which Israel was given in the wilderness of Sinai for that particular time, He wanted [first] to complete everything related to the Tent of Meeting and its functioning during all the time [that Israel was] in the wilderness. Therefore He mentioned first the [commandments about the four] standards, and the place of the Tent [of Meeting], and the position of its ministers, and the ordinance concerning the divisions [of the Levites] when carrying [the Tabernacle whilst travelling, and] all services of the Tent. Then He mentioned the dedication-offerings of the princes, who brought the wagons in which they would carry it [the Tent] as long as they were to be in the wilderness, and He finished [the account of] their offerings at the dedication of the altar, which began on the first of Nisan or afterwards.⁵⁹See above. Seder Naso, Notes 131-132, which mention two opinions, to which Ramban alludes here. After all this He returned and mentioned the admonition that He had given them not to forget the commandment of the Passover.
Now in the opinion of our Rabbis⁶⁰Sifre Beha’alothcha 67. [the obligation to bring the Passover-offering] only applied in the wilderness in this [second] year, after the exodus because they did not perform circumcision in the wilderness,⁶¹The reason for this is that during the years of G-d’s displeasure with Israel after the incident of the golden calf (Rashi), or that of the spies (Ramban), the north wind did not blow, and there was nothing to mitigate the effect of the extreme heat, so that it was dangerous to do the circumcision (Yebamoth 72 a, and see Rashi and Ramban there). See also further on in the text here. and the [non-performance of] circumcision of the male children and the servants prevented them [from slaughtering the Passover-offering].⁶²Exodus 12:44. It is possible that this [specific] command [to bring the Passover] was necessary because at first they were only commanded about making the Passover-offering in future generations after [entering] the Land of Israel, as it is written, And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the Land which the Eternal will give you, according as He hath promised, that ye shall keep this Service.⁶³Ibid., Verse 25. And it is further stated there, And it shall be when the Eternal shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanite, etc., that thou shalt keep this Service in this month.⁶⁴Ibid., 13:5. And now the Holy One, blessed be He, desired and commanded that they should make it [the Passover-offering] in order that the memory of their redemption and of the miracles which were done for them and their fathers should be transmitted from the fathers who saw them to their children, and their children to another generation.⁶⁵Joel 1:3. Thus He had said at first, And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the Land,⁶³Ibid., Verse 25. meaning to say that this commandment [to bring the Passover-offering] does not apply outside the Land in future generations; therefore now He commanded that they should fulfill it in the desert. And in the opinion of our Rabbis⁶⁰Sifre Beha’alothcha 67. they only brought the Passover-offering in this [second] year [after the exodus], because they begot sons and servants whom they could not circumcise, for the reason that the Rabbis mentioned, that it was dangerous [to observe circumcision], as is explained in Tractate Yebamoth.⁶¹The reason for this is that during the years of G-d’s displeasure with Israel after the incident of the golden calf (Rashi), or that of the spies (Ramban), the north wind did not blow, and there was nothing to mitigate the effect of the extreme heat, so that it was dangerous to do the circumcision (Yebamoth 72 a, and see Rashi and Ramban there). See also further on in the text here.
However, in the Sifre the Rabbis have said:⁶⁶Sifre Beha’alothcha 67. “And they brought the Passover-offering in the first month.⁶⁷Verse 5. Scripture speaks in a critical manner about Israel, inasmuch as [throughout their forty years in the desert] they brought only this Passover-offering, and likewise He said, Did ye bring unto Me offerings and meal-offerings in the wilderness forty years?”⁶⁸Amos 5:25. The Rabbis arrived at this interpretation [that the verse is rebuking them because they only brought the Passover-offering in the second year after the exodus], on the basis of this verse which states, And they brought the Passover-offering in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at dusk, in the wilderness of Sinai,⁶⁷Verse 5. since it is a superfluous verse, for it would have been sufficient to say, and they brought the Passover-offering “according to all that the Eternal commanded Moses.” But Scripture mentioned the [exact] day and [the fact that it was in] the wilderness in order to hint that they only observed it in the wilderness on that day, and this was their “shortcoming” [which is referred to in the text of the Sifre].
It is possible that [the reason why it is considered] their shortcoming is because of their sin in the affair of the spies, on account of which they fell into disesteem⁶⁹The Hebrew word is nithnadu, which means literally “banished, isolated, or excommunicated.” and the [cooling] northern wind did not blow upon them, [with the result that on account of the great heat in the desert] they could not circumcise themselves, and therefore they were prohibited to eat any sacred offerings, and they were “rebuked” by [G-d]. Or it may be that this Beraitha [of the Sifre which speaks of the “shortcoming” of Israel, as hinted at in this section] is in agreement with the words of the Sage⁷⁰Rabbi Eliezer (Mechilta Pis’cha 15). who holds that [non-performance of] circumcision of one’s male children or servants does not prevent one from eating the Passover-offering, and therefore the people were permitted to bring the Passover-offering, but they did not trouble themselves to do it, and this is indeed a great “shortcoming.” The first interpretation, however, appears more likely to be correct, for [had they been obliged to bring it] Moses would have forced them to observe it and would not have allowed them [by not bringing it] to incur the penalty of excision. But as for the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days, and the removal [over that period] of leavened bread, Scripture did not have to say that they observed it [in the wilderness], since these are commandments that are obligatory on everyone’s person and apply in all places, and it has already been stated [that they are to be observed] throughout your generations by an ordinance forever.⁷¹Exodus 12:17.

בחודש הראשון, after he had taken a census of the males fit for service in the army according to their ages. Moses was to make all the preparations necessary to arrange for the orderly entrance of the Israelites into the land of Canaan.
This involved first and foremost that the inhabitants of the camps of the Israelites be ritually pure in conformity with the Torah’s imperative that the army of the Jewish people when assembled must be holy (Deuteronomy 23,15). Needless to say that it must not contain people who had not cleansed themselves of their ritual impurity. They also had to be certain that no members of the Israelite camp was the product of an illegal union between people whose incestuous relationship carried the karet penalty. The purpose of all this was that G’d’s Shechinah would rest on the troops, and that therefore victory would be assured and casualties minimized.
The Talmud in Sotah 11 and 31 relates that the Jewish people had 4 virtues to their credit on account of which they merited entering and conquering the land of Canaan already at that time if the sin of the spies had not intervened. We know that Moses was convinced that the conquest of the land of Canaan was at hand when he asked his father-in-law Yitro to remain with him and to partake in that event. (Numbers 10,29)
These merits were: 1) the altar had been successfully consecrated, the offerings of the Jewish people were being accepted by G’d. 2) the Levites had been consecrated. 3) The Jewish people had demonstrated eagerness when observing the anniversary of the Exodus by performing the required ceremonies in difficult circumstances. 4) They had followed their G’d to an inhospitable desert even though they had no idea if and when the cloud would lift and indicate that they were suddenly to break camp. Their entire situation was such that sometimes they would remain in the same spot for months or years, whereas other times they would break camp and re-establish camp after only 24 hours, all of which involved a tremendous upheaval when we consider that we speak about two and a half to three million souls.
In order to describe the various merits the Jewish people had in their favour at the time the Torah told us at this point about these events instead of relating them in chronological order, as we might have expected. Consecration of the altar occurred in the first month of the second year, so did the consecration of the Levites, and so did the celebration of the second Passover. Seeing that the beginning of the Book of Numbers speaks of events in the second month of that year, we could have questioned the Torah’s sequence. However, the Torah had a purpose in delaying the report about the last mentioned events in order to demonstrate that had it not been for the disastrous mission of the spies everything would have been in place for an immediate ascent to the Holy Land. The entire paragraph is another illustration of the principle known as אין מוקדם ומאוחר בתורה, that the Torah is not a record of events in chronological order. The Torah most certainly is very orderly, has been written after careful consideration, but G’d, the author, had decided that “order” does not necessarily mean “chronological sequence.”

בשנה השנית, in the second year, etc. Why did the Torah change its style in this instance by mentioning first the year and then the month of this event? When you look at the beginning of the Book of Numbers you will find that the Torah first mentions the month before mentioning the year. Not only this, but in our verse here the Torah does not even mention the month at all until after it referred to the Exodus. It would not have been necessary to interrupt mention of the date if the month in which G'd issued this command had been mentioned first. Another peculiarity in this paragraph is the absence of the customary instruction to Moses to "speak to the children of Israel!" The letter ו in the word ויעשו also needs explaining. To which previous instruction does that letter ו refer? Why was it altogether necessary to issue instructions to the Israelites to observe the Passover when this had already been commanded in Exodus 12,43? Apparently, the Torah was afraid that the Israelites had understood the previous commandment to apply only in Egypt and in the land of Israel so that the Torah had to make plain that it was a commandment which applied also during their stay in the desert.

בשנה השנית לצאתם מארץ מצרים, “during the second year, counting from their Exodus from Egypt.” This verse proves conclusively that the Torah has not imposed upon itself the rule of reporting events in historical sequence only, a rule known as אין מוקדם ומאוחר בתורה. It is stated specifically that the Book of Numbers commences with events which took place in the second month of the second year, whereas here the Torah backtracked to the first month of that year. The Israelites observed the Passover only once during all the years they were in the desert, i.e. on the first anniversary of the Exodus. One of the reasons was that the Israelites were not able to perform the rites of circumcision due to the northern wind which blew in the desert, exposure to which presented a health risk to the babies. Had they not sinned by accepting the majority report of the spies, they would not have had to wander in the desert and would have been in the Land of Israel before they would have had to observe a second Passover. Uncircumcised males are forbidden to partake of sacrificial meat, something unavoidable in performing the Passover ritual. [This editor has never understood this reason, as the natural increase of the Jewish people was about 2.5 percent annually, and it would have taken over 20 years before the majority of the male Israelites would have been uncircumcised. Why would the majority not perform such an important commandment because a minority was unable to? Ed.] Nachmanides writes that the reason why the Torah did not follow chronological sequence here was that before listing commandments issued to the people in the desert, the Torah wanted to complete the legislation pertaining to the erection of the Tabernacle, its inauguration, and to report on the composition of the encampment as it was to remain throughout the time the Israelites were in the desert. Seeing that the commandment to offer a Passover in the desert, at least according to some of our sages, was a one-time legislation, the record of this legislation and its performance could be deferred until this point. It is possible that mention had to be made of this commandment once more as in Exodus chapter 12 where we read about this legislation originally, it had never been stated that the commandment would remain in effect throughout the generations. [I do not follow, as in Exodus 12,14 this has been spelled out. Ed.] Now G’d wanted the people to perform these rites in order to remind them of what had happened exactly one year ago and to recall how many overt miracles G’d had performed in bringing about the people’s redemption from slavery. It was not necessary in the desert to write again the details of the seven day festival of matzot, etc., as being commandments that must be performed by the body they were automatically valid for all posterity.

Was not said until Iyar. As it is stated (Bamidbar 1:1) “in the second month.”

Kap. 9. V. 1. כמדבר סיני. Noch im Anblick der Gesetzgebungsstätte, vor dem ersten Aufbruch zum Weiterzuge in das der Verwirklichung dieses Gesetzes angehörende Land, sollte erst noch das Opfer des auf der ersten Grundbasis stets zu erneuenden Bewusstseins der Nationalbestimmung, das Peßachopfer, von der Gesamtheit des jüdischen Volkes begangen werden. Im Anblicke des Sinai, auf Grund der Erlösung aus Mizrajim, sollte erst noch jedes Haus in Israel und jede Seele eines jeden Hauses sich ihres von diesen beiden Säulen getragenen Berufes bewusst werden, und dieses Bewusstsein im פסח-Opfer betätigen. Es dürften aber mehrere Veranlassungen zu einer besonderen Erinnerung an die Erfüllung des Peßachgebotes vorhanden gewesen sein. Abgesehen davon, dass nach der Mechilta zu Schmot 12, 25 das jährliche Vollziehen des Peßachopfers erst nach erlangtem Landbesitze geboten, somit während der Wanderung in der Wüste ohne besondere göttliche Anordnung das Peßach gar nicht zu vollziehen gewesen wäre, — eine Bestimmung, deren Motiv sich sehr wohl aus dem Schmot daselbst von uns Bemerkten würde einsehen lassen, — abgesehen hiervon, da diese Ansicht nicht als die allgemeine aufzufassen ist (siehe תוספו Kiduschin 37 b ד׳׳ה הואיל): so trat ja ohnehin mit der ersten Wiederholung des Peßachopfers die von פסח מצרים teils verschiedene, teils erweiterte Begehung nach dem für פסח דורות Vorgeschriebenen in Kraft. מקחו בעשור אכילה בחפזון ,על המשקוף ועל שתי המזוזות ,הזאה באגודת אזוב fiel bei פסח דורות fort, dagegen trat הקטר חלבים ע׳׳ג המזבח ,שפיכת דם ליסוד המזבח ein, und während bei פסח מצרים das חמץ-Verbot nur einen Tag dauerte, trat mit פסח דורות das Verbot für sieben Tage ein (siehe Peßachim 96 a u. b und Schmot 12, 34). Es war somit vor der ersten Wiederkehr des vierzehnten Nissan eine erneute Erinnerung an die nunmehr eintretende Obliegenheit wohl motiviert, und dürfte auf die nun in voller Kraft eintretenden פסח דורות-Vorschriften wohl mit dem בכל חקתיו ובכל משפטיו וגו׳ des V. 3 hingewiesen sein. Wir möchten jedoch noch auf einen Umstand aufmerksam machen, der ein erneutes Gottesgebot des eben damals zu begehenden Peßachopfers unumgänglich gemacht haben dürfte. Nach סדר עולם (Schabbat 87 b) war der erste Nissan des zweiten Jahres, der Tag der endlichen Errichtung des Heiligtums, am ersten Wochentage. War aber der erste Nissan an einem Sonntage, so fiel der vierzehnte, also der Tag für die Darbringung des Peßach, auf einen Schabbat, und es bedurfte noch erst des Ausspruchs, dass פסח דוחה שבת, dass das מלאכה-Verbot des Schabbats vor der Peßachopferpflicht zurückzutreten habe und das Peßach selbst am Schabbat darzubringen sei. Eine Bestimmung, die ja in der Tat erst hier in dem במועדו des V. 2 zum Ausspruch gelangte. — בחדש הראשון: Wir haben schon zu Kap. 7, 1 darauf hingewiesen, wie dort die Schrift wieder zurückgreift, nachdem bereits der Anfang des Buches von dem im zweiten Monat Geschehenen berichtet hatte, und haben das Motiv dieser Berichtsfolge einzusehen geglaubt. Diese Eigentümlichkeit, dass die Schrift in ihren Berichten nicht immer die chronologische Folge beobachtet, sondern mitunter ihre Zusammenstellungen nach inneren Gründen ordnet, wird im ספרי eben an dieser Stelle und Peßachim 6 b mit dem Kanon: אין מוקדם ומאוחר בתורה bezeichnet. In Ordnung der Gesetzestitel folgt diesem Kanon gemäss die Schrift ganz entschieden einem durch den Inhalt der Gesetzobjekte gegebenen Zusammenhange, und setzt daher häufig in einem früheren Kapitel eine Gesetzesbestimmung voraus, die erst ausführlich in einem späteren Kapitel niedergelegt ist. So z. B. הזיה במי חטאת im V. 7 des vorigen Kapitels, wovon ausführlich erst Kap. 19 gehandelt wird. Ward ja schriftlich das Gesetz erst am Ende des vierzigsten Jahres übergeben, nachdem es bereits mündlich in vollständigster Ausführlichkeit dem Volke bekannt war, und konnte daher bei jedem schriftlich abgefassten die Bekanntschaft mit dem ganzen Gesetze vorausgesetzt werden.

בשנה השנית....ויעשו בני ישראל את הפסח במועדו, “in the second year after the Exodus....let the Children of Israel offer the Passover sacrifice at its appointed time;” in the Talmud, tractate Pessachim chapter one folio 6, the question is asked why the Torah first wrote the chapter about the census of the people in the first chapter of this Book, although it took place a month later than the observance of the first anniversary of the Exodus. The answer given there is that the Torah is not obligated to record events in their chronological order. Granted that this is true, it is nonetheless in order to enquire why the Torah departs from the chronological order when it does so. The reason may be that seeing the Book of Leviticus, containing all the commandments to be performed by the priests in the Tabernacle, and the tasks performed by the Levites were performed either at or near the Tabernacle, it was considered appropriate to continue with a subject closely related to that discussed in the Book of Leviticus. The flags, the order in which the Israelites encamped around the Tabernacle, were a natural continuation of what had been dealt with in the Book of Leviticus. Rashi explains that the reason why this Book does not commence with the observance of the Passover is that it draws attention to the fact that this was the only time in forty years that the Israelites did observe the anniversary of the Exodus in the manner prescribed. It is therefore an implied criticism of the Jewish people. If you were to ask that actually mandatory observance of the Passover was linked to residence in the land of Israel as spelled out in Exodus 13,5: והיה כי יביאך ה' אל ארץ הכנעני.....ועבדת את העבודה הזאת בחדש הזה. שבעת ימים תאכל מצות וגו', "it will be when Hashem will bring you to the land of the Canaanite........then shall you perform this ritual. For seven consecutive days you are to eat unleavened bread, etc.” So where is the implied criticism? Not only this; even this instance of offering the Passover was observed only after the Israelites had received specific instructions in verse one of our chapter. We would have to understand Rashi as implying that if the Israelites, due to their shortcomings, had not been forced to delay conquest of the land of the Canaanites for forty years, they could have fulfilled this commandment consecutively during all these years already.

בחדש הראשון, “in the first month;” The Torah writes here: במדבר סיני, “in the desert of Sinai,” and it did so also in Numbers 1,1, when that date was in the second year of the Israelites’ wanderings. This teaches that what was communicated to the Israelites on both occasions was told to them on the first day of the month. Here Rashi comments that the communication recorded there was not communicated to them until the beginning of the second month. This was to teach us that the author of the Torah did not feel obligated to order Moses to write things down in chronological order. Why did the Torah (Moses) not write this chapter at the beginning of the Book of Numbers? He did not want to commence this Book with recording matters which reflected negatively on the Jewish people. If you were to counter: what is so negative, seeing that in the Book of Exodus chapter12,25, the people’s coming to the land of Israel and receiving it as their ancestral heritage was made conditional on their observing the laws connected with the Exodus?The fact is that had it not been for the people’s complaining as reported in this chapter, they would have come to the land of Israel much sooner and the question of observing the anniversary of the Exodus in the desert would never have arisen. They would have entered the land of Israel during the month in which the event recorded in this chapter occurred. As it is, they moved away from Mount Sinai on the 20th day of the month of Iyar, and Moses told the people that there was only eleven days’ march to the land of Canaan from Mount Sinai. In fact, in expectation of this, Moses had invited his fatherinlaw Yitro to accompany them on that short journey in verse 29 of our chapter, indicating that they would move on forthwith. According to Rashi, the way Moses had formulated this invitation it meant that within a maximum of 3 days the Israelites would break camp and enter the Holy Land. They would have had ample time to prepare for the Passover which was to commence on the evening of the fifteenth of that month. Now, seeing that the Israelites had become guilty of the sin of demanding meat in an unfitting manner, and they had spent a whole month eating the quail, except for the ones who died from overindulging even earlier, the time to observe the Passover in the Holy Land had already passed. (Numbers 11,29) They were delayed again on account of having to wait until Miriam had been healed after she had spoken deprecatingly of her brother Moses. (Numbers 12,116). Subsequently, they were delayed for 40 days while Moses had to send out spies to pacify the doubters. To cap it all, the whole generation of the adults who had left Egypt were condemned to die in the desert for having preferred to return to Egypt rather than to trust the Lord to bring them to the Holy Land. All of this were events which Moses did not wish to record at the beginning of this Book.

That throughout the forty years. Since it is written (v. 5) “on the fourteenth day…” why was it necessary to say “in the desert of Sinai”? — At the beginning of the Parshah it writes “in the desert of Sinai”! Rather, it is to teach you that “throughout the forty years…” You might ask: Why did Moshe not compel them to offer the Pesach-offering? The answer is that in the desert there were many Jews who were not circumcised, and who did not circumcise their sons. In which case you might ask: If so, what was the discredit in this — surely they were unable to offer it? The answer is that they brought this about through their sin, because if it has not been for their sin, they would have entered the Land of Israel in another three days, as Rashi explains [below] on the verse “we are traveling…” (10:29) (Tosafos Kiddushin 38).

It appears that the repetition has to do with the prohibition of a בן נכר to eat of the Passover. According to the Mechilta on Exodus 12,43 that expression meant that anyone who was either a Gentile or a Jew who deliberately flouted G'd's laws was "estranged" and was not allowed to eat of that sacrifice. Seeing that in the interval since the Exodus the Israelites had become guilty of making the golden calf and worshiping it they had reason to believe that the injunction in Exodus 12,43 applied to them. This is especially so seeing that we are taught in Chulin 5 that anyone who acknowledges any deity other than G'd is considered as if he had denied all of Judaism. While it is true that G'd had accepted the repentance of the Jewish people after Moses had stayed on Mount Sinai three times for 40 days to beg for forgiveness, the people had not yet been told that that sin had been atoned for and there remained a lingering doubt concerning that forgiveness. The people therefore needed special permission in order to proceed and to offer the Passover on the anniversary of the Exodus. This is also why the Torah proceeds without the customary "speak to the children of Israel" to introduce this command simply as a corollary to the original Passover, and it uses the conjunctive letter ו when writing "and they shall perform the Passover." The word ויעשו tells the Israelites that not only had G'd reconsidered His original intent of destroying them but He had even consented to let them bring the Passover.

Now we can also better understand why the Torah began this chapter by first mentioning the year in which this command was issued. Seeing that the whole paragraph only intended to sanction the fact that the Israelites would offer the Passover, the Torah speaks of the second year so that we would appreciate that this was after the episode of the golden calf. Had the Torah commenced by first mentioning the month we would not have been struck by the fact that the command was issued after the episode of the golden calf. G'd did not tell Moses: "speak to the children of Israel," as He did not want to command them to do this; rather He wanted to permit them to offer the Passover. Seeing that the Talmud (Pessachim 6) claims that this communication occurred on the first of Nissan, it may have occurred before the שכינה descended onto the Tabernacle on that day, and it was G'd's way of informing the people that they had been found worthy to offer the Passover. Subsequent to this communication the Presence of G'd descended and this is why we find the Torah continue in verse 15 with: וביום הקים את המשכן כסה הענן.