Comentário sobre Números 31:27

וחצית את המלקוח בין תפשי המלחמה וגו׳ AND THOU SHALT DIVIDE THE PREY INTO TWO PARTS: BETWEEN THEM THAT TOOK THE WAR UPON THEMSELVES, etc. — half of it for these and half of it for those.

וחצית את המלקוח, seeing that this war was a war of revenge for something the enemy had done against the people as a whole, the Torah wanted that the principle of ואכלת את אויביך, “you will consume your enemies,” (Deuteronomy 20,14) be fulfilled. Something similar occurred with David and the loot taken from Amalek (Samuel I 30,26) when he distributed loot he personally had captured from the Amalekites.

וחצית את המלקוח, “and divide in half the spoils of beasts and humans.” In this verse the word מלקוח includes humans as well as beasts. G’d commanded that the loot be divided between the soldiers who had captured it and the people who had remained behind. Also, the captors were to give a tithe to the Levites of 1/50th of the loot, seeing that 1/50th of Israel’s fighting men had taken part in this campaign. The priests, i.e. Eleazar received תרומה i.e. one tenth of the amount the people gave to the Levites. The 12,000 fighting men shared the one half of the spoils, the people on the home front shared the other half between them.

Half for these. Rashi wishes to answer the question: The verse implies that those who took part in the war would stand on one side and the rest of the community on the other, and he would divide [the spoils] between these two groups [but the verse does mention anything about distribution]. If so, what was the reason for doing this [i.e., standing on opposite sides]? Furthermore, the verse does not explain to whom [i.e. in what proportion] are the portions to be given. Rashi answers that the verse means to say that half should be given to these and half to these.

V. 27. תפשי מלחמה (vergl. תופש כנור; Bereschit 4, 21), תופשי התורה (Jirm. 2, 8), es sind alle die, die die Lösung dieser Kriegsaufgabe ergriffen hatten. Es umfasst dies alle am Heereszug beteiligt gewesenen Hauptleute wie Gemeine.