Comentários de Citação sobre Êxodo 40:2

וידבר… במדבר סיני … באחד לחדש וגו׳ AND [THE LORD] SPOKE [UNTO MOSES] IN THE DESERT OF SINAI … ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE [SECOND] MONTH … [TAKE YE THE SUM OF ALL THE CONGREGATION] etc. — Because they were dear to him, He counts them every now and then: when they went forth from Egypt He counted them (Exodus 12:37), when many of them fell in consequence of their having worshipped the golden calf He counted them to ascertain the number of those left (cf. Rashi Exodus 30:16); when he was about to make His Shechinah dwell amongst them (i. e. when He commanded them to make a Tabernacle), He again took their census; for on the first day of Nisan the Tabernacle was erected (Exodus 40:2) and shortly afterwards, on the first day of Iyar, He counted them.

AND IT CAME TO PASS ON THE DAY THAT MOSES HAD FINISHED SETTING UP THE TABERNACLE. “Scripture does not say ‘on the day that Moses set up’ [but it states ‘on the day that Moses had finished setting up’]. This teaches us that on each of the seven days of initiation [of the priests] Moses erected and dismantled the Tabernacle, and on that day [the eighth day] he erected it but did not dismantle it. Therefore it says, on the day that Moses had finished setting up the Tabernacle, since it was on that day that he finished all his erections. This happened on the first of Nisan; on the second day the Red Heifer was burnt, on the third day they sprinkled [upon the Levites]¹²⁵Further, 8:7. the first sprinkling [of the water of purification in which the ashes of the Red Heifer were mingled],¹²⁶Ibid., 19:12. and on the seventh day [of Nisan, after having been sprinkled again]¹²⁶Ibid., 19:12. the Levites were shaven¹²⁵Further, 8:7. [and were ready to be initiated into their service].” This is Rashi’s language on the basis of the words of our Rabbis¹²⁷Sifre Naso 44. of blessed memory. But it is not a complete proof [that Moses set up the Tabernacle and dismantled it again on each of the seven days of initiation], for the expression on the day that he had finished is not connected only with the word l’hakim (setting up), but [its meaning is rather as follows]: “on the day that Moses had finished setting up the Tabernacle and anointing and sanctifying it, and [doing likewise to] the altar and all the vessels thereof — the princes offered their offerings, when all this was done.” Nonetheless [however we explain the verse], it was [indeed] on the eighth day [of the initiation of the priests].
This section was written here because on the first day of the initiation He called unto Moses out of the Tent of Meeting and G-d spoke to him¹²⁸Leviticus 1:1. all the sections [of the Torah] from the beginning of the Book of Leviticus until the section of Vayehi Bayom Ha’shemini,¹¹¹Leviticus 9:1. The verse referred to is ibid., 22. which all deal with the laws of the offerings. From that eighth day on Moses was told all the sections beginning with These are the beasts which ye may eat,¹²⁹Ibid., 11:2. which contain the laws of forbidden and permitted foods, since they are all related to the subject of the offerings, and these topics continued in their correct order up to this place [before us], as I have explained.¹³⁰In Exodus 40:2, and Leviticus 25:1. Thus when He had completed the commandments which Moses was ordered to say to Israel, all of them being laws of the Divine Service and the offerings, the charge of the Tent of Meeting and its Service, He reverted here afterwards to tell of the freewill offerings of the princes, which took place from the eighth day until the nineteenth day of Nisan,¹³¹This is the opinion of Rabbi Akiba, who says that the first day of the initiation of the priests was the first of Nisan, and accordingly “the eighth day” [which marked the final erection of the Tabernacle] was on the eighth of Nisan. On that day the twelve princes began their offerings, and each one brought an offering on a separate day, so that they finished on the nineteenth of Nisan. or until the twelfth day of the month in accordance with the words of our Rabbis.¹³²This is the opinion of Rabbi Yishmael, and is also the finally agreed opinion of the Rabbis in general. Hence the language of Ramban [“in accordance with the words of our Rabbis”]. According to this opinion, the Tabernacle was first put up on the twenty-third of Adar, and “the eighth day” was therefore the first of Nisan, so that the princes completed their offerings on the twelfth of Nisan. See further on this matter in my Hebrew commentary p. 217, and in Ramban, Vol. II, pp. 616-622.

On the eighth day We might suppose that by “the eighth day” the eighth day of Nisan is meant, since the Tabernacle was erected on the first day of the month. However, the Exegetes said that this occurred on the first day of Nisan, and that during each of the seven days of installation Moshe had erected the Tabernacle and destroyed it, in order to accustom the people to it and to instruct them [see Torat Kohanim on this verse].

ונתת אתו על עבדת אהל מועד AND THOU SHALT GIVE IT FOR THE SERVICE OF THE APPOINTED TENT — From this statement you may learn that he (Moses) was commanded to take their census when they began to contribute towards the building of the Tabernacle, after the incident of the golden calf, because the pestilence had befallen them, as it is said, (Exodus 32:35) “and the Lord plagued the people”. A parable: To what may this be compared? To a flock that is dear to its owner upon which there fell pestilence. As soon as it ceased he said to the shepherd, “I beg of you, count my sheep and ascertain how many of them are left”. He did this to show that it (the flock) was dear to him (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 9). — It is, however, impossible to say that the census mentioned here is identical with that spoken of in the Book of Numbers (1:1), for there (in Numbers 1:1) Scripture states, “[And God spake to Moses …] on the first day of the second month … [Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel etc.]”, whilst the Tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month as it is said, (Exodus 40:2) “On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up [the Tabernacle etc.]”, and from this census (that mentioned in this paragraph) — from the shekels obtained by it — the sockets used for its boards were made, for it is said, (Exodus 38:27) and of the hundred talents of silver were cast [the sockets of the sanctuary]”. Consequently you learn from this that two censuses were taken, viz., one at the beginning of their contributing towards the Tabernacle, after the Day of Atonement (when Moses first commanded the people to engage in the construction of the Tabernacle; see Rashi on Exodus 33:11, last sentence), in the first year, and the other in the second year, in Iyar, after the Tabernacle had already been set up. If you ask, however: is it at all possible that on both of these occasions the number of the Israelites was exactly the same, viz., 603,550, for in the account of how the silver of those that were numbered of the congregation was used (Exodus 38:27) it is so stated, and in the Book of Numbers (1:46) exactly the same is stated, “Even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty”; were not these censuses taken in two different years, and surely it is impossible that there were not at the time of the first census people nineteen years old who accordingly were not counted and who became twenty years old in the second year when the second census was taken and this must have added to the total?! The reply to this question is: As far as the years of men’s ages are concerned they were counted in the same year, but reckoning from the time of the exodus from Egypt they were two different years in which the censuses were held. For when we speak of a period beginning with the exodus from Egypt, which took place in Nisan, we calculate from Nisan, as we have learned in Treatise Rosh Hashanah 2b. Consequently the Tabernacle was being built in the first year and was erected in the second year, because a new year began on the first of Nisan following the exodus. The years of people’s ages, however, were counted according to the era of the creation of the world which begins with Tishri, consequently from this point of view both censuses took place in the same year: the first in Tishri after the Day of Atonement when the Omnipresent became reconciled with Israel to grant them His pardon and when they received the command regarding the construction of the Tabernacle, and the second on the first of Iyar, so that those who were only 19 years old after the Day of Atonement when the first census was taken, were not yet regarded as twenty in Iyar when the second census was held even though they were born between Tishri and Iyar.