Comentários de Citação sobre Números 10:4

עשה לך שתי חצוצרות כסף, “make for yourself two silver trumpets, etc.” According to the plain meaning of the text these two trumpets were made of silver, a single casting each as directed in our verse by the words מקשה תעשה אותם,”make them hammered out.” These trumpets had two functions 1) they served to call the people or the princes to an assembly. 2) They provided the signal for the people to break camp and commence their journeys. This is the meaning of the words: “they shall be yours for summoning the congregation and to cause the camps to journey.”
When both trumpets would be sounded simultaneously this would be the signal to assemble the people; if only one of the trumpets was blown this was the signal that only the princes need assemble. This is the meaning of the words in verse 4: “when they will blow in one (trumpet), the princes will assemble to you, the leaders of the thousands of Israel.” Seeing that these people were special, unique amongst their peers, only a single trumpet was blown to call them to an assembly. The kind of blast blown was that known as tekiah, a smooth unbroken tone. The smoothness of the sound was a reminder of the attribute of Mercy, reminding people that G’d’s right hand is outstretched waiting to welcome penitent sinners.
In order to make the camps start journeying the kind of sound blown was the teruah, shorter broken sounds, staccato-like. We know this from verse 6: “a teruah they are to blow for their journeys.” The reason, as we explained already, is that journeys called מסעות mean marching into war, i.e. involving the attribute of Justice. Basically, the journeys of the people of Israel were directed at dislodging the seven Canaanite nations from their homeland. It is the attribute of Justice which grants one victory in battle, and the Jewish people therefore alerted the attribute of Justice whenever they set out on their journeys. This is why in that connection you will always find the words 'על פי ה', “at the command of the Lord.”
When the people got ready to journey the trumpets would be blown in each direction of the four camps seeing that the four camps faced the four directions (winds) of the earth. This is why we have separate verses describing the different camps breaking up at different times (verses 5-6).

אל ראשי המטות, to the leaders of the tribes, etc. What is so different about this commandment that Moses assembled the chiefs of the tribes to inform them of it and that they in turn were to tell the Israelites? Sifri claims that seeing in Numbers 10,3 in connection with the trumpets the congregation was mentioned before the leaders, and Moses was afraid that this would be misinterpreted to mean that the congregation at large took precedence over the princes, he made sure in 10,4 that the princes were referred to as the heads of the congregation. Moses did something similar here when he addressed the heads of the tribes first. In Nedarim 78 we are told that the reason the heads of the tribes are mentioned here was to hint that vows may be dissolved by a lone judge if he is an expert in the subject. All these comments are strictly allegorical. We need to understand also why the Torah writes המטות לבני ישראל. All Moses had to say was מטות בני ישראל. What is the reason for the extra letter ל? We must assume that the reason for the extra letter is to avoid a misunderstanding. Had the Torah not written לבני ישראל, we might have thought that the legislation was aimed only at the leaders of the people. By writing the extra letter ל, the Torah ensured that we would understand the legislation as applying to the leaders of the people as well as to the nation at large. The absence of the letter ו in front of לבני ישראל is not significant as the Torah has omitted that letter on frequent occasions where we would have expected it such as in Exodus 1,2 ראובן, שמעון, etc.

וימותו לפני ה, “They died in the presence of the Lord. [This is an unusual expression. Are we not all, at any given moment, “in the Presence” of the Lord?] Rabbi Eliezer says this expression teaches that they did not die until having left the sacred precincts and being in the antechamber where Levites were permitted. We have proof of this from verse 4 where the cousins of these brothers, by the names of Mishael and Eltzafan were charge with removing their bodies from there for burial. But why did the Torah say that they dies before the Lord (i.e. inside the Tabernacle)? Perhaps they did die there but later an angel pushed the bodies outside to where the Levites were permitted. Rabbi Akiva on the other hand said that they did die inside the Tabernacle. Since they were still wearing their garments which had not been burned by the heavenly fire, their cousins hooked their spears into the outer garments and dragged them until they were outside the sacred parts of the Tabernacle.