כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר צִוָּ֥ה יְהוָ֖ה אֶת־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַֽיִּפְקְדֵ֖ם בְּמִדְבַּ֥ר סִינָֽי׃ (פ)
Как повелел Господь Моисею, так и исчислил их в пустыне Синайской.
Kedushat Levi
Numbers 1,19. “In accordance with G’d’s instructions to Moses; he counted them in the desert of Sinai.”
We must take note that instead of the Torah first writing that Moses had carried out G’d’s command and had counted the people, and then adding that he had done so in accordance with G’d’s instructions, -which would have been the normal syntax,- the Torah first emphasized that Moses did exactly as instructed. Why did the Torah depart from its norm?
We must remember that when G’d gave the Torah to the Jewish people, the collective soul of the Jewish people was considered as the “body” of the Torah, seeing that the Jewish people comprised 600.000 souls equal to the number of letters in the Torah. Each Israelite may be viewed as representing one of the letters of the Torah. [This number, while based on the Zohar, does not correspond to the normal count which is only some 305.000. Ed.] According to the Zohar then, one may allegorically equate Torah and the Jewish people. We may therefore understand Moses’ having “counted” the Jewish people as another way of saying that he had taught the Jewish people the Torah. This has been alluded with the words כאשר צוה ה' את משה, meaning that Moses personally performed this count.
This also explains the Torah writing in Deuteronomy 2,49 “but do not count the members of the tribe of Levi amongst the Israelites;” when the Torah is equated with the Israelites it refers to the 12 tribes exclusive of the tribe of Levi. The Levites were counted על פי ה', by the command of Hashem (3,16).
We must take note that instead of the Torah first writing that Moses had carried out G’d’s command and had counted the people, and then adding that he had done so in accordance with G’d’s instructions, -which would have been the normal syntax,- the Torah first emphasized that Moses did exactly as instructed. Why did the Torah depart from its norm?
We must remember that when G’d gave the Torah to the Jewish people, the collective soul of the Jewish people was considered as the “body” of the Torah, seeing that the Jewish people comprised 600.000 souls equal to the number of letters in the Torah. Each Israelite may be viewed as representing one of the letters of the Torah. [This number, while based on the Zohar, does not correspond to the normal count which is only some 305.000. Ed.] According to the Zohar then, one may allegorically equate Torah and the Jewish people. We may therefore understand Moses’ having “counted” the Jewish people as another way of saying that he had taught the Jewish people the Torah. This has been alluded with the words כאשר צוה ה' את משה, meaning that Moses personally performed this count.
This also explains the Torah writing in Deuteronomy 2,49 “but do not count the members of the tribe of Levi amongst the Israelites;” when the Torah is equated with the Israelites it refers to the 12 tribes exclusive of the tribe of Levi. The Levites were counted על פי ה', by the command of Hashem (3,16).