Бамидбар 1:18 Комментарий: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi, Ramban & Sforno

“On the first day of the second month they convoked the whole community” [1:18]. The verse shows us that Moses was very quick to fulfill the Holy One’s commands, and he gathered all of Israel in the same day that God had told him to count them. However, there were many Israelites and they could not all be counted in one day. Therefore, the verse says, “he recorded them in the wilderness of Sinai” [1:19]. That is to say, they were not counted in one day, but the counting finished on the next day in the wilderness of Sinai. So write Ramban and Bahya.¹²Ramban, Numbers, 1:18; Bahya, Numbers, 1:18.

“Who were registered by the clans of their ancestral houses” [1:18]. That is to say, they brought their letters of pedigree and showed in which tribe they were born. So writes Rashi.¹³Rashi, Numbers, 1:18.

Ramban asks a question about Rashi. How is it that each person had to bring his letter of pedigree from which tribe he was? Therefore, Ramban says, the meaning is that each one brought a silver coin, a half shekel, and gave it to Moses and said from which family and tribe he was. Moses counted the coins of each tribe separately. This is how they knew how many men each tribe had.¹⁴Ramban, Numbers, 1:18.

ויתילדו על משפחותם THEY DECLARED THEIR PEDIGREES AFTER THEIR FAMILIES — They brought the records of their pedigree and witnesses to confirm the prevalent presumption regarding their parentage, so that each might establish his pedigree with regard to the particular tribe (cf. Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 684).