Комментарий к Бамидбар 31:30

מן הבקר ומן החמורים ומן הצאן מכל הבהמה, “from the cattle, from the donkeys, from the flock- from all the livestock.” The system followed by the Torah here is known as פרט וכלל, listing individual items, all of which fit the heading mentioned afterwards. Ibn Ezra comments that the expression מכל הבהמה means, for instance, that Eleazar did not take any of the captured camels, as they were few in number. This is why no number was given as to how many such animals had been captured, and the share of the Levites among them was therefore not mentioned either.

V. 30. אחז, herausgegriffen, ohne Wahl (siehe V. 29).

אחד אחוז מן החמשים ונתתה אותם ללוים, (from the half share of the other Israelites) “you shall withhold one in every fifty (humans, cattle, and chattels) and give them to the Levites.” When the Levites received 10 shares out of every thousand, the priests took for themselves one share. [Rabbi Chavell points out that our author appears to have made a miscalculation here. I will not get involved in this. Ed.]

מן הבקר ומן החמורים ומן הצאן, “from the herds, the donkeys and the flocks.” Why were the camels not mentioned, seeing that there must have been very many of them? In the war against Midian under Gideon (Judges 6,51) the author tells us that the number of camels captured were too many to bother counting. Apparently, only these animals were counted as qualifying for the Temple treasury which were ritually pure, or which the Torah had accorded a special status such as donkeys, whose first born males had to be redeemed. (Exodus chapter 13,15) We may assume that the camels were included in when the Torah wrote: ממל הבהמה, from all of the livestock in our verse.