Musar к Бамидбар 7:9

I have seen a tremendous stumbling block among the charity officers of the Polish provinces. The system in those lands is that each officer serves for only a single month, to be relieved by another officer the following month. Then when the months of Nissan and Tishrei arrive, at which time the needs of the poor are particularly great, each of the officers excuses himself from the task, telling the supplicants who come before them, “What do you want with me? Here is the officer of the month. It is his responsibility to fulfill his obligation this month!” Such conduct is very unworthy, for in fact it is incumbent upon all the officers to carry out this holy task. Bekasef yisa’u — “Let them bear the burden of the money!” [this is a play on the words of the verse in Bamidbar 7:9, “They (the holy vessels) bear upon the shoulder,” which is pronounced the same in Hebrew]. What is the officer of the month supposed to do? Sometimes he lacks the resources to lend the money for the distribution out of his own pocket, but neither is there enough money in the charity fund. This holy task should be treated as of no less importance than the service of a human king, which is incumbent upon his subjects every day, week and month. No one would think of saying to a human king, “I am exempt this month. I am responsible for a different month.” Why, then, should one speak this way regarding the service of the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One Blessed is He, Heaven forbid?

Reuben, for instance, believed that from a strictly legal point of view Joseph deserved to be executed because he rebelled against the concept that Royalty was reserved for the house of David, i.e. the tribe of Yehudah. On the other hand, he considered the legislation in Numbers 35,24 and 25, according to which one must try and find every possible extenuating circumstance before subjecting the accused to the ultimate penalty. In actual fact, however, Joseph was not guilty at all, since he neither coveted Royalty for himself nor tried to deny Yehudah's claim to Royalty. Quite the contrary, he tried to advance Yehudah's cause so that the kingdom of David would come about sooner. We have explained earlier that there were three "crowns" to be acquired, the "crown" of Torah being primary. Since Joseph symbolized the "crown" of Torah, the other two "crowns" could be acquired only by means of Joseph paving the way for such a development. Joseph's being the antithesis of Esau enabled the Jewish people to develop, and in due course helped the other two "crowns" to become meaningful. Perhaps this is the reason why the Jewish people carried two arks with them during their trek through the desert to the land of Canaan. One ark contained the tablets with the Ten Commandments as well as the original Torah scroll, the other contained the remains of Joseph. The people paid Joseph a tremendous compliment by carrying both arks side by side, since this conveyed the idea that "this one (Joseph) observed what is recorded in the other one (Torah)." The ark was carried on the shoulders (בכתף ישאו, Numbers 7,9). Because of this little detail, the Midrash phrased the enthusiasm imputed to Reuben, had he been aware of the Torah's compliment to him, in the words: "He would have carried Joseph back to his father on his shoulders."