Rabbi Dov Kramer on the Parsha

Taking a Closer Look (Rabbi Dov Kramer)

 

            “This is the amount [of people] counted by Moshe and Aharon and the twelve leaders of Israel.” “And the total amount of the Children of Israel, by tribe, was of the men who were twenty years and older, all eligible to go to war for Israel.” “And the total amount was 603,550.” These three consecutive verses (Bamidbar 1:44-46) could have been combined into a single verse (“This is the total number of men twenty and older, counted by Moshe, Aharon and the Tribal leaders, by tribe: 603,550”), or, at the very least, into two verses. Based on the Ramban (1:45), the Kesav Sofer explains why the expression of being counted (“pekudim”) is stated three times in these three verses.

 

            The Ramban provides three different reasons for this census: #1) Since it was done “by name” (1:2), it gave everyone the opportunity to meet Moshe and Aharon face to face and grow from their personal meeting with these great and holy leaders, while allowing Moshe and Aharon to meet them one at a time and beseech G-d to help them based on their personal needs. The Kesav Sofer says that this is implied by the verse telling us that “they were counted by Moshe and Aharon (1:44). #2) Just as every king has to know how many soldiers he has before going to war, since G-d operates via natural means and the nation was preparing to conquer the Promised Land (had they not sinned with the spies), those eligible for the army were counted, i.e. “all who go out to battle” (1:45). #3) By taking this census and demonstrating how large the nation had become, they would become more fully aware of G-d’s kindness to them, for they had been just “70 souls” when they went down to Egypt and now they were “as numerous as the stars of the heavens” (Devarim 10:22). This aspect correlates to the third verse, which gives the actual number of men at least twenty years old. By separating them into three verses, each with its own introduction regarding the “counting,” all three of these reasons for the census are highlighted.

 

            The Ramban, when giving the third reason (in the Kesav Sofer’s order; it is the second reason given by the Ramban), puts it in a question form. “I don’t know why [G-d] commanded that they know the actual number [of people counted]; perhaps it was to inform them of His kindness towards them, for their ancestors descended to Egypt with 70 souls, and now they are like the sands of the sea, so many and so many twenty years old and above.” It wasn’t (just) for us to recognize how large the nation had become in a little over 200 years, but for them to become aware of it (consistent with the other two reasons being applicable to that generation) . How did they know how few there had been two centuries earlier? Was there only an oral tradition regarding the nation’s beginnings? Would having this tradition be enough to get them to contrast it with the current reality and bring about mass appreciation of G-d’s kindness to them? Furthermore, why does the Ramban almost quote the verse in Devarim, but switch the metaphor from “stars in the heavens” to “[grains of] sand by the sea?”

 

            When the nation accepted the Torah from G-d, there was a contract agreed to, written down by Moshe, and read to the nation. There are numerous approaches as to precisely what was in this contract (see www.RabbiDMK.posterous.com/Parashas-Mishpatim-5770). Rashi (Shemos 22:7) says it was the text of the Torah from the beginning (Beraishis) until the giving of the Torah (the point in the narrative that was, at that point, the “present”) as well as the commandments they had been given at Marah (shortly before getting to Mt. Sinai; according to many, these commandments make up the bulk of Parashas Mishpatim). Even if the Ramban disagrees with Rashi regarding the contents of this “contract” (very possible, even likely, as the Ramban is of the opinion that this contract was agreed to after the “Ten Commandments,” whereas Rashi says the contract was agreed to beforehand), it would seem that he agrees that this part of the text of the Torah was given to the nation at Sinai (the rest of the document was given to the nation at Arvos Moav, shortly before Moshe’s death; see Devarim 31:9).

 

            Although G-d’s kindness to the nation regarding its growth from “70 souls” to over 600,000 warrior-age men (plus women and children) is summed up nicely in the verse in Devarim (almost) quoted by the Ramban, it can be suggested that the Ramban purposely didn’t quote it exactly because it was part of the Torah that the nation did not receive yet. Instead, he used another metaphor, one that was contained in the part of the Torah they had already been given (Beraishis 22:17 and 32:12); even if the metaphor used in Devarim is employed there as well. [That the family consisted of “70 souls” when it joined Yosef in Egypt is mentioned twice in the part of the Torah given to the nation at Matan Torah; Beraishis 46:27 and Shemos 1:5.)

 

If the nation already had this part of the document to study (besides learning about the mitzvos they now had to keep, including Seder Nezikin), it would be common knowledge, constantly reinforced via textual study, that there were only 70 members of the family when they went down to Egypt. Therefore, after having studied this text for close to eleven months (from the beginning of Sivan, 2448 until the beginning of Iyar 2449), when the census revealed that there were now over 600,000 males above the age of twenty, it made quite an impression.