Bamidbar (parsha)

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Bamidbar, Bemidbar, BeMidbar, or B'midbar (במדבר — Hebrew for "in the wilderness,” the fifth word, and the first distinctive word, in the parshah) is the 34th weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the first in the book of Numbers. It constitutes Numbers 1:1–4:20. Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in May or early June.

The parshah tells of the census and the priests’ duties.

“Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He added, “So shall your offspring be.” Gen. 15:5.
“Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He added, “So shall your offspring be.” Gen. 15:5.

Contents

[edit] Summary

[edit] Census

In the wilderness, in the second month of in the second year following the Exodus from Egypt, God directed Moses to take a census of the Israelite men age 20 years and up, “all those in Israel who are able to bear arms.” (Num. 1:1–3.) The census showed the following populations by tribe (Num. 1:20–46):

totaling 603,550 in all.

God told Moses not to enroll the Levites, but to put them in charge of carrying, assembling, tending to, and guarding the Tabernacle and its furnishings. (Num. 1:47–53.) Any outsider who encroached on the Tabernacle was to be put to death. (Num. 1:51.)

God told Moses that the Israelites were to encamp by tribe as follows (Num. 1:52–2:34):

  • around the Tabernacle: Levi
  • on the front, or east side: Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun
  • on the south: Reuben, Simeon, and Gad
  • on the west: Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin
  • on the north: Dan, Asher, and Naphtali.

[edit] Priestly duties

God instructed Moses to place the Levites in attendance upon Aaron to serve him and the priests. (Num. 3:5–8.) God took the Levites in place of all the firstborn among the Israelites, whom God consecrated when God smote the firstborn in Egypt. (Num. 3:11–13.) God then told Moses to record by ancestral house and by clan the Levite men from the age of one month up, and he did so. (Num. 3:14–16.) The Levites divided by their ancestral houses, based on the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. (Num. 3:17.)

  • The Gershonites, numbered 7,500, camped behind the Tabernacle, to the west, and had charge of the Tabernacle, the tent, its covering, the screen for the entrance of the tent, the hangings of the enclosure, the screen for the entrance of the enclosure that surrounded the Tabernacle, and the altar. (Num. 3:21–26.)
    the lampstand
    the lampstand
  • The Kohathites, numbered 8,600, camped along the south side of the Tabernacle, and had charge of the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, the sacred utensils, and the screen. (Num. 3:27–31.)
  • The Merarites, numbered 6,200, camped along the north side of the Tabernacle, and had charge of the planks of the Tabernacle, its bars, posts, sockets, and furnishings, and the posts around the enclosure and their sockets, pegs, and cords. (Num. 3:33–37.)
  • Moses, Aaron, and Aaron’s sons camped in front of the Tabernacle, on the east. (Num. 3:38.)

The total number of the Levites came to 22,000. (Num. 3:39.) God instructed Moses to record every firstborn male of the Israelites one month old and up, and they came to 22,273. (Num. 3:40–43.) God told Moses to take the Levites for God in place of all the firstborn among the Israelites, and the Levites’ cattle in place of the Israelites’ cattle. (Num. 3:44–45.) And to redeem the 273 Israelite firstborn over and above the number of the Levites, God instructed Moses to take five shekels a head and give the money to the priests. (Num. 3:46–51.)

God then directed Moses and Aaron to take a separate census of the Kohathites between the ages of 30 and 50, who were to perform tasks for the Tent of Meeting. (Num. 4:1–3.) The Kohathites had responsibility for the most sacred objects. (Num. 4:4.) At the breaking of camp, Aaron and his sons were to take down the Ark, the table of display, the lampstand, and the service vessels, and cover them all with cloths and skins. (Num. 4:5–14.) Only when Aaron and his sons had finished covering the sacred objects would the Kohathites come and lift them. (Num. 4:15.) Aaron’s son Eleazar had responsibility for the lighting oil, the aromatic incense, the regular meal offering, the anointing oil, and all the consecrated things in the Tabernacle. (Num. 4:16.) God charged Moses and Aaron to take care not to let the Kohathites die because they went inside and witnessed the dismantling of the sanctuary. (Num. 4:17–20.)

[edit] In classical rabbinic interpretation

[edit] Numbers chapter 1

The Rabbis discussed why God spoke to Moses “in the wilderness.” (Num. 1:1.) Raba taught that when people open themselves to everyone like a wilderness, God gives them the Torah. (Babylonian Talmud Nedarim 55a.) Similarly, a midrash taught that those who do not throw themselves open to all like a wilderness cannot acquire wisdom and Torah. The Sages inferred from Numbers 1:1 that the Torah was given to the accompaniment of fire, water, and wilderness. And the giving of the Torah was marked by these three features to show that as these are free to all people, so are the words of the Torah; as Isaiah 55:1 states, “everyone who thirsts, come for water.” (Numbers Rabbah 1:7.) Another midrash taught that if the Torah had been given to the Israelites in the land of Israel, the tribe in whose territory it was given would have said that it had a prior claim to the Torah, so God gave it in the wilderness, so that all should have an equal claim to it. Another midrash taught that as people neither sow nor till the wilderness, so those who accept the yoke of the Torah are relieved of the yoke of earning a living; and as the wilderness does not yield any taxes from crops, so scholars are free in this world. And another midrash taught that the Torah was given in the wilderness because they preserve the Torah who keep themselves separate like a wilderness. (Numbers Rabbah 19:26.)

The Gemara noted that Numbers 1:1 happened in “the second month, in the second year,” while Numbers 9:1 happened “in the first month of the second year,” and asked why the Torah presented Numbers 1–8 before Numbers 9, out of chronological order. Rav Menasia bar Tahlifa said in Rab’s name that this proved that there is no chronological order in the Torah. (Babylonian Talmud Pesachim 6b.)

Rav Nahman bar Isaac noted that both Numbers 1:1 and Numbers 9:1 begin, “And the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai,” and deduced that just as Numbers 1:1 happened (in the words of that verse) “on the first day of the second month,” so too Numbers 9:1 happened at the beginning of the month. And as Numbers 9:1 addressed the Passover offering, which the Israelites were to bring on the 14th of the month, the Gemara concluded that one should expound the laws of a holiday two weeks before the holiday. (Babylonian Talmud Pesachim 6b.)

Rav Aha bar Jacob taught that for the purposes of numbering fighting men (as in Numbers 1:1–3), a man over 60 years of age was excluded just as was one under 20 years of age. (Babylonian Talmud Bava Batra 121b.)

The Gemara deduced from the words “by their families, by their fathers’ houses” in Numbers 1:2 that the Torah identifies families by the father’s line. (Babylonian Talmud Nazir 49a, Bekhorot 47a.)

The Mekhilta found support in the words “they declared their pedigrees after their families, by their fathers' houses” in Numbers 1:18 for Rabbi Eliezer ha-Kappar’s proposition that the Israelites displayed virtue by not changing their names. (Mekhilta Pisha 5.)

Rabbi Judah ben Shalom taught that Numbers 1:49 excluded the Levites from being numbered with the rest of the Israelites for their own benefit, for as Numbers 14:29 reports, “all that were numbered” died in the wilderness, but because the Levites were numbered separately, they entered the land of Israel. (Numbers Rabbah 3:7.) A midrash offered another explanation for why the Levites were not numbered with the Israelites: The Levites were the palace-guard and it would not have been consonant with the dignity of a king that his own legion should be numbered with the other legions. (Numbers Rabbah 1:12.)

The Rabbis taught in a Baraita that when the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, the Levitical camp established in Numbers 1:50 served as the place of refuge to which manslayers could flee. (Babylonian Talmud Makkot 12b.)

Building upon the prohibition of approaching the holy place in Numbers 1:51, the Gemara taught that a person who unwittingly entered the Temple court without atonement was liable to bring a sin-offering, but a person who entered deliberately incurred the penalty of being cut off from the Jewish people, or karet. (Babylonian Talmud Menachot 28b.)

A non-Jew asked Shammai to convert him to Judaism on condition that Shammai appoint him High Priest. Shammai pushed him away with a builder’s ruler. The non-Jew then went to Hillel, who converted him. The convert then read Torah, and when he came to the injunction of Numbers 1:51, 3:10, and 18:7 that “the common man who draws near shall be put to death,” he asked Hillel to whom the injunction applied. Hillel answered that it applied even to David, King of Israel, who had not been a priest. Thereupon the convert reasoned a fortiori that if the injunction applied to all (non-priestly) Israelites, whom in Exodus 4:22 God had called “my firstborn,” how much more so would the injunction apply to a mere convert, who came among the Israelites with just his staff and bag. Then the convert returned to Shammai, quoted the injunction, and remarked on how absurd it had been for him to ask Shammai to appoint him High Priest. (Babylonian Talmud Shabbat 31a.)

The Gemara relates that once Rabban Gamaliel, Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah, Rabbi Joshua, and Rabbi Akiba went to Jerusalem after the destruction of the Temple, and just as they came to Mount Scopus, they saw a fox emerging from the Holy of Holies. The first three Rabbis began to cry, but Akiba smiled. The three asked him why he smiled, but Akiba asked them why they wept. Quoting Numbers 1:51, they told him that they wept because a place of which it was once said, “And the common man that draws near shall be put to death,” had become the haunt of foxes. Akiba replied that he smiled because this fulfilled the prophecy of Uriah the priest, who prophesied (along with Micah, as reported in Jeremiah 26:18–20) that “Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the House as the high places of a forest.” And Isaiah 8:2 linked Uriah’s prophecy with Zechariah’s. And Zechariah 8:4 prophesied that “[t]here shall yet old men and old women sit in the broad places of Jerusalem.” So the fulfillment of Uriah’s prophecy gave Akiba certainty that Zechariah’s hopeful prophecy would also find fulfillment. The others then told Akiba that he had comforted them. (Babylonian Talmud Makkot 24b.)

[edit] Numbers chapter 2

Rabbi Eliezer in the name of Rabbi Jose ben Zimra taught that whenever the Israelites were numbered for a proper purpose, they lost no numbers; but whenever they were numbered without a proper purpose, they suffered a diminution. Rabbi Eliezer taught that they were numbered for a proper purpose in connection with the standards (as reported in Numbers 2:2) and the division of the land, but were numbered without a proper purpose (as reported in 2Samuel 24) in the days of David. (Numbers Rabbah 2:17.)

Of the banners (degel) in Numbers 2:2, a midrash taught that each tribe had a distinctive flag and a different color corresponding to the precious stones on Aaron’s breastplate, and that it was from these banners that governments learned to provide themselves with flags of various colors. (Numbers Rabbah 2:7.) And another midrash cited the words “his standard over me is love” in Song 2:4 to teach that it was with a sign of great love that God organized the Israelites under standards like the ministering angels. (Numbers Rabbah 2:3.)

A midrash used the words “at a distance” in Numbers 2:2 to help define the distance that one may travel on the Sabbath, for the Israelites would need to be close enough to approach the ark on the Sabbath. (Numbers Rabbah 2:9.)

[edit] Numbers chapter 3

Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani taught in Rabbi Jonathan's name that Numbers 3:1–2 referred to Aaron’s sons as descendants of Aaron and Moses because Moses taught them, showing that Scripture ascribes merit to one who teaches Torah to a neighbor’s child as if the teacher had begotten the child. (Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 19b.)

The Mishnah taught that as the Levites exempted the Israelites’ firstborn in the wilderness, it followed a fortiori that they should exempt their own animals from the requirement to offer the firstborn. (Mishnah Bekhorot 1:1; Babylonian Talmud Bekhorot 3b.) The Gemara questioned whether Numbers 3:45 taught that the Levites’ animals exempted the Israelites’ animals. Abaye read the Mishnah to mean that if the Levites’ animals released the Israelites’ animals, it followed a fortiori that the Levites’ animals should release their own firstborn. But Raba countered that the Mishnah meant that the Levites themselves exempted the Israelites’ firstborn. (Babylonian Talmud Bekhorot 4a.)

Tractate Bekhorot in the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Babylonian Talmud interpreted the laws of the firstborn in Numbers 3:11–13. (Mishnah Bekhorot 1:1–9:8; Tosefta Bekhorot 1:1–7:15; Babylonian Talmud Bekhorot 2a–61a.)

[edit] Numbers chapter 4

The Mishnah taught that one who stole one of the sacred vessels (kisvot) described in Exodus 25:29 and Numbers 4:7 was struck down by zealots on the spot. (Mishnah Sanhedrin 9:6; Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 81b.)

The Jerusalem Talmud found support in Numbers 4:18–20 for the proposition in a Baraita that one who dies before age 50 has died a death of karet, of being cut off from the Jewish people. The Gemara there noted that Numbers 4:18–19 spoke of what the Kohathites should avoid doing so “that they may live, and not die.” And Numbers 4:20 enjoined that “they shall not go in to see the holy things as they are being covered, lest they die.” And since Numbers 8:25 indicates that the Kohathites ceased working near the holy things at age 50, these deaths of karet would have to have occurred before the age of 50. (Jerusalem Talmud Bikkurim 11b.) The Babylonian Talmud reports that Rabbah said that deaths between the ages of 50 and 60 are also deaths by karet. (Babylonian Talmud Moed Katan 28a.)

[edit] Commandments

Hosea (painting from Siena's Duomo)
Hosea (painting from Siena's Duomo)

According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are no commandments in the parshah. (Maimonides. Mishneh Torah. Cairo, Egypt, 1170–1180. Reprinted in Maimonides. The Commandments: Sefer Ha-Mitzvoth of Maimonides. Translated by Charles B. Chavel, 2 vols. London: Soncino Press, 1967. ISBN 0-900689-71-4. Sefer HaHinnuch: The Book of [Mitzvah] Education. Translated by Charles Wengrov, 4:3. Jerusalem: Feldheim Pub., 1988. ISBN 0-87306-457-7.)

[edit] Haftarah

[edit] Generally

The haftarah for the parshah is Hosea 2:1–22. Both the parshah and the haftarah recount Israel’s numbers, the parshah in the census (in Numbers 1:1–2:34), and the haftarah in reference to numbers “like that of the sands of the sea.” (Hosea 2:1). Both the parshah and the haftarah place Israel in the wilderness (midbar). (Num. 1:1; Hos. 2:5, 16.)

[edit] On Shabbat Machar Chodesh

When parshah Bamidbar coincides with Shabbat Machar Chodesh (as it does in 2009), the parshah is 1 Samuel 20:18–42.

[edit] The Weekly Maqam

In the Weekly Maqam, Sephardi Jews each week base the songs of the services on the content of that week's parshah. For parshah Bamidbar, Sephardi Jews apply Maqam Rast, the maqam that shows a beginning or an initiation of something. This is appropriate because the parshah initiates the Book of Numbers. In the very common case where this parshah precedes the holiday of Shavuot, then the maqam that is applied is Hoseni, the maqam that symbolizes the beauty of receiving the Torah.

[edit] Further reading

The parshah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:

[edit] Biblical

Josephus
Josephus

[edit] Early nonrabbinic

[edit] Classical rabbinic

  • Mishnah: Sanhedrin 9:6; Zevachim 14:4; Menachot 11:5; Bekhorot 1:1, 2:1. Land of Israel, circa 200 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., The Mishnah: A New Translation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 604, 731, 757, 788, 790. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-300-05022-4.
  • Tosefta: Megillah 3:22; Sotah 7:17, 11:20; Bekhorot 1:1. Land of Israel, circa 300 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., The Tosefta: Translated from the Hebrew, with a New Introduction. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 1:538, 650, 864, 882; 2:1469. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Pub., 2002. ISBN 1-56563-642-2.
  • Jerusalem Talmud: Bikkurim 11b. Land of Israel, circa 400 C.E. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Yerushalmi. Edited by Chaim Malinowitz, Yisroel Simcha Schorr, and Mordechai Marcus, vol. 12. Brooklyn: Mesorah Pubs., 2007.
  • Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael Pisha 3, 5; Amalek 4; Bahodesh 1. Land of Israel, late 4th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Mekhilta According to Rabbi Ishmael. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 1:22, 30; 2:36, 41. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988. ISBN 1-55540-237-2. And Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael. Translated by Jacob Z. Lauterbach, 1:18, 25; 2:289–90. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1933, reissued 2004. ISBN 0-8276-0678-8.
  • Mekhilta of Rabbi Simeon 16:1; 19:2; 47:2; 48:1; 57:1, 3; 76:4; 83:1. Land of Israel, 5th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai. Translated by W. David Nelson, 54, 75, 211–12, 255, 258, 355, 375. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2006. ISBN 0-8276-0799-7.
  • Genesis Rabbah 7:2; 53:13; 55:6; 64:8; 94:9; 97 (NV); 97 (MSV); 97:5. Land of Israel, 5th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Genesis. Translated by H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, 1:50, 472, 486; 2:578, 876, 898, 934, 942. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
Talmud
Talmud
  • Babylonian Talmud: Shabbat 31a, 92a, 116a; Pesachim 6b; Yoma 54a, 58a; Chagigah 25a; Yevamot 64a; Nedarim 55a; Nazir 45a, 49a; Kiddushin 69a; Bava Batra 121b; Sanhedrin 16b–17a, 19b, 36b, 81b, 82b; Makkot 12b, 15a, 24b; Shevuot 15a; Horayot 6b; Zevachim 55a, 61b, 116b, 119b; Menachot 28b, 37b, 95a, 96a; Chullin 69b; Bekhorot 2a, 3b–5a, 13a, 47a, 49a, 51a; Arakhin 11b, 18b; Tamid 26a. Babylonia, 6th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Talmud Bavli. Edited by Yisroel Simcha Schorr, Chaim Malinowitz, and Mordechai Marcus, 72 vols. Brooklyn: Mesorah Pubs., 2006.
  • Pesikta de-Rav Kahana 2:8, 4:3, 7:5, 26:9–10. 6th–7th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Pesikta de-Rab Kahana: R. Kahana’s Compilation of Discourses for Sabbaths and Festal Days. Translated by William G. Braude and Israel J. Kapstein, 33, 70, 144, 404–06. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1975. ISBN 0-8276-0051-8. And Pesiqta deRab Kahana: An Analytical Translation and Explanation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, 1:27, 56, 116; 2:136–37. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987. ISBN 1-55540-072-8 & ISBN 1-55540-073-6.
Rashi
Rashi

[edit] Medieval

Maimonides
Maimonides
  • Numbers Rabbah 1:1–5:9; 6:2–3, 5–7, 11; 7:2–3; 9:14; 10:1; 12:15–16; 13:5; 14:3–4, 14, 19; 15:17; 18:2–3, 5; 19:3; 21:7. 12th Century. Reprinted in, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Numbers. Translated by Judah J. Slotki, 5:1–156, 160, 162, 166, 168–71, 177, 180–82, 268–69, 335; 6:486, 489, 515, 573, 584, 627, 633, 662, 708, 710–11, 714, 753, 834. London: Soncino Press, 1939. ISBN 0-900689-38-2.
  • Maimonides. The Guide for the Perplexed, 3:24. Cairo, Egypt, 1190. Reprinted in, e.g., Moses Maimonides. The Guide for the Perplexed. Translated by Michael Friedländer, 305. New York: Dover Publications, 1956. ISBN 0-486-20351-4. (wilderness).
  • Zohar 1:130a, 200a; 2:85a; 3:57a, 117a–121a, 177b. Spain, late 13th Century. Reprinted in, e.g, The Zohar. Translated by Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon. 5 vols. London: Soncino Press, 1934.

[edit] Modern

Robert Kennedy
Robert Kennedy

[edit] External links


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