Parshas Bamidbar For the week ending 27 Iyar 5755 (5 Sivan 5755)* 26 & 27 May 1995 (2 & 3 June 1995)* *week ending dates for locations outside of Israel ========================================================================== This issue is dedicated in the memory of Shalom Simcha Steinlauf Z"l ========================================================================== Ohr Somayach has a NEW Internet Address: ohr@jer1.co.il Also, look for Ohr Somayach, New York, on the World Wide Web. You can find info on the JLE program by pointing to http:/www.torah.org/os ========================================================================== Summary The book of Bamidbar (`In the desert') begins with Hashem commanding Moshe to take a census of all the men over the age of twenty -- old enough for service. The count reveals just over 600,000. The Leviim are counted separately later, because their service will be unique. They will be responsible for transporting the Mishkan and its furnishings and putting them together when the nation encamps. The Tribes of Israel, each with its banner, are arranged around the Mishkan in four sections: to the East, South, West and North. Since Levi is singled out, Yosef is split into Efraim and Menashe so there will be four groups of three. When the nation travels, they march in a formation similar to the way they camp. A formal exchange is made between the first born and the Leviim, whereby, the Leviim take over the role the firstborn would have had serving in the Mishkan, before the sin of the golden calf. The exchange is made using all the 22,000 surveyed Leviim from one month old and up, even though only Leviim between 30 and 50 will work in the Mishkan. The remaining firstborn sons are redeemed with silver, similar to the way we redeem our firstborn today. The sons of Levi are divided in three main families, Gershon, Kehas and Merari (besides the Kohanim -- the special division from Kehas' family). The sons of Kehas had to carry the Menorah, the Table, the Altar and the Holy Ark. Because of their utmost sanctity, the Ark and the Altar are covered only by Aaron and his sons, before the Leviim prepared them for travel. ========================================================================== Commentaries "In the desert..." (1:1). "Why was the Torah given specifically in the desert?" "Because just like the desert is free -- no one will object if you drive into the desert and cart off two tons of sand -- so similarly the Torah is free: No one will stop you coming to sit and learn as much as you like..." "Why was the Torah given specifically in the desert?" "Because, for a person to learn Torah, he must free himself of all distractions -- to empty himself until he is as ownerless as the desert." "Hang on -- you just told me in the previous paragraph that the Torah is free -- now you're telling me that it's going to cost me everything -- that I have to give up everything and become like the desert! Which is it?!" "It's both. The Torah is free -- everyone can enjoy the unparalleled intellectual fascination of learning Torah, but if you want the Torah to change you -- to refine and elevate you, to turn you into a mensch, then you must be prepared to free your life of all distractions and become a desert for the Torah to bloom in. (Heard from Rabbi Mordechai Perlman) "In the desert..." (1:1). "Why was the Torah given specifically in the desert?" People who live in a geographic area, for pragmatic reasons of survival and mutual self-interest, will tend to form a society. In order for this society to function, a constitution will be formulated, laws promulgated and elaborated, and a complicated legislation will grow to meet the needs of every possible situation. This is the historical pattern of every nation except the Jewish People. All other peoples start with a land and a sense of common self-interest and only afterwards evolve their constitution. However, the giving of the Torah, the `constitution' of the Jewish People, predates their geographical location in the land of Israel. This is why the Torah was given in the desert -- to show that the purpose of living in Eretz Yisrael is to fulfill the Torah, not the reverse. "And you shall be one man from each tribe, each man should be the head of his family" (1:4). An ignorant boor, the disappointing product of a distinguished line of scholars, was boasting to a great talmid chacham who came from no background at all. "The difference between you and me," said the boor smugly, "is that I am a scion of great rabbis. You, on the other hand, come from nothing." "No" said the talmid chacham, "the difference between us is that you are the end of your line...while I am the beginning of mine." As the verse here teaches us: "Each man should be the head of his family" -- the head and not the tail. (Meleches Machsheves) ========================================================================== Haftorah: Hoshea 2:1-22 "And it shall be in the place where it will be said of them `You are not my people', it will be said to them `The children of the living G-d'" (2:1). The history of the Jewish People shows that specifically in those lands in which they have been oppressed and separated into ghettos, that Jewish Life has flourished. However, where they have experienced acceptance and dwelled in comfort with equal rights, the scourge of assimilation and the "disappearing Jew" has taken root. This spiritual holocaust has caused a hemorrhage which has ravaged whole limbs of the body of the Jewish People. The prophet Hoshea teaches us here that "It shall be in the place that it will be said to them you are not my people" -- specifically in those places where the Jews will be rejected and scorned as being inferior, "it will be said to you -- children of the living G-d." -- there it will also be that you will guard well your source, the Torah, until it will become apparent and clear that you are the "children of the living G-d." (Bikurei Aviv) ========================================================================== Pirkei Avos: Perek 6 Freedom and Opportunity "The only truly free man is the one who learns Torah. Everyone who constantly learns Torah is elevated." Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi (Avos 6:2) Only one who learns Torah is not subservient to material matters. Such freedom, in which the spirit is not enslaved by physical appetites, is the only true freedom. Lest one think that he can aspire to the crown of Torah only if he has great intelligence and applies it to learning the Sage informs us that everyone, even someone who is not brilliant, can achieve this goal if he is constantly dedicated to learning Torah. Tiferes Yisrael =========================================================================== SUBSCRIBE! to one of the many weekly "lists" published by Ohr Somayach Institutions: weekly - Summary of the weekly Torah portion dafyomi - Rav Mendel Weinbach's insights into the Daf Yomi ask - The Rabbi answers YOUR questions on Judaism parasha-qa - Challenging questions on the weekly Torah portion os-special - All the SPECIAL publications produced by Ohr Somayach os-alum - "B'Yachad" - the Ohr Somayach Electronic Alumni Newsletter There is NEVER a charge for any of the above lists (though your local information provider, such as AOL, Prodigy or CompuServe, might charge a nominal fee). 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