From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 2:29 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Bamidbar, 5765



                                              

                                                  Out of Order
      
                   By Rabbi Joshua (disorderedly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

        
  In memory of  Mr. Leonard Merker - Eleazar ben Yehoshua HaLevi - whose yohrzeit is on Rosh Chodesh Sivan, which occurs this coming Wednesday.


 The book of Bamidbar begins with a census of the nation taken in the wilderness on the first day of the second month of the second year after their exodus from Egypt. Rashi in parshas Beha'aloscha (Bamidbar 9:1) points out that, chronologically, the events of this book really began earlier, in the first month of the second year, when God told Moshe to command the people to bring the Passover sacrifice, or the korban Pesach. However, the Torah did not want to begin with this event because it reflected badly on the nation, since that occasion was the only time that they brought it during their entire forty-year sojourn in the wilderness. Rashi evokes the principle of 'ein mukdam ume'uchar baTorah' -  the events of the Torah are not necessarily presented in a chronological order - to explain how the Torah here deviated from the order of events in its recording of them. However, this explanation only tells us why the book of Bamidbar could not start with the section describing the bringing of the korban Pesach, but does not tell us the significance of beginning the book with a census of the nation. Moreover, even though this kind of deviation from the chronological sequence is in keeping with standard principles of Biblical composition, as Rashi notes, it is reasonable to assume that beginning a new book of the Torah out of sequence reflects on the message of the book, in general. What, then, is that message, and how is it underscored by beginning Bamidbar out of sequence?


Rabbi Reuven Katz, in his commentary Degel Reuven to parshas Bamidbar, cites a passage from the Talmud (Yoma 22b), in which the rabbis note an apparent contradiction between two parts of a passage in the book of Hoshea (2:1)  which serves as the beginning of the haftarah reading for parshas Bamidbar. The verse reads: "The number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which can neither be measured nor counted…" According to the opening words of this verse - 'The number of the Children of Israel,' there is a specific count to the Jewish people, while according to later words in the verse - 'which can neither be measured nor counted' - there is no specific number. The rabbis answer that the first half of the verse refers to times when the nation does not carry out God's will, while the second part of the verse refers to times when they do carry out His will. Rabbi Katz explains that the task of the Jewish people in this world is to act as a unit in carrying out God's will, with each individual finding his place within the nation, carrying out his specific calling as part of the wider calling of the nation. The census that is taken underscores, on the one hand, the importance of each individual, and, on the other hand, the need for national unity in order to accomplish what God demands of them. Rabbi Chaim Dov Rabinowitz, in his Da'as Sofrim, writes that the reason for setting up the traveling order of the nation, each tribe in its place, and each set of three tribes gathered around a common 'degel', or flag, was to assure that each person know his place in the overall goal of the nation before they embarked on their march into the Holy Land, which was to be the location where they would best be able to fulfill their role as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.


Moshe, towards the end of his farewell blessings to the nation, says, "Thus Yisroel shall dwell securely, solitary, in the likeness of Ya'akov ('eyn Ya'akov')." (Devorim, 33:28). The term 'eyn Ya'akov,' or 'in the likeness of Ya'akov', as explained by Rabbi Naftoli Zevi Yehudah Berlin - the Netziv - refers to the collective nature of the Jewish people, the overall 'appearance' that it projects on the observer when it is acting as it should. Thus, the meaning of the Talmudic passage we have seen is that when the Jewish nation performs God's will, its individuals meld into the collective of the nation and the metaphysical nature that it is supposed to develop is what one sees when looking at it. Based on this understanding of the census which begins the book of Bamidbar, I believe that we can now return to our original question, and offer an explanation of why this book begins out of sequence.


The book of Bamidbar describes the wanderings of the Jewish people in the wilderness, which were typified by the verse in parshas Beha'aloscha, "According to the word of God they would encamp, and according to the word of God they would journey" (Bamidbar 9:23).This verse follows a description of the travel itinerary of the nation while in the wilderness, by which they might stay in one location for a day, and in another location for a month, a year, or even longer. Everything depended upon God's instructions to them. Thus, the entire concept of planning their journey in a certain sequence did not exist. Their wilderness experience was one of setting their time schedules according to the word of God. Perhaps this is why the prophet Yirmiyahu (2:2)  says that God remembers the chesed, the kindness, displayed by the nation in its youth, " following after me in an unsown land." The fact that the nation traveled continually, for forty years, on God's time-schedule was proof of their loyalty to Him, and stood them in good stead during times of crisis that were to come in the future of its history. This surrender of time consciousness to the will of God was part of the nation's fulfillment of their task as the bearers of God's name in this world. Perhaps it is for this reason that the book of Bamidbar begins out of sequence, namely in order to emphasize from the very beginning of the book the manner in which the nation traveled in the wilderness, as a fulfillment of its wider task, as brought out by the census with which the book opens.   



 
Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

To subscribe to Netvort, send a message with subject line subscribe, to Netvort@aol.com. To unsubscribe, send message with subject line unsubscribe, to the same address.