Parashas Bamidbar
The opening verses of Bamidbar tell us about the census that was taken for the purpose of dividing the land of Israel among the Twelve Tribes. This census took place in the wilderness of Sinai in the Tent of Meeting known as the Ohel Mo’ed (Bamidbar 1:1).
Why was it necessary to give us the exact location where the census took place, both in the wilderness of Sinai and the Ohel Moed?
The book of Bamidbar includes many stories of the people of Israel’s ingratitude and skepticism. Very often they chose to see the glass half empty rather than half full. And so, rather than appreciate the miracle of the manna falling from heaven sustaining them for forty years in the wilderness, they called it “disgusting food” (21:5). Rather than celebrate the abundant fruits of the land of Israel which raised such vigorous inhabitants, and which promised to do the same for them, they looked upon the land as one that consumes its inhabitants and upon the giants it produced as making them feel like grasshoppers (13:28).
It is this choice that everyone has between faith and despair, between optimism and pessimism, that the opening words “in the wilderness of Sinai in the Tent of Meeting” are talking about.
There were two ways of looking at the Jews’ survival in the wilderness. One way was to see it as a miracle that they were able to live for forty years eating the manna from heaven, drinking water from dry rocks and being clothed by garments that grew with them and never wore out. Or they could say that the reason G-d kept them in the desert for forty years was because there were no enemies to protect them from in the wilderness and that He was afraid of the powerful armies of the seven nations the Jews would confront once they crossed the border into Israel.
There were also two ways of viewing the Ohel Moed. One was to see it as a sign of how much G-d loves us. Even for the one month it takes to get to the Land of Israel, He builds us a tent, a Mishkan, because like newlyweds, he cannot wait for permanent housing, for the Beit HaMikdash to be built before He moves in with us. Or they could say, Aha, G-d knew that we would be wandering in the desert for forty years and would not be going directly to the land of Israel in a month from now. That is why he had us erect a temporary sanctuary that would serve our needs in the wilderness.
The words the Torah uses to describe the census is “S’euh es rosh” (1:2) which literally means “lift up the heads” of the entire community. What does lifting up heads have to do with taking a census? The way society sees it, people only count when they have money. Those without, don’t count at all. Except at election time, when the politicians need every vote. Suddenly, the poor are as important as the rich. All you need to be counted is to have a head, to be alive. The census, like an election, is the great equalizer. Here the poor can hold their heads high and know that they count too.
Like in an election, the division of the land among the twelve tribes had to be supervised by officials who made sure that there would be no fraud involved in allocating the land. “And with you there shall be one man of each tribe, a man who is a leader.” The word the Torah uses to describe these leaders is “hu,” these people are already leaders, not “yiheyu,” not that they will be appointed as leaders. The leaders of the tribe were not appointed for the job. Rather, they were natural leaders who had already earned the respect of the members of their tribe, who looked up to them as role models. Indeed this democratic tradition of great leaders, gedolim, emerging from the ranks of common consensus rather than being appointed, has its roots here.
“These are the children of Aaron and Moshe on the day G-d spoke with Moshe at Mount Sinai” (3:1). Rashi notes that the Torah in the next verse only enumerates the children of Aharon, because Moshe taught them Torah. Anyone who teaches other people’s children Torah is equivalent to their father.
In describing how G-d spoke to Moshe, this verse uses the word “es,” which means G-d spoke “with” Moshe, rather than the word “el,” which means G-d spoke “to” Moshe.
The word “es” always comes to include something more than the subject being spoken about. “Es Moshe” means that G-d was not speaking with Moshe so that he should keep the message to himself, but rather that he should pass it on to all the people of Israel who, like the sons of Aharon, were his students. The expression “es” is equivalent to “le’mor” in the sentence “Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe le’mor” – G-d spoke to Moshe so that he should pass it on to the people.
There is also another expression used in the Torah which describes G-d speaking to Moshe. It is “Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe – G-d spoke to Moshe,” without using the word “es” and without using the word “le’mor.” This refers to things G-d told to Moshe, but asked him to keep them to himself until the appropriate time in the future when they could be imparted to the people. Indeed, we are told that G-d gave Moshe not just the Ten Commandments and the Chumash, but also the Mishnayos, the Nevi’im and Ketuvim and the Gemara. All of them were given at Sinai (Berachot 5a; Exodus 24:12).
Of course, Moshe could not pass them on to the people before their time or else the people who lived at the time of the scriptures would have known in advance everything that was going to happen to them. King Yeravam ben Navot could have argued that he did the evil things he did because he was just following the script. And it was not just these things that were given to Moshe at Sinai. We are told that whatever novel interpretation a venerable student will expound in the future before his teacher was also already known to Moshe, like the teachings of Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Akiva Eiger, the Brisker Rov and other gedolim generations later (Midrash Rabba 22:1, Koheles 1:10). That is the meaning of “es.” These things had to remain with Moshe until the worthy men of future generations would be able to tune in to Moshe’s frequency and receive the message. That is the meaning of “Veten chelkeinu beTorasecha – gives us our portion in your Torah.”
