Before we get into this week’s sedra, let’s take a look at two dates that have already passed but which merit discussion in this column.
Yom Yerushalayim, which fell on this past Monday, does not get brought forward or postponed like Yom Ha’Atzma’ut – it is always celebrated on the 28th of Iyar. This holiday celebrates the reunification of Yerushalayim and other aspects of our victory in the Six-Day War. It behooves us to acknowledge Hashem’s miracles and express our gratitude to Him. This acknowledgement in no way diminishes our appreciation for the IDF, nor our heartfelt shouts of “Kol ha’kavod, Tzahal!”
By the way, 28 Iyar’s other claim to fame is that it is the yahrzeit of Shmuel HaNavi.
Yom Yerushalayim (YY) cannot fall on a Tuesday, Thursday, or Shabbat – it’s Lo GaHaZ, which stands for “Not on Gimmel [Tuesday], Hei [Thursday], or Zayin [Shabbat].” YY is exactly one week before Shavuot, which is Lo GaHaZ, too.
Monday is its least common day on which it can fall. To illustrate how unevenly the calendar “distributes” its dates from year to year, YY was on a Monday four years ago and will not fall on Monday again for 20 years.
Iyar has 29 days in our fixed calendar. Therefore, Rosh Chodesh Sivan is only one day. Coming two days after YY, it cannot fall on a Thursday, Shabbat, or Monday. Re-ordering the days of the week, Rosh Chodesh Sivan is Lo B’HaZ, meaning (as you might have guessed) “Not on Bet [Monday], Hei [Thursday], or Zayin [Shabbat].
And now to Bamidbar. (Some people like to call it B’Midbar, pronouncing the word as it actually occurs at the beginning of the sedra, but without the other word it shares a phrase with – B’Midbar Sinai – the common pronunciation of the Book and sedra is Bamidbar.) In English, this Book of the Torah is called Numbers – and with good justification. In fact, its second name is Sefer HaPekudim, the Book of Counting.
The sedra of Bamidbar is the third longest sedra in the Torah, with 159 pesukim written on 263 lines – that’s more than 6 and a quarter columns. It drops to 13th place in word counts (1,823) due to its having one of the shortest pesukim, on average, in the Torah.
There are no mitzvot from the Torah’s Taryag (613) in Parshat Bamidbar. In all, 17 sedras have no mitzvot; Bamidbar is the largest sedra among them.
To deserve the name Numbers, this week’s sedra contains numbers galore – starting with a count of the adult male population of each of the 12 tribes, with a total of 603,550 men age 20 and up. Note that the iconic number of the population is shishim ribo, 60 myriad, which is 600,000.
G-d tells Moshe that the tribe of Levi is not to be counted together with the rest of the tribes. A separate count follows later.
That first counting of the 12 tribes is followed by another count of the adult males – same numbers, but this second time there are also totals given for the four camps that made up all the Israelites – three tribes each for the flag-camps of Yehuda (with Yissachar & Zevulun), Reuven (with Shimon & Gad), Efrayim (with Menashe & Binyamin), and Dan (with Asher & Naftali).
Next comes the count of the Leviyim, from the age of one month and on. The purpose (one of the purposes, at least) of this count was for the mass exchange of the Leviyim for the Bechorim (firstborns) of all the other tribes.
Their total is given as 22,000 – even though the sum of the counts of the three family units of Levi comes to 22,300. Commentaries explain the discrepancy by telling us that the extra 300 Leviyim were themselves firstborns and they would not be included in the switch of Bechorim by the Leviyim.
Non-Levi Bechorim were counted next, totaling 22,273. The extra 273 firstborns were to be redeemed for five silver shekels each; the 22,000 firstborns were swapped one-to-one with the 22,000 Leviyim.
Finally, in Parshat Bamidbar we have a second count of Leviyim, this time just males between the ages of 30 and 50 years old – the workforce of Shevet Levi for dismantling the Mishkan, packing the wagons that were to carry the parts from one encampment to the next, and then setting up the Mishkan once again in the new location. Family Kehat carried the special furnishings of the Mishkan on their shoulders. Kehat was counted first, at the end of Parshat Bamidbar, and the details of their work are spelled out. The counts of Gershon and Merari are found at the beginning of the following sedra, Naso.
I am sure you will agree that Numbers is a perfect name for the Book of Bamidbar. And there are more numbers and countings still to come – stay tuned.
Of course, Shavuot begins this Sunday evening, June 1, and continues through Monday (6 Sivan), with a second day (7 Sivan) outside of Israel. Motza’ei Shabbat is the final Omer count – 49 days, which are seven weeks. Our sedra for this week, Bamidbar, is most often the one which immediately precedes Shavuot. Some people think that Bamidbar always precedes Shavuot, but that’s incorrect: In Chutz LaAretz, it’s 90% Bamidbar/10% Naso; in Israel, the ratio is 80/20.
Although Shavuot is its own Yom Tov, it is important to also view it as the culmination of Pesach. Shavuot’s well-known nickname – Zman Matan Torateinu, the time of the giving of the Torah – indicates one of the two goals of our nationhood. The other is the combined goal of coming to Eretz Yisrael and building the Beit HaMikdash. Another name for Shavuot is Yom HaBikkurim. This name clearly points to Shavuot being the celebration of our being in Eretz Yisrael and having the Beit HaMikdash (may it be rebuilt soon).
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Samei’ach, dear readers!
