Life is messy. OK, it's a cliché,
but it's true. How often do we start off our day - our month or year - with a
solid plan that goes terribly awry? Sometimes it's a little cog in the wheel,
like a kid oversleeping, and other times it's a massive reframing of reality,
like, chas v’shalom, a death.
This is the essence of one of the themes one could find in parshas Bamidbar, which is read on the Shabbas before Shavuos. Bamidbar appears to be a directive of how to keep the People of Israel organized. .... first the leaders of each tribe are named, then the census of each tribe is taken, and then each tribe is instructed exactly where they will set up their camp.
Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch notes how incredibly organized the whole process was. He comments that each tribal count starts with a prepositional lamed (to), that was actually an act of stepping forward. By the final tribe counted (Naftali), however, no lamed precedes the words bnei Naftali. Rav Hirsch comments that “After eleven tribes had been counted, the rest, those who had not been counted, remain over by themselves as forming the twelfth tribe and there was no necessity for them to step up and be recognized as such.”
Beautiful. Neat. Tidy...Everyone in just the right place...except for one small hiccup. Bnei Levi. The Levites were not part of this process. They were separate and apart from the other tribes as God had earlier commanded. And it is only after all the other tribes are counted and organized that we start to learn a little bit more about the cogs in the wheel that had brought them to their separated position.
A specific group of Jews is needed to help with the Mishkan/Temple. Aaron and his sons can’t take on the load of work involved in the maintenance and transport of the Tabernacle, and this is alluded to, in my opinion, when it is written: “These were the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed kohanim, whom he inaugurated to minister. Nadab and Abihu died before Hashem when they offered an alien fire before Hashem in the Wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children; but Elazar and Itamar ministered during the lifetime of Aaron their father” (3:3-4). Aaron’s actual family of priests was incredibly small, made smaller by death of his first two sons.
There needed to be more people for the upkeep of the sanctuary...and in the original plan for the structure of Klal Yisrael, that job was assigned to the firstborn of the nation. This is the second cog in the wheel, the second change of plan that has to happen because the path veered. And so, “Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying, ‘Behold! I have taken the Levites among the Children of Israel in place of every firstborn, the first issue of every womb among the Children of Israel, and the Levites shall be Mine. For every firstborn is Mine: On the day I struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified every firstborn in Israel for Myself...” (3:11-13).
Following this explanation of the special role of the Levites, God commanded that a census be taken of the specific families of the Levites, with their specific jobs assigned, and then a counting of the firstborn of Israel in order for them to be redeemed (although they must be redeemed in every generation).
Within the seemingly neat and organized Parshas Bamidbar is an interesting lesson in flexibility. Things don’t always go according to what seems to be the plan - five kohanim became three kohanim, the firstborn lost their role to the Levites - but that doesn’t invalidate the plan. And this is a lesson that is brought home even more powerfully during the holiday of Shavuos, when we read the Book of Ruth and see how the greatest King of Israel was the culmination of a lot of people shaking up the seemingly straight-lined pathway of the Jewish people.
This is the essence of one of the themes one could find in parshas Bamidbar, which is read on the Shabbas before Shavuos. Bamidbar appears to be a directive of how to keep the People of Israel organized. .... first the leaders of each tribe are named, then the census of each tribe is taken, and then each tribe is instructed exactly where they will set up their camp.
Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch notes how incredibly organized the whole process was. He comments that each tribal count starts with a prepositional lamed (to), that was actually an act of stepping forward. By the final tribe counted (Naftali), however, no lamed precedes the words bnei Naftali. Rav Hirsch comments that “After eleven tribes had been counted, the rest, those who had not been counted, remain over by themselves as forming the twelfth tribe and there was no necessity for them to step up and be recognized as such.”
Beautiful. Neat. Tidy...Everyone in just the right place...except for one small hiccup. Bnei Levi. The Levites were not part of this process. They were separate and apart from the other tribes as God had earlier commanded. And it is only after all the other tribes are counted and organized that we start to learn a little bit more about the cogs in the wheel that had brought them to their separated position.
A specific group of Jews is needed to help with the Mishkan/Temple. Aaron and his sons can’t take on the load of work involved in the maintenance and transport of the Tabernacle, and this is alluded to, in my opinion, when it is written: “These were the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed kohanim, whom he inaugurated to minister. Nadab and Abihu died before Hashem when they offered an alien fire before Hashem in the Wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children; but Elazar and Itamar ministered during the lifetime of Aaron their father” (3:3-4). Aaron’s actual family of priests was incredibly small, made smaller by death of his first two sons.
There needed to be more people for the upkeep of the sanctuary...and in the original plan for the structure of Klal Yisrael, that job was assigned to the firstborn of the nation. This is the second cog in the wheel, the second change of plan that has to happen because the path veered. And so, “Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying, ‘Behold! I have taken the Levites among the Children of Israel in place of every firstborn, the first issue of every womb among the Children of Israel, and the Levites shall be Mine. For every firstborn is Mine: On the day I struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified every firstborn in Israel for Myself...” (3:11-13).
Following this explanation of the special role of the Levites, God commanded that a census be taken of the specific families of the Levites, with their specific jobs assigned, and then a counting of the firstborn of Israel in order for them to be redeemed (although they must be redeemed in every generation).
Within the seemingly neat and organized Parshas Bamidbar is an interesting lesson in flexibility. Things don’t always go according to what seems to be the plan - five kohanim became three kohanim, the firstborn lost their role to the Levites - but that doesn’t invalidate the plan. And this is a lesson that is brought home even more powerfully during the holiday of Shavuos, when we read the Book of Ruth and see how the greatest King of Israel was the culmination of a lot of people shaking up the seemingly straight-lined pathway of the Jewish people.
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