Bemidbar 5782/2022 Опортунисты

(12) I hereby take the Levites from among the Israelites in place of all the male first-born, the first issue of the womb among the Israelites: the Levites shall be Mine. (13) For every male first-born is Mine: at the time that I smote every [male] first-born in the land of Egypt, I consecrated every male first-born in Israel, human and beast, to Myself, to be Mine, יהוה’s.

(15) Record the descendants of Levi by ancestral house and by clan; record every male among them from the age of one month up.

(39) All the Levites who were recorded, whom at יהוה’s command Moses and Aaron recorded by their clans, all the males from the age of one month up, came to 22,000.

(40) יהוה said to Moses: Record every first-born male of the Israelite people from the age of one month up, and make a list of their names; (41) and take the Levites for Me, יהוה, in place of every male first-born among the Israelite people, and the cattle of the Levites in place of every male first-born among the cattle of the Israelites. (42) So Moses recorded all the male first-born among the Israelites, as יהוה had commanded him. (43) All the first-born males as listed by name, recorded from the age of one month up, came to 22,273. (44) יהוה spoke to Moses, saying: (45) Take the Levites in place of all the male first-born among the Israelite people, and the cattle of the Levites in place of their cattle; and the Levites shall be Mine, יהוה’s. (46) And as the redemption price of the 273 Israelite male first-born over and above the number of the Levites, (47) take five shekels per head—take this by the sanctuary weight, twenty gerahs to the shekel— (48) and give the money to Aaron and his sons as the redemption price for those who are in excess.

ואת פדויי השלשה וגו׳ AND AS FOR THOSE THAT ARE TO BE REDEEMED [OF THE TWO HUNDRED THREESCORE AND THIRTEEN etc.]… [THOU SHALT TAKE…] — This means, “and as for those firstborn who are yet to be redeemed among them (the Israelites), viz., the 273 who were in excess among them, being more than the 22,000 Levites, of them thou shalt take חמשת שקלים לגלגלת FIVE SHEKELS BY THE POLL, such, viz., twenty pieces of silver, was the selling price of Joseph who was Rachel’s firstborn. (Jerusalem Talmud Shekalim 2:4; Genesis Rabbah 84:18).

שנים ועשרים אלף [ALL THE MALES FROM A MONTH OLD AND UPWARDS WERE] TWENTY AND TWO THOUSAND — But in the enumeration of them given above you will find three hundred more — the sons of Gershon 7500 (v. 22). the sons of Kohath 8600 (v. 28), the sons of Merari C200 (v. 34), making 22,300! Why, then, did Scripture not include them in the sum total together with the others, when they, too, might have redeemed the firstborn of the Israelites (i.e., when each of the 300 might also have served the purpose of replacing a firstborn Israelite, as did the other 22,000; cf. v. 41), and thus the 273 firstborn Israelites who were in excess of the sum total of the Levites as given by Scripture, (the sum total of the firstborn having been 22,273, whilst the Levites, as summed up by Scripture, were only 22,000) would not have required redemption at all (cf. vv. 46—48)!? To this our Rabbis gave the reply in Treatise Bekhorot 5a: those three hundred Levites in question were themselves firstborn, and it was quite sufficient for them to do one thing — that they should free themselves from the necessity of ransom.

(11) “And when יהוה has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, as [God] swore to you and to your fathers, and has given it to you, (12) you shall set apart for יהוה every first issue of the womb: every male firstling that your cattle drop shall be יהוה’s. (13) But every firstling ass you shall redeem with a sheep; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. And you must redeem every male first-born among your children.

(3) Moses went and repeated to the people all the commands of יהוה and all the rules; and all the people answered with one voice, saying, “All the things that יהוה has commanded we will do!” (4) Moses then wrote down all the commands of יהוה. Early in the morning, he set up an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel. (5) He designated some assistants among the Israelites, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as offerings of well-being to יהוה.

את נערי THE LADS — the first-born sons (Zevachim 115b; Onkelos).

And he sent the firstborn of the sons of Israel,-for until that hour had the firstborn had the (office of performing) worship, the tabernacle of ordinance not (as yet) being made, nor the priesthood given unto Aharon; and they offered burnt offerings and consecrated oblations of oxen before the Lord.

AND IT SHALL BE WHEN THE ETERNAL SHALL BRING THEE INTO THE LAND OF THE CANAANITES. This is stated because the law of that which “openeth the womb” [mentioned in Verse 12], applied only from the time they came to the Land of Israel.
In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, the verse, Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn, [mentioned in Verse 2 above] means all the firstborn living at that time. Since He redeemed them from death when He smote in the land of Egypt, He commanded [in that verse above] that they be sanctified to Him to do the work of G-d, whatever He will command them to do. He did not command them at this time concerning the redemption of the firstborn, but only after He exchanged them for the Levites and He commanded the redemption of the firstborn that were over and above the number of the Levites. But the commandment [as expressed in the verse, Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn], did not apply to the firstborn in the wilderness. Now, [in the verse before us], He commanded that when they shall come into the Land of Israel, the law should apply to the firstborn of both man and beast and the firstling of an ass, and then He commanded the law of their redemption for the generations.

Moses stood up in the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is for יהוה, come here!” And all the men of Levi rallied to him.

כל בני לוי ALL THE SONS OF LEVI — All the sons — from this we may gather that all the tribe of Levi remained worthy men (consequently “slay every man his brother” in the next verse can refer only to one who was his brother from the same mother, as explained by Rashi there) (Yoma 66b).

Whoever is for Ad-noy [come] to me. Moshe could not have been referring to everyone who did not worship the calf, for that would have included the majority of the people. Rather, he was calling upon those whose intentions were pure and who would give all they owned for God’s honor.

These were the sons of Levi by name: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

GERSHON. For he was the first-born. In Chronicles the name is spelled with a mem in place of a nun (I Chron. 6:1).

Take a [separate] census of the Kohathites among the Levites, by the clans of their ancestral house,

This is the responsibility of the Kohathites in the Tent of Meeting: the most sacred objects.

The sages said: "One born out of wedlock if he be a scholar, takes precedence over an ignorant high priest" (Horayot, 13b); even as it is said: "She is more precious than rubies" (Prov. 3.15), meaning, more precious than a high priest who enters the innermost place of the Temple.

Again she conceived and bore a son and declared, “This time my husband will become attached to me, for I have borne him three sons.” Therefore he was named Levi.

קרא שמו לוי [THEREFORE] WAS HIS NAME CALLED LEVI (literally, he called his name) — Of all of them (the sons) it is written “And she called”, but of this one Scripture writes “he called!” There is a Midrashic statement in Deuteronomy Rabbah that the Holy One, blessed be He, sent Gabriel who brought him (Levi) into His presence. He called him by this name and gave him the twenty-four perquisites with which the priesthood was favoured, and because He gave him these perquisites as an accompaniment (לוהו) He called him Levi (accompanied).

Rabbi Judah said: be careful in study, for an error in study counts as deliberate sin. Rabbi Shimon said: There are three crowns: the crown of torah, the crown of priesthood, and the crown of royalty, but the crown of a good name supersedes them all.

The people of Israel were crowned with three crowns: the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood and the crown of sovereignty. The crown of priesthood was acquired by Aaron, even as it is said: "And it shall be unto him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of everlasting priesthood" (Num. 25.13); the crown of sovereignty was acquired by David, even as it is said: "His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me" (Psalms 89.37); but the crown of the Torah, behold it, there it lies ready within the grasp of all Israel, even as it is said: "Moses commanded us a Law, an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob" (Deut. 33.4), Whosoever wants it may come and take it. Peradventure, you will say that those other two crowns are greater than the crown of the Torah, behold, it is said: "By Me kings reign, and princes decree justice; by Me princes rule" (Prov. 8. 13–14), herefrom be instructed that the crown of the Torah is greater than both of the others.