Torah · Weekly Parasha VideoParashat BamidbarRabbi Uri Nahum · June 19, 2017 · Bamidbar · במדבר · 15 Min Parasha RoundupSave⌄ShareParasha class with Rabbi Uri Nahum, from BSD Productions’ 15 Min Parasha Roundup.Transcript0:07Parashat Bamidbar and Sefer0:08Bamidbar. This week's parasha has 159 pesukim, making it the third longest parasha in the entire Torah.0:16It's a new book, a new sefer, and the theme of the sefer is basically the story of the Jewish people in the desert and how they became a nation and how they lived as a0:26nation. Usually, Parashat Bamidbar is always read before Shavuot.0:33Now, I said usually because there is an exception.0:35Whenever we have a leap year and Rosh Hashanah of that past year was on Thursday, then we will not read Parashat Bamidbar before Shavuot.0:46And in fact, in the year TavShin Ayin Dalet, which is coming up, that is the year when we don't read it before Parashat Bamidbar, and we read it a week prior to that.0:58Let's get to the topics. The topics that we divided this week's parasha, we divided into five.1:04Number one is the counting of the Jewish people, which took place on Rosh Chodesh1:09Iyar. Number two is the flags and the positions of the Jewish people in the desert.1:13Third is a special subject of Shevet Levi by themselves.1:17Number four is the counting of the1:20firstborn. And finally, the fifth part of this week's parasha, and that's the conclusion of the parasha, is the special assignments of Mishpachat Kehat, the family of Kehat from the children of Levi.1:31No mitzvot in this week's parasha,1:33and now we get to the actual parasha.1:34Before we begin the parasha, I want to point out, and that is that people think, or when they read Parashat Bamidbar, and myself also, when we first start learning Parashat Bamidbar, we feel that it's just repetitions, just repeats numbers and numbers.1:49And there's a lot of details in this week's parasha.1:52It might seem a little bit boring and things, but really— There's a lot of different details, and the Torah really is not repeating itself.1:59It just, the Torah specifies a lot of things, and for most people who can't handle the details, are not used to the details, so that's why the parashah seems to be very difficult.2:11But really, we divided the2:13parashah. We try to break it up in these 15 minutes in a way that you'll understand exactly what's going on in the parashah, that this way, when you come to read it on Shabbat, it'll be a little bit clearer and more2:24interesting. In the beginning of the parashah, Moshe is commanded by Hashem that you should count the Jewish people,2:29and this is done on Rosh Chodesh2:31Iyar. Rashi right away points out, again the counting? Didn't we count them already?2:35And explains Rashi, yes,2:37because Hashem loves the Jewish people so much, He wanted to count them.2:41We will see several countings in Sefer2:44Bamidbar, and the reason for the counting is because Hashem wants to rest His Shechinah upon them.2:48Rosh Chodesh Nissan was when they erected the Mishkan and they put up the Mishkan,2:53and now Hashem wants to place His Shechinah, His divine presence, amongst the Jewish people,2:58so He decided He asked Moshe to count them.3:00This counting is to be done together with the3:02Nesiim. Moshe, together with the leaders of the tribes, of the shevatim, would go and count the Jewish people,3:08and they are to be counted from the ages of 20 to 60, men only.3:13And what are the numbers?3:14The Torah lists the numbers, and we're going to go through them very quickly.3:17Shevet Reuven numbered3:2146,500. Shimon,3:2359,300. Shevet Gad,3:2645,650. Shevet Yehuda, which had the most amount of people, numbered3:3074,600. Yissachar,3:3354,400. Zevulun,3:3657,400. Ephraim, 40,500 people.3:39Menashe, which had the smallest number, numbered3:4432,200. Binyamin,3:4535,400. Dan,3:4962,700. Asher,3:5141,500. And finally, Naftali, numbered3:5453,400. The total of all the Jewish people, when you add them all up together, is4:01603,550. And with that, we move on to the second part of this week's parashah, and that is the flags.4:07Plus, the Torah tells us also how the Jewish people were positioned in the midbar, in the desert.4:11Now, this is something very important,4:13and the reason why it's very important is because we find already from the time that— Yaakov Avinu passed away,4:19and he asked that his grave, his body should be taken to Eretz Yisrael.4:23He asked that it should be carried in a specific way.4:25And the same way that the shevatim, the children of Yaakov, carried their father to Eretz Yisrael4:31to be buried in4:33Me'arat HaMachpelah, is the same way the Jewish people camped in the desert.4:37So obviously there's great significance of how they camped,4:40and be'ezrat Hashem, when we learn more and more and we understand more,4:44we'll see the importance of knowing exactly how the Jewish people were positioned in the midbar, in the desert.4:51Now, as a background, the Jewish people were given flags,4:54and to understand the background of the flags, we have to go to the Midrash.4:57And the Midrash tells us that when Hashem gave the Torah to the Jewish people,5:02He opened up the heavens. He allowed them to see all the angels5:06and the millions and millions of angels who serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu.5:09And the Jewish people, when they saw the angels, they saw that they had flags,5:14and they were stationed, each one in a certain group, and each one had a flag.5:18And they desired those flags,5:21and they said, We want this flag. We want flags exactly like the angels.5:25As the pasuk says in5:28Shir HaShirim, Diglo alai ahavah. That flag upon me is the love that Hashem shows me.5:32And there's a lot of depth over here to the flags of the Jewish people.5:35And the Torah tells us that each person had a flag.5:39Each shevet had a flag, and each shevet had a flag with a separate color.5:43And that's how they were positioned, each one based on his flags.5:47And the way they were positioned in the midbar, in the desert,5:51was basically, in order to understand it, you have to picture it in your mind,5:54to draw three boxes.5:55Okay, it's important to draw these three boxes.5:58And these three boxes, each one should be drawn within each other.6:01That means you have one big box on the6:04outside, okay, and then you have another box inside of it,6:07and a third box inside of it.6:09In the innermost box, that will be what we call6:13Machaneh Shechinah. That's where the Mishkan stood.6:15Okay, the box around it on all four sides,6:18you had Shevet Levi camping over there,6:19which we'll discuss in the next part of the6:22parashah, and around them was the Jewish people on all four sides.6:27Okay, so usually when we draw a box, the top is usually north.6:31In our case, the top or the front is always referred to as the east, as6:37the mizrach. And that's very important to know in reading the Torah.6:40The top or the front is always referred to as mizrach, and we'll work off of that.6:43So obviously, if the top is the east, so the bottom is the west,6:47which makes the left the north and the right makes it the south.6:52Okay,6:53now with that, we'll get to explain exactly how the Jewish people positioned.7:01There's four camps.7:02The Jewish people had twelve shevatim besides Levi,7:05like we said, Levi is around the Mishkan,7:06but around Shevet Levi, the Jewish people, the twelve shevatim, were divided into four sides,7:10which means that there was three shevatim, three tribes on each side.7:15We'll begin with the east, where we call the front,7:18and over there the Torah tells us that it was Yehudah's flag,7:21together with the shevatim of Yissachar and7:24Zevulun, and they totaled7:27186,400. To the south, we're going to go to the right,7:32okay, that was Reuven's flag, together with Shevet Shimon and Gad,7:35numbering7:38115,450. And to the west, which is on the bottom behind the Mishkan,7:44that's Ephraim's flag, together with Menasheh ben Yamin,7:46numbering7:48108,100. And to the north, which is on the left, that's the flag of Dan, Shevet Dan,7:52together with Asher and Naftali, numbering7:57157,600. Now this is the way they were positioned. The way they—8:00They traveled. They traveled into five parts.8:03According to—there was a machloket in the Gemara—according to some, they traveled in the same way that we just showed you how they were positioned;8:10just the order was, as we're going to say soon.8:13And according to others, no. They were camped in a box,8:17but when they traveled, they traveled like in a straight line.8:20And who traveled first?8:22The first people to travel was Shevet Yehudah's camp, which is the ones on the east.8:29Afterwards, the camp of Reuven, together with Shimon and Gad,8:36and then the Leviim would travel together with the Mishkan,8:39and then the fourth group to travel were the people on the west,8:43and that is Ephraim and8:45Menasheh and Binyamin. And finally, the last group to travel was the ones in the north, on the left side of the Mishkan.8:50That's Shevet Dan, Asher, and Naftali.8:53Now we move on to the third part of this week's parasha,8:56and that is the Shevet Levi.8:58Moshe is told to tell Aharon that Shevet Levi is given to Aharon to help him work in the Beit HaMikdash,9:06and therefore we're going to take counting first of Shevet Levi.9:10But because they're coming to help Aharon and the Kohanim work,9:13so the Torah first lists the family of Aharon,9:17and then afterwards we go on to count the tribe of Levi,9:22and not like the Jewish people.9:23The Jewish people were counted from the ages of 20 to 60.9:26Shevet Levi was counted from 30 days old.9:29Again, only men, but from 30 days old.9:32And the Midrash says that they were counted in a special way.9:34Moshe would stand by the tent, because he couldn't go in;9:37there were babies and the mother might be nursing.9:39So he'd stand by the tent, and a bat kol, a heavenly voice, would call out the amount of children that were in the tent.9:47Now, Shevet Levi was supposed to be counted separately.9:51They were not counted together with the Jewish people,9:53and they're not listed together with the Jewish people.9:55They had their own separate counting,9:58and they were listed separately in the Torah.10:00And there were three families of Shevet Levi,10:05and the Torah divides among these three families.10:07It tells us how many each family had.10:10It tells us where they were located around the Mishkan and their assignment.10:14And we're going to go through the same thing.10:15The three families were Gershon, Kehat, and Merari.10:19And Gershon's numbers were10:227,500. His location was in the west, which is right on the bottom of the Mishkan, right behind the Mishkan,10:28and their assignments were carrying the covers, the screens, the walls, and the ropes of the Mishkan when they traveled.10:34Then the Torah tells us about the family of Kehat.10:37The family of Kehat had 8,600 people.10:41Their location was on the south, which is on the right side of the Mishkan,10:45and their assignments were carrying the main furniture of the Mishkan,10:47which we know as the Aron, the Shulchan, the Menorah, and the two10:51Mizbechot. And then you had Merari.10:53Finally, the last family is Merari.10:55They numbered 6,200 people.10:57Their location was on the north, which is on the left side of the Mishkan,11:00and their assignments were carrying the planks, the bars, and the pillars and the sockets of the Mishkan.11:05And who was in the front of the Mishkan, in the east?11:08Over there was Moshe, Aharon, and their families.11:11They camped right there in the front, what we call the Mizrach, the east.11:16Now we move on to the fourth part of the11:17parasha, and that is the counting of the firstborn.11:22As we know, Hashem had the rights to the firstborn.11:25Why? Because11:26Kliko bechor. Hashem said that all the firstborns are Mine11:29because when I gave the plague in Mitzrayim,11:32when I struck all the firstborn of Mitzrayim,11:34I saved the Jewish people,11:35and therefore I have the rights to the firstborns of the Jewish people,11:39and they were supposed to really work in the Mishkan and in the future in the Beit HaMikdash.11:43However, being that after Chet HaEgel, the Leviim proved themselves worthy,11:49they did not serve, they did not worship the Chet HaEgel, the11:53Eigel, and the— And the bechorot did partake in the worship of the11:57egel. Hashem said, We're going to do a switch.11:59Shevet Levi is going to substitute now the firstborns.12:02So therefore, we have to count the firstborns.12:04And the firstborns were also counted from the 31 days and above,12:09and they numbered12:1322,273. Now, Shevet Levi only numbered12:1722,000, so there was an extra 273 people.12:19So Hashem said, Okay, you're going to switch the Shevet Levi with the firstborns,12:24but what are you going to do with the extra 273 people?12:26How are we going to know what we're going to do with them?12:30How are we going to switch their kedushah?12:31You have to transfer the kedushah,12:33and you have no Leviim to transfer it to.12:35So Hashem said, Okay, give them five12:38shekalim, just like we do with the firstborn.12:39We give five shekalim to the kohen to transfer their kedushah,12:41so too they have to do the same thing.12:44Moshe said, But how am I going to choose who the 273 people?12:47So Hashem said, Put all the names in a bag,12:51and then pick out 273 pieces of paper,12:56and those people will have to give five12:59shekalim. And the Torah tells us that the total amount of these five shekalim times 27313:03added to13:071,365 shekalim, that was to be given to Aharon and his family,13:09just like we do with the13:11pidyon haben. And finally, we move on to the last part of this week's parashah,13:13and that is the special assignments of Shevet Kehat.13:16Now, you should know these assignments are more elaborated in this part13:20and will be discussed again in Parashat Naso,13:25but the Torah does mention over here,13:27and it mentions that they're the ones who prepare the Mishkan for the travel13:31and all the utensils, they cover it,13:33and Elazar, who is the son of Aharon Kohen,13:36was the one who was appointed to be in charge of the family of Kehat,13:41while the Torah mentions that Itamar will be appointed over Gershon, Merari,13:44which will be discussed more in Parashat Naso.13:47And with a few seconds left, we'll get to the lesson of this week's parashah.13:51What are we to learn from this week's parashah?13:53Is there any lessons?13:54And the answer is yes. There's a big lesson.13:56We saw how every Jew was counted.13:58Every single Jew was counted, and Torah didn't14:01allow—even when there was extra people, every person has to be counted.14:04There's not one person that was not counted.14:06What's the reason for the counting?14:07So we saw that because it's a sign of love.14:09But more than that.14:11Hashem was counting each Jew to show that each Jew is important.14:14There's no such thing as a non-important Jew14:16as just another person.14:18No way.14:19Each Jew has a number14:20because each Jew has his own special mission.14:23And that's what the Sefarim say,14:25that there's 600,000 Jews in general,14:28there's around 600,000 Jews letters in the Torah,14:31because each letter in Torah has its purpose and goal,14:35and without it the Sefer Torah would be pasul. So too, each Jew has his number and his mission and his goal14:40that nobody else could accomplish except for that person alone.14:43And that's what we were to take from this parashah.14:44We are counted because we are loved and we are important14:48and we have a mission.15:15Shabbat shalom.