June 18, 2022; Sivan 19, 5782
Parsha And the wrath of Hashem flared against them and He departed.” (BaMidbar 12:9)
This pasuk describes how Hashem was ‘angry’ so to speak with Miriam and Aharon because they spoke negatively about Moshe Rabbeiniu. Yet the previous pasukim describe how Hashem had taken them to task for what they had said. It seems a bit out of order. Hashem should have become angry first, and then taken Miriam and Aharon to task...
June 11, 2022; Sivan 12, 5782
Parsha “Take a census of the Bnei Gershon, also them, by their ancestral houses and by their families... (BaMidbar 4:22)”
The Midrash Rabbah (Nasoh, 6) asks the question as to why the extra words “gam haim” - also them, appear in the pasuk. The Midrash answers that in last week’s parsha, Hashem instructed that Bnei Kehas be counted prior to the counting of the Bnei Gershon – even though Gershon was the firstborn and not Kehas. We might have erroneously thought that just as the firstborn of Klal Yisroel had “fallen spiritually” on account of the sin of the Golden Calf, so too did the firstborn of the tribe of Levi fall spiritually...
June 4, 2022; Sivan 5, 5782
Parsha “And the countings amounted to 603,550. But the Leviim were not counted among them. (BaMidbar 1:46- 47)” The count of the Leviim amounted to 22,300. We have seen throughout the Chumash, the remarkable benefit of Achdus – unity. When describing the encampment the singular conjugation is employed. Chazal tell us that the reason is K’ish echad b’lev echad – like one person with one heart. Indeed, even the shma itself is conjugated in the singular form of the word, “Hear” to bring home the complete unity of the nation of Israel. If this is the case, we have a blaring question here: Why were the Leviim not counted among the rest of Klal Yisroel? ...
