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...