פרשת במדבר תשכ"ט - מפקדי בני ישראל ומחצית השקל

"Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses"

Abarbanel raises the following difficulty:

And is this not the opposite of what the Torah commanded (Exodus 30:12), "When you take a census of the Israelite people according to their enrollment, each shall pay the Lord a ransom for himself on being enrolled?" And over there Rashi explains, "When you wish to obtain the sum total of their number, do not take their census by their heads but each of them shall give half a shekel, and you shall count these, and so ascertain their number." And if so, how did it command here to count according to their heads?

לגלגלתם BY THEIR POLLS — i. e. by means of shekels — “a beka a head (לגלגלת).”

S.v. Record (tifkedu) them: The matter of recording, remembering and guarding something - like the words (Genesis 21:1), "And the Lord remembered Sarah" - is the understanding of [pakad] in every place. Even [with a] pikadon (deposit) - it is [called that] because its guarding and supervision is upon [the holder]. And when [God] commanded to count the people of Israel, He said, "tifkod them," in order to hint not to [actually] count them, but rather that they should give a ransom for their lives, a half shekel - and through them, He would oversee and remember the multitude of the people. And it states with David (II Samuel 24:9), "the number of the record of the people," as he knew their number by recording the ransom (the coins). For it appears distant to me that David would not be careful about what Scripture stated (Exodus 30:12), "so there shall not be a plague in recording them." And [even] if David may have erred, why would Joav not make [the count according to] shekels? And since the matter was disgusting to Joav - as he said to him (I Chronicles 21:3), "my lord king, are they not all subjects of my lord; why should my lord require this; why should it be a cause of guilt for Israel” - why did Joab not count them with shekels, so that he not sin? But in my opinion, the [divine] anger against [David] was because he counted them unnecessarily. For he was not going to war and he was not doing anything with them at that time. Rather his whole intention was to gladden his heart, [to ascertain] that he ruled over many people. And that is [the meaning] of Joab's statement (II Samuel 24:3), "May the Lord your God increase the number of the people a hundredfold, while your own eyes see it; but why should my lord king want this?"...

... And I have already explained in the Order of Kit Tissa that this commandment of the half shekel - that they should give it at the time of the counting - was not a commandment for [the future] generations, that they should always do this. Rather it was proper advice that when [they] would want to count the people from [their] own thoughts and will, they should do it like this. And they benefited by this - by the giving of silver of the coins by each head from all the people - here for the work of the Tabernacle, for the purpose of the sockets... [As opposed to] if God had commanded to count, since 'the one who keeps a commandment does not know bad' (according to Ecclesiastes 8). Hence now when the count of the people was necessary, He, may He be blessed, commanded that they do it without the coin, [that comes] from fear of the plague - as 'the agents of a commandment are not hurt'. And let him 'not be scared and not tremble' 'from the plague that stalks in the darkness, or the scourge that ravages at noon' (according to Psalms 91:6). And that which Rashi explained that they they counted this time as well (in Numbers 1) with the shekels - with all due respect - is not a true understanding of the verses. For they testify and tell that that Israel was not counted by shekels, but by their heads.

"And the Lord spoke unto Moses in the Sinai Desert"

"And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai Desert" (Numbers 1:1)" — Anyone who does not make themselves ownerless like the desert cannot acquire the wisdom and the Torah. Therefore it says, "the Sinai Desert."

Compare the words of the midrash to Eruvin 54a:

What is the meaning of that which is written: “His cheeks are like a bed of spices” (Song of Songs 5:13)? If a person makes himself humble like this garden bed upon which everyone treads, and like this spice with which everyone perfumes himself, i.e., which benefits not only the one who wears it, his Torah study will endure. But if not, his Torah study will not endure... What is the meaning of that which is written:“The well that the princes dug out, that the nobles of the people delved, with the scepter, with their staves. And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah” (Numbers 21:18)? If a person makes himself humble like this wilderness, which is open to all and upon which everyone treads, his Torah study will endure and be given to him as a gift [mattana]. And if not, hisTorah study will not endure.

"A beka a head, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that passed over to them that are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men."

"Even all those that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty."

S.v. In the Sinai Desert: ... Since only those that go out in the army were counted - meaning those fitting to be counted in the force of the King for war with the Canaanites. And the earlier count was 605,550 and the [requirement for] the dwelling of the Divine Presence was fixed at that amount, and it was known that it was necessary for there to be this amount in the desert. And from then on, even if there were many that turned twenty, they did not enter the army to fill this amount with [these] others who turned twenty. And since they stood in one place [since that count], the Holy One, blessed be He, did not concern Himself to command that they fill the army [for those that had left the army in between], until the twentieth day of the second month approached. As they were then prepared to leave on the journey with God at their head, like a king at the head of his armies. Hence the command came to count again and to fill this amount... [just like] every king knows how many are going out in the army in his force and how many units, and the amount in each unit...