Bemidbar 5780

(1) On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, saying: (2) Take a census of the whole Israelite community by the clans of its ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by head. (3) You and Aaron shall record them by their groups, from the age of twenty years up, all those in Israel who are able to bear arms. (4) Associated with you shall be a man from each tribe, each one the head of his ancestral house.

(5) These are the names of the men who shall assist you: From Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur. (6) From Simeon, Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai. (7) From Judah, Nahshon son of Amminadab. (8) From Issachar, Nethanel son of Zuar. (9) From Zebulun, Eliab son of Helon. (10) From the sons of Joseph: from Ephraim, Elishama son of Ammihud; from Manasseh, Gamaliel son of Pedahzur. (11) From Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni. (12) From Dan, Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai. (13) From Asher, Pagiel son of Ochran. (14) From Gad, Eliasaph son of Deuel. (15) From Naphtali, Ahira son of Enan. (16) Those are the elected of the assembly, the chieftains of their ancestral tribes: they are the heads of the contingents of Israel.

The LORD spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai. This is the meaning of the verse (Psalm 147:20), "He has not dealt so with any other nation: and as for his ordinances they have not known them. Halleluyah!" and also (Psalm 148:14), "He also has exalted the horn of his people, a praise for all his pious ones; even for the children of Yisrael, a people near to him. Halleluyah!"

A mashal: A king took a first wife and did not write her a ketubah; he divorced her and did not write her a get. He did so with a second and third wife, writing neither ketubah nor get. But what did he do when he saw a poor orphan, a daughter of great ancestors, and sought to take her as a wife? He told his advisor, "Do not behave with her as with the others, for she is a daughter of great ancestors, modest and kosher. Write her a ketubah, stipulating the week and year and month and day of the month and the location," just as it's written regarding Esther (2:16), "So Esther was taken to king Achashverosh into his royal house in the tenth month, which is the month Tevet, in the seventh year of his reign."

So did Hakadosh Barukh Hu do. He created the generation of the flood and didn't record the date of creation; he destroyed them and didn't record the date of destruction, rather (Genesis 7:11), "on that same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken open..." Likewise with the generation of the dispersion and with the Egyptians, He didn't record their dates of creation or death.

But when Israel rose, Kadosh Barukh Hu said to Moses, "I will not treat them like the others, for they are descendants of great ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Go and write for them in which month, date, year, and place, and from where they were brought up." Thus it is written, "The LORD said to Moses in Mount Sinai," the region. "In the Tent of Meeting," the state. "In the second month," the month. "On the first of the month," the date, the marking the era.

Why is it written, "Take a census of the whole Israelite community"? To enact what is said, (Psalm 147) "He has not dealt so with any other nation.? "He has exalted the horn of His people" (Psalm 148).