Mazal Tov, Ashpachot, Rav Yishai, Shabbat, Tzkeva, B'sumatov, Trabi Yabat.
I’ll say just one thing from the parashah we just read. When Balak brought Bil'am to curse the Jewish people, Bil'am began his words by saying, “The king of Moab brought me from Aram.” Why is it important to know where he brought him from? What difference does it make whether he brought him from Aram, from Damascus (Damascus), from Baghdad, or from Lebanon? Why does he begin his derashah (homily) by saying, “You should know that he brought me from Aram”? Balak told him to curse Yaakov, but what could he do? He had no ability to curse. “I’m Hashem. How could I get angry when Hashem is not angry?” He saw them from the highest mountains and from the hills.
There was a rabbi called David Tabal. He was a student in the religious world at the time. People study his works about how to run yeshivot, along with other sefarim he wrote. He also wrote a book of derashot, Chasdei David. In it, he has a derashah, a small paragraph explaining what Bil'am meant when he said, “I was brought from Aram.” He asks what is significant about where Bil'am was brought from. He says, “Follow.” He explains that there is a certain energy or force between people who are close to each other and have a connection. When it comes to cursing, if we can find a connection between the one who is cursing and the one who is being cursed, and there is closeness between them, then it is min b'mino (kind with its own kind), and therefore there is electricity; the kelalah (curse) will work.
That is why, for example, David—it says in the later prophecies that David the Mashiach (Messiah) is going to conquer Moab—but since he came to Moab, he has a connection to Moab. If we can bring them down, what Balak was saying is this: Where did the Jewish people come from? The Jewish people come from the same place Bil'am comes from. After all, our fathers came from Aram Naharayim. That was Nahor, that was Terah. Therefore, Bil'am was saying, “Just as you are from Aram, Bil'am, Bnei Yisrael (the Jewish people) have their roots in Aram. Therefore, you’re a landsman, and a landsman has the ability to deliver. So bring Bil'am to that same location.” Succeed.
The problem is that Balak did not realize the following: It’s true that Avraham’s father was Terah, but I would like to share a big chiddush (novel insight) that a rabbi says in his sefer: Avraham was not related to Terah. Terah was his biological father, but there was zero connection between Avraham and Terah.
“Rabbi, are you repeating the class from last night?”
“I’m starting from the beginning.”
“No, we’re starting from the beginning of Pinchas.”
Thank you. I just recorded it. I don’t know. I’m cutting cancer.
Okay, now we’re starting from Pinchas. Let’s review. We didn’t get to this last week, but at the end of last week’s parashah, Bil'am was successful in bringing the Jewish people to sin through immorality, so much so that 24,000 people died in a magefah (plague). Then the leader of the tribe of Shimon, whose name was Zimri, Zimri ben Salu, went with a goyah (non-Jewish woman) in public. Her name was Kozbi, Kozbi bat Tzur. He went in public with the goyah, and obviously this angered God greatly. God was going to destroy the people.
Then Pinchas—who was Pinchas? The son of Elazar, the grandson of Aharon—went and took his sword, a romach (spear), and went into the middle of the camp. He put himself in danger. While they were in the middle of the act, he took the romach, the sword, and he left them both, and he killed them. At the end of last week’s parashah, we learned that when he did this, it says the plague stopped.
It says in the ... parashah, “...” Now it gives us the lineage of Pinchas: the son of Elazar, the grandson of Aharon HaKohen (the priest). Why? The Shvatim (tribes) were humiliating Pinchas. They were saying, “Did you see this guy, the son of Puti?” Who is Puti? Puti is Yitro, because Pinchas is related to Yitro on his mother’s side. His maternal grandfather worshipped animals. They were basically saying, “Who does he think he is? His grandfather used to worship avodah zarah (worship animals). Now he thinks he’s so religious and pious that he’s going to go kill Zimri.”
And not only that. That’s where the pasuk (verse) comes along and says, no, this action didn’t come from his mother’s side. It came from his father’s side: “Mi-Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen (from Elazar, the son of Aharon the priest).” Just as Aharon is a tzaddik (righteous person), so too Pinchas’s motives came from a pure place. That’s why it traces his history and ancestry to Aharon HaKohen, so that nobody could question whether Pinchas’s motivation was compromised. Basically, they were telling him, “Who does he think he is? His grandfather was a goy (non-Jew), and now he’s going to come and start killing the people.” The Torah says, no, this action was a result of his paternal grandfather.
What does that mean? Literally, it means he was a zealot. A zealot means somebody who gets angry and takes revenge, but this was not personal revenge. Rashi says, “Which means God says, ‘I should have become enraged.’” If God had become enraged, He would have killed the people. Instead, Pinchas came and took the anger that should have been with God into his own hands. Therefore, Pinchas was rewarded: “Lachen emor, hineni noten lo et briti shalom (Therefore say: Behold, I give him My covenant of peace).” God made a covenant with Pinchas. It’s a covenant of peace.
It’s like a person—“ka'adam hamachazik tovah b'chanut (like showing gratitude in a store).” Let’s say a person wants to reward somebody because he did him a favor. So God shows him friendship. And what is the friendship? First, He makes Pinchas a Kohen (priest).
Now you’re going to ask me a question: Wasn’t Pinchas already a Kohen? He’s the son of Elazar, the grandson of Aharon. We know that Aharon and Elazar were Kohanim. So this is simple mathematics: If Aharon is a Kohen and his son Elazar is a Kohen, then Aharon’s grandson should be a Kohen as well. So what does it mean that God says He is going to give him the priesthood?
Rashi says that even though God had already given the kehunah (priesthood) to Aharon’s offspring, it was given only to Aharon and his sons who were anointed, and to the children who would be born after that, after their anointment. But Pinchas had already been born, so he was not part of the kehunah. Any child born to Elazar after he became anointed would become a Kohen, but Pinchas was already born. So it was only Aharon, Elazar, and future descendants. It did not grandfather in descendants who were already alive. Technically, Pinchas was not part of the kehunah.
When did he become a Kohen? As a result of this act, God gave him “brit kehunat olam (a covenant of eternal priesthood),” “tachat asher kinei l'Elohav, vayechaper al Bnei Yisrael (because he was zealous for his God, and he atoned for the children of Israel).” He brought kapparah (atonement) for Bnei Yisrael.
Now the pasuk says, “V'shem ish Yisrael (And the name of the Israelite man),” the name of the Jewish guy. His name was “hamukeh asher hukah et hamidyanit (the man who was struck with the Midianite woman),” Zimri Salu. His name was Zimri, the son of Salu, a Jewish guy. He was actually the president of the tribe of Shimon, over five families, and he was one of the presidents of the five families of Shimon. This tells us how praiseworthy Pinchas was: Even though Zimri was an influential guy, Pinchas didn’t care. He put himself in danger in order to stop the chilul Hashem (desecration of Hashem’s name). That’s why it tells us who Zimri was. He was a rasha (wicked person). But this tells us that Pinchas was not intimidated by Zimri, even though he was influential, a president of the family.
And the name of the lady they murdered—that’s the girl. This shows you how much the goyim (nations) hated the Jewish people. One of the kings of Midyan was Tzur. Actually, the Midrash says it was Balak. Balak was the guy who hired Bil'am. How much did they hate us? They let their daughters commit prostitution against the Jewish people, so the Jewish people would sin. They sent their daughters to commit znut (promiscuity) just to trap the Jewish people. They let their daughters go loose to commit znut in order to make the people sin. That just shows you how much hatred they had.
“Rashei umot beit av Midyan hu (He is the head of the clans of a Midianite household).” This is one of the head families of Midyan. Rashi says there were five families in Midyan, five kings, like the five families in a mafia. The five families in Midyan were Evi, Rekem, and Tzur. So this was the head of Tzur. That’s what it says here. If you look at the list of the families, it’s Evi, Rekem, and Tzur. Tzur is number three. Tzur was actually number one, but they demoted him after he gave his daughter to znut. Even the goyim saw that that was too much. They gave his daughter to commit znut, so they lowered his standing. He went from number one to number three.
Now God wants to take revenge against Midyan, because the people of Midyan caused the Jewish people to commit promiscuity and immorality. God is going to tell Moshe, “Go take revenge against the Midyanim.” Rashi says, “Go and antagonize them, or remember and take revenge. Treat them as enemies; attack them,” because they were enemies to you. They antagonized you with their conspiracy, what they did with the ... what they did with—they sent around ...
One of the things they did, as we said, was let their daughters go loose to commit znut, and it led the people to do avodah zarah as well, the avodah zarah of Peor.
Why does God say only to destroy Midyan? What about the nation of Moab? We learned last week that Moab actually hired Bil'am, so God should kill the Moabite people too. Rashi says that somebody was going to come out of Moab, and God did not want to destroy them yet. Who was coming out of Moab? Ruth.
“There you go, 100% right. Ruth.” Since Ruth was coming out of Moab, Borei HaOlam (Creator of the World) said, “Leave Moab alone. We still have business to do with them.” And that was after the magefah.
Now, I think for the third or fourth time in this book of Bamidbar (Numbers)—it’s called Numbers for good reason—we’re going to count the people once again. I think this is the fourth time we’re counting every family. We did it in Bamidbar, we did it in Naso, we did it in Beha'alotecha, and now we’re doing it again in Pinchas.
Why are we counting the people again? Rashi says that after the plague, when we lost 24,000 people, God wanted to take attendance again. He gives the example of a shepherd who has sheep, and all of a sudden some wolves come into the flock and kill some of the sheep. What does the shepherd do? Afterward, he counts the sheep to see who remains. Here, after the plague, God wanted to count Bnei Yisrael to see who remained.
Another explanation Rashi gives is that when they came out of Mitzrayim (Egypt) and were given over to Moshe, God gave Moshe Rabbeinu a count. Now Moshe is going to give the people over to Yehoshua to go into Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel). He is about to die. So he is going to give the people over to Yehoshua with a count, with a list, an accounting of exactly how many people there are. That is what it is saying here, at least at the beginning of our parashah tonight. Tomorrow night we’ll see the actual count of the tribes and families. I’m going to put a theme to say on that as well.
Nonetheless, we’re learning these chiddushim in parashat Pinchas. I told you last night that we would start tonight the fourth census, the fourth counting in the book of Bamidbar itself. We’ll start from perek chavav (chapter twenty-six): “Reuven bechor Yisrael (Reuven, Israel’s firstborn).” So Reuven is the firstborn of Yisrael. “Bnei Reuven (the children of Reuven),” and the children of Reuven are Hanoch. He has the Hanochi family, “mishpachat ha-Hanochi (the family of Hanochi).” “Le-Falu (to Pallu),” Pallu is one of the sons of Reuven, “mishpachat ha-Pallu'i (the family of Pallu).” “Le-Hezron (to Hezron),” Hezron is one of the children, “mishpachat ha-Hezroni (the family of Hezron).” “Le-Carmi (to Carmi),” Carmi and his children, “mishpachat ha-Carmi (the family of Carmi).” “Ele mishpachot ha-Reuveni (these are the families of Reuven).” “Vayu pekudahem (and their numbers were).” Altogether the numbers are “shloshah ve'arba'im elef (forty-three thousand).” That’s 43,730.
Now we get to the children of Pallu. This is the famous group, those who were summoned by the assembly. They’re the ones who incited against Moshe, in the story of Korach, when they incited against Hashem and the ground opened its mouth and swallowed them. The children of Korach did not die.
Now we need to analyze what we just read. It sounds very simple. The firstborn of Israel is Reuven. Reuven has a few children: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. Every time it mentions one of the children, it gives his family name: Pallu’s family was ha-Pallu'i, ha-Pallu'i. Then you have Hezron, whose family is ha-Hezroni, and Carmi, whose family is ha-Carmi. It’s like saying, “I am Eliyahu Mansur. I represent the family of Ham-Mansuri.” You put a he at the beginning and a yud at the end. You can do that with all your names. Why does the Torah have to refer to their names this way? Say, “Reuven had a child, Pallu.” Why do you have to tell me, “And his family is ha-Pallu'i”? You’re putting a he at the beginning and a yud at the end of the family name. Is that significant?
One of the most important derashot in this parashah tells us the following: “Nefee shehayu ha'umot m'bazim otam (because the nations were humiliating them).” The goyim, the nations of the world, were humiliating the Jewish people. Why? “Ve'omrim (and they say).” “Do you think these children are really the children of their fathers? These are not Reuven’s children.” Then whose children are they? Don’t you think the Egyptians took the Jewish women and had children with them? The goyim were claiming that not only did the Egyptians make us work in Egypt, but they took our wives, and therefore these children really aren’t the children of their fathers. Do you know who their fathers are? Egyptian fathers. That’s what the goyim were saying. They said, “If they ruled over our bodies, certainly they ruled over our wives.”
God wanted to show that our lineage was pure. God put His name in every one of these families. What is the name of God? Yud-Heh (the letters Yud and Heh). In every family, God put His stamp of approval to say the family is pure, the mother is Jewish, the father is Jewish, and there was no intermarriage or mixture. So let’s go back to our example: Pallu, ha-Pallu'i. God puts a he at the beginning and a yud at the end. That’s Yud-Heh. What does that show us? It’s like we would say today, if you buy a—whoa, there we go, zoom accident. You want to get that item there? Put it back there. It’s like we say today, if you have—let’s say, put it around. People will not imagine how archaic our system is over here. Let me do it. Let’s see if we can get the phone. Okay, which means today, if you want kosher food, you have a kosher symbol. What’s the kosher symbol? O-U, let’s say. The kosher symbol to know if a family is kosher is Yud-Heh. In every family, God added those two letters to show, “I am testifying that there was no intermarriage or assimilation, and the Egyptians didn’t mix up.”
Therefore Rashi says that the he at the beginning of the name and the yud at the end are as if to say, “I am testifying that they are the sons of their Jewish fathers.” David HaMelech referred to this in Tehillim when he said, “Shivtei Yah (the tribes of Yah).” The tribes are called the tribes of Yah, Yud-Heh—the tribes that got the certification of Yud-Heh. “Edut leYisrael (a testimony for Israel).” It is a testimony that they are purebred.
That’s why it says—now we’ll get to one example. Let’s go to pasuk 44. I’m going to skip a little and jump around to pasuk 44. I’m turning to pasuk 44. We get to the children of Asher: “Bnei Asher, le-mishpechotam (the children of Asher, according to their families).” “Le-Yimnah (to Yimnah),” a child whose name was Yimnah. It says, “Mishpachat ha-Yimnah (the family of Yimnah).” Here it doesn’t say “ha-Yimni,” because it doesn’t have to. In the letters Yimnah you already have it here: a yud at the beginning and then Yimnah. So the Torah doesn’t have to add “mishpachat ha-Yimni,” because it’s already built into his name. Rashi gives a very, very important rule.
Now let’s get to the next thing. It says that the children of Korach did not die. How were they saved? I thought the ground opened and was swallowing everybody. So what is that? That’s right. Rashi says here that at the time of the machloket (dispute), as they were falling into the sinkhole, they had thoughts of teshuvah (repentance). As they were coming down, they couldn’t repent. They couldn’t say “Ana (please).” They were in the middle of falling into Gehinnom (Gehenna). They were never going to be with them. So how were they going to repent? In their minds they said, “We made a big mistake by going against Moshe Rabbeinu.” That is called hirhur teshuvah (a thought of repentance). As a result of the hirhur teshuvah, God put a ledge out of the hole like a step, and they were able to jump onto the step and climb out of the hole.
To me, this is very, very significant. Why? You see how much Hashem accepts teshuvah, even if it is only a thought of teshuvah, even in a dangerous situation, when a person says in his mind, “I feel so bad.” God says, “That’s teshuvah,” even though you haven’t fasted yet, made official teshuvah in your heart, or done all the different things that are necessary for teshuvah. Even a good thought that a Jew has—when he says, “I made a mistake”—that’s all the Bnei Korach (children of Korach) did.
Do you know what I learned from this? Korach himself didn’t even do that, because if Korach had had thoughts like that while he was falling into Gehinnom, he would have been saved as well. From the children of Korach, you see how bad Korach was. You figure that while he was falling into Gehinnom he’d say, “You know what? I must have made a mistake.” It didn’t even enter his mind. As he was falling into Gehinnom, in his brain he was saying, “I’m right.” It just shows you how, when a person is committed to a certain mistake, it’s very hard for them to admit that they were wrong. In the case of Bnei Korach, they were able to repent.
My Rabbi used to say this a lot when we used to have—I guess that’s the way he was. The committee used to give the Rabbi a hard time and make machloket. The committee would agitate him and make his life hard on purpose. The Rabbi would come and start the class and say, regarding the committee, “The children of Korach are still around.” Korach might not be around, but he left his descendants. These are the children of Korach. That was his way of saying that there are always going to be argumentative and divisive people in the world.
Now let’s go one more piece. Here we get to Shimon’s family. Now you already know what it’s going to say. What family? Oh, you, kosher family. You have to use care: all kosher families, all Jewish fathers. “Le-Zerah (to Zerah).” Rashi tells us that Zerah (bright) literally means bright. He says it is actually Zohar. He is Zohar. Sometimes you’ll see another name, Zohar. It’s the same guy. “Le-Zerah.” We’ll read it in a second. Let’s look at Rashi here: “Mishpachat ...” These are the children, the families of Shimon. “Shnayim” (two), 22,200.
Let’s read one more. Rashi has a big Rashi. Rashi says there was a family called Ohad, also from the family of Shimon. That family ceased to exist. I guess certain families just died out. So you had Zerah, who was actually the family of Zohar, but Ohad was no more.
“B'kin hamesh, mishvat Binyamin (five families of the tribe of Binyamin).” Five families of the tribe of Binyamin. Binyamin had ten children. Five of his children ceased to exist. “Sha'alehe, ba'asarab barim yarad the Mishraim.” Binyamin went down to Mitzrayim with ten sons. When we count Binyamin in this parashah, it counts “Bnei Binyamin (the children of Binyamin),” which is also a good name for a shul. The point is, when it says Bnei Binyamin, it says that they only had five. So what happened to the other five? The other five ceased to exist. The family of Yeshva, which was ta'asher, had seven families that also ceased to exist.
You have to compare who went down to Egypt and what the numbers were by this time, 40 years later. He says here, where did all these families go? That’s the question. When they ceased to exist, what happened to them? If they came out of Mitzrayim, why didn’t they continue to perpetuate? It wasn’t COVID. I mean, what happened to all these families?
Rashi says that when Aharon died, the clouds of glory dissipated, and the Canaanites came to fight with Yisrael. The Jews got scared, made a U-turn, and started running back to Egypt. They actually traveled backward eight station stops, in the opposite direction. They went from Hor Hahar to Moserah. As it says, “Umei Yisrael (and the people of Israel),” they went from “Beberot Bnei Ya'akan, Moserah, sham met Aharon (From Beerot Bnei Ya'akan to Moserah; there Aaron died).” Aharon did not die in Moserah; he died in Hor Hahar. That means that after he died in Hor Hahar, they went backward eight journeys to Moserah.
When they started to make the U-turn, the tribe of Levi chased them to bring them back. So you got a slow-speed or high-speed chase between Shevet Levi (tribe of Levi) and these Jews who were going back to Mitzrayim. What happened? Amazing. Levi killed seven families. This is what’s called a civil war. There was a civil war going on here. They killed seven families. Can you believe it? And four families from Levi were killed. There were casualties on both sides. Four families in Levi died. Rashi says, “I don’t know what the fourth family is.” So you see that according to Rashi, the missing families died in the civil war when Shevet Levi went back to retrieve the families who were running away. They killed seven, and those families actually killed Levi. It was serious stuff.
But the Midrash then says that they died in the magefah, so it was COVID. They died during the plague. Which plague? The Midrash. Remember, we learned last week that a plague broke out after they committed immorality, and that’s where all those families ceased to exist. The tribe of Shimon also went down considerably in the census because they lost 24,000—just the tribe of Shimon. So they suffered the most, she says.
So there you have it. Interesting stuff. Who thought a census could be so dramatic? We thought it was just numbers, but you also have to calculate the missing families. Tonight we learned something that isn’t even written so explicitly in the Torah: a civil war that broke out between Shevet Levi and the rest of the people. They killed each other. Those days, men were men. I mean, they didn’t just say, “Come back.” They didn’t come back. They killed them, and they didn’t take it sitting down. They killed some of the family of Levi as well.
All right, we are right in the middle of the census. We do these classes. Amen, amen. We’re getting to the—here we are. We’re going to start tonight with chapter 26 and pasuk 15, “Bnei Gad (the children of Gad).”
Okay, the family of Gad. “Le-mishpechotam (according to their families).” The families are Zephon. “Le-Zephon (to Zephon),” mishpachat ha-Zephoni. The he and the yud—that’s the O-U, the kashrut symbol—show that the families did not assimilate. “Le-Haggi (to Haggi),” mishpachat ha-Haggi. “Le-Shuni (to Shuni),” mishpachat ha-Shuni. “Le-Ozni (to Ozni),” mishpachat—that was me.
Rashi says that the family is referred to in a different place as Ezbon. Ezbon is the same family as Ozni. Rashi says he doesn’t know why the Torah changes its name here. Earlier, when we learned this in the earlier parashiyot, they were referred to as Ezbon. Now they’re referred to as Ozni.
Then I saw something beautiful that the Gemara says in Ketubot, on the left here. What is the reason Hashem made the finger rounded at the end, shaped like this? The Gemara says that if a person hears, he can fit his finger into his ear. The finger fits perfectly in the ear. Hashem made it so that the ear can be plugged by the finger, so you don’t have to hear lashon hara (gossip). Therefore, the Shelah HaKadosh says, “Ozni,” the name of the family here, comes from the word ozen (ear). It also says they used to call them Etzbon. Etzbon comes from the word etzba (finger). So it gives us a name showing that a person controls his ear through the etzba, through the etzbon.
I also saw a beautiful interpretation based on this. When a person sins, where does the sin come from? It’s because he listened to the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination). He let the Yetzer Hara penetrate his ears. When the Yetzer Hara tells you to do something, take it out of here. Leave me alone. I’m not listening to you.
Every sin is because you didn’t put your finger there and close your ears to the Yetzer Hara or to outside influences. In the olden days, they would have to bring a korban (sacrifice). What would the Kohen do? He would have to sprinkle the blood of the korban on the mizbeach (altar). How would he sprinkle the blood? It says, “Be'etzba'o (with his finger).” He would take his finger, dip it into the blood, and sprinkle it.
I saw this from the Rabbi: Why the finger? Is it because the source of all sin is that you didn’t put your finger in your ear? You didn’t close your ears? You didn’t follow the advice of the Shelah HaKadosh and the Gemara Ketubot: “Le'etzbon (to the finger),” the family of Ezbon is the family of Ozni. The way you make the tikkun (rectification) of the ozen is to take the etzbon. Beautiful, beautiful interpretation.
Okay, we continue. “Le-Arodi (to Arodi),” to the family of Arodi, mishpachat ha-Arodi. “Le-Eri (to Eri),” to the family of Eri, mishpachat ha-Eri. This is the family of Gad: the family of 40,000, that’s 40,000, to 5,500.
“Bnei Yehuda (the children of Yehuda).” Now this story we know. Yehuda had Er and Onan. We learned earlier about Er and Onan. They died: “Vayamot Er ve-Onan (Er and Onan died).” Bnei Yehuda, the family of Tamar. He had other children in Yehuda. That’s 76,500 and 500.
“Bnei Yissachar (the children of Yissachar).” Now we get the family of Yissachar. “Le-mishpechotam,” tereh families. First you have Tola, one of his children, mishpachat ha-Tola'i. “Le-Fuvah (to Puvah),” mishpachat ha-Puni. “Le-Yashuv (to Yashuv),” mishpachat ha-Yashuvi.
One of the children of Yissachar was Yashuv. Rashi says, “Who, Yov?” He was also known earlier as Yov. When they went down to Mitzrayim, Yissachar had a son called Yov. Now he isn’t called Yov anymore; now he’s called Yashuv. What happened? Why did they change his name? It says that the reason they changed his name is, according to Rabbi Moshe HaDarshan, she was pregnant with them, with these kids. Let me see here where he says it. So he doesn’t explain what happened. They added an extra shin to his name. He went from being Yov to being Yashuv. Rashi doesn’t really tell us exactly why they added a shin to his name, but it’s the same—it’s the same guy.
Very good. Just one second. The next family had 64,000 and 300.
If you want to know, this morning we shared a chiddush from the Or HaChaim HaKadosh regarding the family of Yissachar. Yissachar was the family of Torah. That’s the family that studies Torah. Yissachar stands for Yissachar: They get reward, because the main reward isn’t the physical reward a person gets in this world for making money and getting physical things. The main reward a person should anticipate is the reward for learning Torah. That’s why his name is Yissachar; he has reward, meaning he has the real reward.
Furthermore, the Gemara says that the tzaddikim (righteous people) who study Torah will be rewarded by God in Olam Haba (the World to Come) with 310 worlds. It’s called shai olamot (310 worlds), the 310 worlds. Therefore, Yissachar is Yissachar. Yes is Yud-Shin, which is 310. Yes, they’re going to benefit from the 310. The chachamim (sages) tell us that one of the things the people are protected from is judgment. The Rabbi says that judgment in Hebrew is called din (judgment). Din is 64, and that’s why there were 64,000 people in the tribe. But he says, “What do you mean? 64,000 is not a good number. That represents din.” If you look at the pasuk, he says it’s like saying 64 plus one, plus an elef (thousand), plus one. So it’s 65. And 65 is the numerical value of God’s name, Adnut. The tribe that learns Torah turns din into midat rachamim (midah of mercy).
“Bnei Zevulun (the children of Zevulun),” “le-mishpechotav, Nesered,” mishpachat ha-Sardi, “le-Elon (to Elon),” mishpachat ha-Eloni, “le-El (to El),” mishpachat ha-Eli. This is the family of Zevuluni. “Le-fkudahem (according to their numbers),” shishim elef, ma'chamesh me'ot. That’s 60,500.
I don’t know if you noticed: Here we have an exception. Not only are the letters he and yud written next to every family name, but the tribe also—it didn’t do that before. When it came to the other tribes, for example, we just read about Yissachar. But here, when it comes to Zevulun, it says—why does it put the extra standard of kashrut on the name of the tribe itself? We learned last night that the he-yud prefix and suffix represent God testifying that these families are pure, with no assimilation and no blood from the foreign nations. So why would God put it not only in the families of Zevulun but in the actual name of the tribe? The rabbis answer that Zevulun’s business involved travel. They went overseas and left their wives for a long time. So nobody should think that when they traveled, chas veshalom (God forbid), they were tainted and their families were compromised. It says, “chas Zevuluni (pure Zevulun),” that even though they traveled and went away, they were still pure. The children who came from them were still only from their Jewish wives, and they had proper lineage.
Now we get to “Bnei Yosef (the children of Yosef),” also a good name for a shul. As we know, when it came to this fellow from the tribe of Menashe, there was a guy called Tzelofchad. He didn’t have any boys. He only had daughters. The daughters’ names were five daughters. These are the families of Menashe. How many people did they have in the tribe? 52,700. 52,700.
Now we finish up. These are the families of Ephraim. The children of Shuthelah, now the children of Shuthelah, now the children of Shuthelah, the Eranite family. Let’s see, you have it here. How many people did Ephraim have? 32,500.
Rashi gives you a subtotal here. Altogether, in this parashah you’ll find 57 families from all the tribes, and 8 families from Levi. Altogether there are 65 families in the Jewish people. That’s why the pasuk says God says, “Ki atem hame'at (For you are the fewest).” What is hame'at? “He ma'at hamash atim hasirim b'mishmot kula amim.” That means: How many nations did the goyim have? 70 families. We are 70 nations. And we are 75. So God says, “Hame'at.” You are five, he-me'at. You are five less than the goyim. They’re made up of 70 nations, and we have goyim. No. We have 65 families, and the goyim have 70 altogether. So God says, “He-me'at.” He-me'at. You are five less than the number of the nations of the world. That’s from Rebbe Moshe HaDarshan.
Okay. “Bnei Binyamin,” also a good name for a shul. “Le-mishpechotav, le-Bela.” Bela—Bela is a lady’s name, but in those days Bela was a man’s name. “Mishpachat ha-Bela'i (the family of Bela).” “Le-Ashbel (to Ashbel),” mishpachat la-Ashbeli. “Le-Ahira (to Ahira),” mishpachat la-Ahirami. “Lishfufam (to Shupham),” mishpachat ha-Shufami. “Le-Hufam (to Hupham),” mishpachat le-Hufami. “Vayu b'ne Bela (and the children of Bela).” Now Bela had children: Ard, “Le-Na'aman (to Na'aman),” mishpachat la-Ardi, “Le-Na'ami (to Na'ami).” These are the children of Binyamin. There aren’t many people that had Binyamin up, one of the biggest tribes. Hamisha 40,000, not so much, 45,000, 600,000, 11,000. Now this is a big tribe. Rashi says that this family called Shifufam was called Mupim in Bereshit, but they changed it from Mupim, and here they call them Shifufam. A change of name. I don’t know why they changed his name, but they went from Mupim to Shifufam.
Now we get to “Bnei Dan (the children of Dan).” These are the people of Dan. The Shuham. Shuham actually is Hushim. This is a very important man, this guy called Shuham. It’s the same letters as Hushim. We know he was handicapped; he was deaf. Yaakov Avinu had a special grandson, mishpachat ha-Shuhami. He’s the one who actually killed Esav, if you remember.
Even though Dan only had one child, and he was a deaf child, look how many people this tribe ends up having: 64,400. That’s one of the biggest tribes. What do you learn from this? You can’t figure out where the berachah (blessing) is going to come from. You would have said, “Poor Dan. He only has one special kid, deaf.” That one child ends up multiplying to become one of the biggest tribes. Sometimes the blessing comes in a strange disguise.
The daughter of Asher was named Serach. We know Serach, but Asher was the one who gave the news to Yaakov Avinu that Yosef was still alive. She was still alive, by the way. I mean, she lived all the way from Bereshit. This is now after the Jews came out of Mitzrayim and spent 40 years in the Midbar (wilderness). She lived a very long time. Fine, she had extraordinary longevity. That’s the tribe of Asher. How many people in Asher? Not so much, 53,400.
Last tribe: that’s the Guni. We have a guy in the shul, Gani. But this is Guni. How many people? That’s 45,400. How many people altogether in Bnei Yisrael? 601,730, not including tax. So you have 601,730. Okay, there goes the census, and we’ve got one more night. Just tomorrow night we’ll go into the next episode, the daughters of Tzelofchad and the division of Eretz Yisrael.
Thursday night, shalom, Rebbe. Shalom, Shabbat Shalom. Shalom u'vracha. Thank you, God bless you. Shabbat Shalom.
We’re learning for Chaya Sada about Shalach, and we finished the census, so that’s good news. I think we came out with about 600 or 1000-plus people. Now we’re going to start a new subject. It’s going to be in—let’s just get the right pasuk here. It’s going to be in pasuk Nun-Bet (verse fifty-two), 52, 2652: “Vayedaber Adonai el Moshe lemor (Adonai spoke to Moses, saying).” That’s going to be the easiest pasuk of the night. And Hashem speaks to Moshe and says—
Now we’re talking about the division of the land. Moshe isn’t going to go into Eretz Yisrael; Yehoshua is going to go in. The land is going to be divided by the tribes. Rashi tells us it’s going to be divided to the men of the tribes who are not under 20 years old. That means that even though at the time of the actual division they might be 20 years old, because it took 7 years to conquer the land and another 7 years actually to divide it, the only ones who received a portion in the land were the ones we just counted: the 601,000 some-odd people.
Let’s say they just had six sons. They only took their father’s portion. Therefore, when it says this, it isn’t an assurance that those counted in the census would survive to take a portion of the land. It’s a statement of the rule by which the apportionment of the land would be conducted. It doesn’t mean that everybody was necessarily going to survive. It means that when it says the land will be divided to these people, they had to be at least 20 years old at this point. Even though, fast-forward, there were people who obviously reached the age of 20 by the time of the division, they weren’t going to get the—You had to be 20 at the point of the census. That’s the first point.
Now it says that a tribe with more people gets a bigger inheritance, and a tribe with fewer people gets a smaller inheritance. Each family gets its inheritance according to its count. Rashi says that a tribe that was numerous in population got a big portion, even though the portions were not equal. What does that mean? The portions were divided according to the number of people in each individual tribe.
They chose the pieces to divide, and the lottery was conducted through divine inspiration, as we’re going to learn later. That involved wearing the breastplate with the stones, and then he would say—he would announce a certain tribe. If such-and-such a tribe came up in the lottery, it would get a certain demarcation of the land. The names of the tribes were written on 12 tickets, and the 12 boundaries were written on separate tickets. They mixed the 12 tickets together. He pulled out his tribe, and then he pulled out its boundaries. Everything was already predetermined by God. It was a miracle that every tribe picked its own ticket, and he would also take the ticket of the boundaries.
You’ve never heard this before, but the lottery actually talked. It was a talking lottery. Is that a lottery talk? The lottery would shout out and say, “I am the lottery that came up for such-and-such boundary for such-and-such a tribe.” The land wasn’t divided by measure. You know, some land is superior to other land, and therefore we don’t want anybody to fight. So it was divided by value, which means they would divide the land. Let’s say you had an unproductive acre of land; you would get against it. It was divided by value, basically. It wasn’t divided by quality. Everybody got equal value in the land. Again, it was done by the lottery itself, as we just learned, as we said.
Again, Rashi says that the fathers who came out of Egypt received an inheritance different from the standard procedure of inheritance. What is the normal way of making an inheritance? The living inherit the dead. Isn’t that the normal way? The living inherit the dead. What does that mean? The dead were inheriting the living.
Let’s say you had two brothers who came out of Egypt and had sons, and the sons entered the land. One man had one son and the other had three sons. So the one son took one portion, and the three sons took three. Their inheritance reverted to their grandfather, and they divided it all equally.
After the children took their portions, they divided according to the fathers who came from Egypt. If they had divided it according to the Yotzeh Mitzrayim (those who left Egypt), “lo hayun notim elu ha-arba'a el ha-shnei chalakim” (the phrase is unclear). Four children would have received only two portions, one for each of their fathers. Now they took four portions.
Let’s review what’s being said here. Let’s give the case again. Normally, you have a father with two sons. He dies, and the inheritance goes to the two sons. That’s normally how it happens. The dead—the living inherit the dead, exactly. But here the dead were actually inheriting the living. Let’s say you had two brothers, as we said, who came out of Mitzrayim, and they had children. One man had one child and the other had three. The one son took one portion, and the three sons took three portions, as it says, and then their inheritance reverted to their grandfather.
Again, let’s make the situation clear. You have two brothers, and the brothers have, respectively, one son and three sons. Now the inheritance goes back not to the fathers but to the grandfathers. It goes back two generations, to the brothers who came out of Mitzrayim, their father. What does that mean? Their inheritance reverted to their grandfather. Okay, now the grandfather gets the inheritance. That’s one man, so he gets everything, and then it’s divided equally. Let’s see what that means.
After the children got their respective shares—one and three—they went back to the fathers. What difference would that make? They divided it first among the people who came out of Mitzrayim, right? If they judged it according to those who came out of Mitzrayim, there were two brothers, so each brother would receive one chelek (portion), and then the children would have to divide that one chelek. But now they gave it to the children first, so this guy got one and this guy got three. Then it went back to the grandfather, and then it came down and they got four. They got three and one. This system of inheritance was different from the normal way things are inherited. The four sons mentioned above took more than two portions, one for their fathers. They ended up taking four portions.
Let’s see what it says here. So that means they get much more. That’s why they did it. Exactly, exactly. Thank you. The one portion taken by the one son and the three portions taken by the three sons were combined and viewed as if they were their grandfather’s estate. The grandfather’s estate was then divided equally between the two sons who were among those who left Egypt. Thus, the portion of one son was equal to the combined portion of the three. Right? Therefore they got their—
This was done by the lottery. Rashi says, what does it mean that it was done by the lottery? Everybody got a piece of land according to the lottery, except two people, Yehoshua and Kalev, because they had already been given their portions by God after the story of the spies. Kalev actually got the city of Hebron, and Yehoshua also got a city. Therefore, they were excluded from the lottery itself.
From here Rashi learns that the lottery actually talked, as if it had a mouth. Therefore it was an audible lottery. They picked it out of the hat, and then you would hear the lottery talk: “This tribe gets this piece of land,” as I said above. So nobody could question the division. It was done, obviously, in the Holy Spirit.
Now it says, this is the family of Levi. We haven’t discussed those families yet. There was mishpachat ha-Livni, mishpachat ha-Hevroni, mishpachat ha-Machli, mishpachat ha-Mushi, mishpachat ha-Korchi. Kehat had Amram. We know Kehat gave birth to Amram, and we know Amram’s wife was Yocheved, the daughter of Levi, and that they were born to them in Mitzrayim.
Rashi says that Yocheved was born in Mitzrayim. That means Yocheved’s father was Levi. Yocheved’s mother, who was Levi’s wife, gave birth to her in Mitzrayim, but she was conceived outside Egypt. When she entered the wall, Levi’s wife gave birth to her, and she was number 70 of the 70 Jews who came down to Mitzrayim. Yocheved was number 70 because, before she was born, you only have 16 lives.
Now it says Amram had children, Aharon, Moshe, and Miriam, as we know. Aharon had children, Nadav, Avihu, Elazar, and Itamar. We also know Nadav and Avihu died when they brought the “esh zarah (strange fire),” the fire of the ketoret (incense). The family of Levi altogether had how many people? 23,000, all males from one month and up. Until now, we only counted people from 20 and up. When it comes to the tribe of Levi, we count them from one month and up, and they equal exactly 23,000. They were counted separately. They were not counted in the census of those 20 and up. What is the reason? They didn’t get a chelek. We counted the census so we could divide the land equally among the people. Since the tribe of Levi did not get a portion, they were not counted with the people who were counted separately. We learned that again. Fine.
One more piece here. The Torah says these are the countings of Moshe and Elazar. They were counted because God told them they were going to die in the Midbar, and the only ones who survived from that generation were Kalev and Yehoshua. They are the exceptions. We know that the ladies survived the decree of the spies. Only the men between 20 and 60 died. The ladies loved the land, and it was the men who said, “We want to go back to Mitzrayim.” But the ladies said, “No, we want to go to Eretz Yisrael.” So you see that the ladies were not involved in the sins. For some reason, when it came to the eigel (calf), the ladies didn’t do the eigel. When it came to the sin of the spies, the ladies had no problem. They wanted to go to Eretz Yisrael. That indicates to us that the ladies presented your evidence in court better than judges who ruled if you...
We’re going to stop here.