Yom Yerushalayim – Parshat Bamidbar – Rosh Chodesh Sivan
This Friday is the 28th of Iyar – Yom Yerushalayim – which celebrates the reunification of Yerushalayim on the third day of the Six-Day War in 1967, and other aspects of our victory in that war. It behooves us to acknowledge HaShem’s miracles and express our hakarat hatov to Him. That acknowledgement in
no way diminishes our appreciation for the IDF, nor our heartfelt shouts of “Kol hakavod Tzahal!”
Unlike Yom HaAtzma’ut, Yom Yerushalayim stays on the 28th of Iyar, regardless of which day of the week it falls.
By the way, Iyar 28’s other claim to fame is that it is the yahrzeit of Sh’muel haNavi.
We spell Yerushalayim Yud-Reish-Vav-Shin-Lamed-Yud-Mem. But in Tanach, that spelling occurs only three times: “Virushalayim” in the Book of Yirmiyahu and “Mirushalayim” twice, once in Megilat Esther and once in Divrei HaYamim Bet. The more common spelling is without the second Yud; it is still pronounced in its usual way, even though the vowels at the end of the word don’t work well. Getting a specific number of times the name Yerushalayim occurs in the Tanach is difficult. It seems to be somewhere between 660 and 670. It is also referred to as Tzion more than 150 times.
It is famously known that the name does not occur in the Quran even once.
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Yom Yerushalayim is exactly one week before Shavuot, so it follows the same “rule” for which days of the week it can or cannot fall. Both are one day of the week later than the first day of Pesach. Pesach’s calendar rule is LO B’DU – the first day of Pesach cannot fall on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. This means that Yom Yerushalayim cannot be on a Tuesday, Thursday, or Shabbat – the rule known as LO G’HaZ.
Parshat Bamidbar is the day following Yom Yerushalayim this year, though the latter can also fall on a Sunday, a Monday, or a Wednesday. Yom Yerushalayim is always a bit before or a bit after Parshat Bamidbar, but this year’s configuration shouts out to look at both days side-by-side.
And when we look at Yom Yerushalayim and Bamidbar at the same time, we see a crossroads. Wherever you are, literally and figuratively, are you headed towards Jerusalem… or into the Wilderness. And I’m not talking about Yom Yerushalayim or Parshat Bamidbar.
To put our calendar into perspective: We, the People of Israel, left Egypt on Pesach. We miraculously crossed the sea on the last day of Pesach. We arrived at Har Sinai on Rosh Chodesh Sivan. Before we even got there, we were blessed with miraculous a water supply, food from Heaven, and a military victory (not complete) against Amalek. Then we experienced the Revelation at Sinai and received the Torah – that’s Shavuot. And then, very soon thereafter, we were supposed to enter the Land of Israel. Shavuot, in a way, does not just commemorate and celebrate Matan Torah, but also our entrance into the Land (albeit many years later than it should have been). Not that we entered Canaan at Shavuot time – it actually was the 10th of Nisan when we crossed the Jordan River. But with Shavuot being known as Yom HaBikurim, the holiday is also associated with Eretz Yisrael and the Beit HaMikdash.
In recent times, the two dates that have joined the journey from Egypt to Torah and Eretz Yisrael – Yom HaAtzma’ut and Yom Yerushalayim – showing us that Pesach and Shavuot are not just
“once upon a time, a long time ago” commemoratives, but also guide us towards the Geula Sh’leima, the Complete Redemption. We still have a way to go, but hopefully, we are pointed in the right direction.
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Parshat Bamidbar is the third longest sedra in the Torah if you look at lines in a Sefer Torah (263) or number of p’sukim (159). The two sedras that are longer than Bamidbar are both in the Book of Bamidbar – namely, Naso with 176 p’sukim and Pinchas with 168.
But Parshat Bamidbar drops to 13th place if you count words. Its p’sukim are among the shortest in the Torah – averaging 11.5 words per pasuk. Compare that with Vayeilech: 18.4 (longest p’sukim), Sefer Bamidbar in its entirety: 12.7, and the whole Torah: 13.7.
None of the Torah’s 613 mitzvot are counted from this sedra. It is the largest of the 17 sedras without mitzvot.
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Right at its beginning, the Book of Bamidbar (and the sedra) earns its nickname of Numbers. I remember thinking that Numbers was the secular world’s name for Sefer Bamidbar, until I learned that sources call it Sefer HaP’kudim – which is exactly what Numbers means.
The twelve tribes are counted twice – males from 20 years and up, the first time, tribe by tribe; the second time, each tribe’s count is repeated and then totaled for the count of the four camps, each camp consisting of three tribes.
These flag-camps are identified by the side of the Mishkan where they camped. Degel Machanei Yehuda (composed of the tribes of Yehuda, Yissachar, and Zevulun) were on the east side, Degel Machanei Reuven (Reuven with Shimon and Gad) were on the south, Degel Machanei Efrayim (Efrayim with Menashe and Binyamin) were on the west, and Degel Machanei Dan (Dan with Asher and Naftali) were on the north.
Since the Book we begin this Shabbat is Numbers and since this column is called “Torah by the Numbers” (and since I love numbers), let’s look at the numbers.
We’ll do it this way: Each of the four lines coming up will have the flag-camp name followed by the counts of each of its three tribes and the totals of the three numbers. These are all spelled out in this week’s sedra.
Yehuda: 74,600 + 54,400 + 57,400 = 186,400
Reuven: 46,500 + 59,300 + 45,650 = 151,450
Efrayim: 40,500 + 32,200 + 35,400 = 108,100
Dan: 62,700 + 41,500 + 53,400 = 157,600
The total for all twelve tribes (and for the four flag-camps) was 603,550.
If you ask someone which tribe was the largest, most would correctly answer Yehuda. But try asking for the second largest tribe and I’d bet that most people would not know. It was the tribe of Dan. Now you know and you can ask the question at your Shabbat table. And the least populous tribe? Menashe. Menashe rises to sixth place in the census taken at the end of the Midbar period, as recorded in Parshat Pinchas.
One of my goals for this column is to give the reader some good riddles to ask at his or her Shabbat table. Some riddles are interesting on their own but can often trigger a Torah discussion at the table. And sometimes, they are just trivia fun.
A train of thought from Dan being tribe number two in the census: In general, number ones are known and remembered much more than second-placers. Tallest mountain in the world? Everest. Who doesn’t know that? Second tallest? Harder. The answer is K2. And if anyone at your table knows that, ask them for two other names of Mount Everest. (Sagarmatha and Qomolangma.) (Okay, I get carried away sometimes. But I’m not apologizing.)
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The twelve leaders of the tribes are named in Parshat Bamidbar twice each, twice again in Naso, and another time in B’haalot’cha. For the tribe of Efrayim, it was Elishama ben Amihud. Amihud was the father of Elishama from Shevet Efrayim. Interestingly, we find two more Amihuds in the Torah – in Parshat Mas’ei, where the new leaders of the tribes are listed. The leader of B’nei Shimon was Sh’muel ben Amihud. And the leader of B’nei Naftali was P’dah-el ben Amihud. That’s three different people in the Torah with the same name. I found only one other name that belongs to four people in the Torah. (Note: I’m not looking in the rest of Tanach, just the Torah.) The winner is Chanoch. In Parshat B’reishit, Chanoch is the son of Kayin and also the son of Yered (father of M’tushelach). And then in Vayigash, Va’eira, and Pinchas, we find Chanoch is the eldest son of Reuven. Finally, we find a Chanoch spelled without the Vav – one of Avraham’s sons from Ketura.
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The Torah tells us twice that Shevet Levi is not to be counted together with the other tribes. After the census of the twelve tribes, we find the count of Shevet Levi, which is different from the census of the twelve tribes. We see that Levi is subdivided into three family units: Gei–r’shon, K’hat, and M’rari. The Torah tells us of the children of these three – in other words, the grandsons of Levi – something it did not do (here) for the other tribes.
The Torah describes the Mishkan-related tasks of each Levi family, names their leaders, and tells us on which side of the Mishkan they were camped. Here’s the count:
Gei–r’shon: 7500; K’hat: 8600; M’rari: 6200. Total 22,300.
Note the following: Shevet Levi was by far the least numerous tribe. Even counting from one month old, rather than from 20 years and up, they had about 10,000 fewer than the smallest of the Sh’vatim.
Second, the Torah gives their total as 22,000 – not the 22,300 we get when we add up the three family-counts. This is explained by what follows next in the sedra – namely, the official exchange between the firstborns of the tribes and the Leviyim regarding who will now perform the holy tasks related to the Mishkan.
The count of all firstborns of the twelve tribes is given at 22,273. The Levi count is 22,000 rather than 22,300 – since three hundred Leviyim were firstborns and were not part of the exchange ceremony. The Torah tells us that there was a one-on-one exchange of 22,000 non-b’chor Leviyim for 22,000 non-Levi b’chorim. The extra 273 b’chorim were redeemed for five silver-shekels each.
Finally, in the sedra, Moshe is commanded to count the workforce of Leviyim, those aged 30 to 50. The count is in the beginning of next week’s sedra, Naso. (That’s two weeks from now for those living outside of Israel; in Israel, our one day of Shavuot is followed by Parshat Naso. Outside Israel, the first day of Shavuot is followed by the second day – Shabbat-Yom Tov. We will be out of sync for Parshat HaShavua until we in Israel read Chukat and Balak separately and they are read combined in Chutz LaAretz.)
As mentioned, Bamidbar, a.k.a. Numbers, has earned its nickname already in this first sedra of the Book.
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This Shabbat, we bentch Rosh Chodesh Sivan, which is on Sunday. It is a one-day Rosh Chodesh because Iyar has 29 days in our fixed calendar. Shabbat’s date is the 29th of the month. That is always Erev Rosh Chodesh, regardless of whether Rosh Chodesh is one or two days. When Shabbat is Rosh Chodesh, a special haftara called “Machar Chodesh” is read, preempting the regular haftara of the sedra.
Not every Erev Rosh Chodesh can fall on Shabbat. Specifically, the 29th days of Kislev, Tevet, Sivan, Tamuz, and Elul never fall on Shabbat. Of the 29ths of a month that do fall on Shabbat sometimes, Tishrei, Marcheshvan, Nisan, and Iyar (like this year) are Machar Chodesh. Sh’vat’s 29th day is Machar Chodesh in a two Adar-year, but is Parshat Sh’kalim in a regular 12-month year, with the haftara for Sh’kalim read, not Machar Chodesh. The 29th of Adar Rishon on Shabbat is also Sh’kalim. If the 29th of Adar or Adar Sheni is on Shabbat, it is Parshat HaChodesh, with a special haftara, bumping Machar Chodesh. One more: When Erev Rosh Chodesh Av is on Shabbat, the regular haftara of R’ei is not preempted by Machar Chodesh because of the flow of the Seven Haftarot of Consolation from after Tish’a b’Av until Rosh HaShana.
I know this is a lot to absorb, but if you enjoy calendar details, they are offered here for you.
Bottom line for this coming Shabbat: We read Parshat Bamidbar and the Machar Chodesh haftara.
With that, I wish you all a joyous Yom Yerushalayim, a Shabbat Shalom, and a Chodesh Tov.