Naso - Orthodox

Numbers 4:21−7:89

By Rabbi Avraham Fischer, provided by the Orthodox Union, the central coordinating agency for North American Orthodox Congregations for MyJewishLearning.com

The Service Of Song

The duty of the Levites to accompany the Tabernacle service with music and song reminds us to serve God with joy.

The G-d-centric, Torah-centric, Mishkan (Tabernacle)-centric Israelite camp described in the opening section of the Book of B’midbar [Numbers] is ordered, sanctified and serene. A census of the population is taken. The tribe of Levi is counted separately, and their holy tasks in the Mishkan are assigned:

All those that were numbered, whom Moshe and Aharon and the princes of Israel counted of the Levites according to their families and according to their fathers’ houses; from thirty years old and upward, until fifty years old, all those who come to perform service to a service (avodat avodah) and the service of carrying in the Tent of Meeting. Their accounts were 8,580. According to the word of Hashem through Moshe did he appoint them, each one to his service and to his burden, and those that were numbered constituted that which Hashem had commanded Moshe (Bamidbar 4:46-49).

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B'midbar - Orthodox

Numbers 1:1−4:20

By Rabbi Avraham Fischer, provided by the Orthodox Union, the central coordinating agency for North American Orthodox Congregations for MyJewishLearning.com

Questioning Chronology

The lack of chronological order in Parashat B'midbar allows expressions of God's love for Israel to precede the trials and tribulations of desert wandering.

It is surprising that the sometimes tumultuous book of B’midbar commences with such a prosaic passage as the taking of a census:

And Hashem spoke to Moshe in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year of their coming out from the land of Egypt, saying: Take a census of all the congregation of the Children of Israel by their families, by their fathers’ houses, with the number of names, every male by their head count (B’midbar 1:1-2).

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