From the age of twenty and upward, all who are fit to serve in the army of Israel, you shall count them (1:3)Moses’ census of the Jewish people, defined as a count of “all who are fit to serve in the army of Israel,” included only those who were “from the age of twenty and upwards.” What is the significance of this requirement?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains: “The fifth chapter of Ethics of the Fathers includes an outline of the phases of a person’s education and life: “At five years of age, the study of Scripture; at ten, the study of Mishnah; at thirteen, the obligation to observe the mitzvot; at fifteen, the study of Talmud; at eighteen, marriage; at twenty begins the pursuit [of a livelihood]; at thirty, one attains strength; at forty, understanding; at fifty, one can give counsel . . .” In other words, the first twenty years of a person’s life represent those periods and areas of his life in which he focuses almost exclusively on his individual growth: the acquisition of knowledge and wisdom, and his moral and spiritual development. “Twenty” represents the point at which he ventures out to the world and begins to concern himself with the material involvements of life.Therein lies the deeper significance of G‑d’s instruction to Moses that only “from the age of twenty and upwards” shall a person be counted as one “fit to serve in the army of Israel.”A period of intense self-development and spiritual self-enrichment is a necessary preparation to life, but it must not be seen as an end in itself. The purpose of the “pre-twenty” times and aspects of a person’s life is for the sake of the “pursuit” which must follow: that he or she go out into the world and apply his personal attainments to the development and sanctification of the material reality. One who does not graduate to the “post-twenty” phase of life cannot count himself as a member of the “army of Israel.”

The children of Israel shall encamp each man by his division, by the ensigns of their fathers’ house (2:2. What is the meaning of “by the ensigns of their father’s house”?

The Midrash Rabbah comments:  When G‑d told Moses to organize the Israelite camp, Moses began to feel distressed. He thought, “Now strife will arise among the tribes; for if I tell the tribe of Judah to camp on the east side of the Tabernacle, and he says, ‘I will accept only the south,’ and the same applies to Reuben and the same to Ephraim and to each of the other tribes, what am I to do?” Said G‑d to him: “Moses, why should that trouble you? They have no need of you. They know their places full well themselves. They are in possession of a testament left them by Jacob their father, which tells them how to camp under their standards. In the same way that they disposed themselves round his bier when they carried him, so shall they dispose themselves round the Tabernacle. I am not going to make any changes.” For Rav Chama, son of Rabbi Chanina, said: When our father Jacob was about to depart from the world, he summoned his sons and he blessed them and commanded them concerning the ways of G‑d, and they acknowledged the divine sovereignty. Having concluded his address, he said to them: “My children, when my bier is being carried, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun shall be on the east side; Reuben, Simeon and Gad shall be on the south side; Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin shall be on the west side; Dan, Asher and Naphtali shall be on the north side; Joseph shall not carry at all, for he is a king and must be shown due honor; neither shall Levi carry, because he will carry the Ark, and he that is to carry the Ark of Him who is the life of all worlds must not carry the coffin of the dead. If you will comply with these orders and carry my bier as I have commanded you, G‑d will in the future cause you to camp beneath standards.”

Prepared by Devorah Abenhaim

 

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