3/13/11
Numbers 1-2
Numbers 1:1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying: 2 Take a census of the whole congregation of Israelites, in their clans, by ancestral houses, according to the number of names, every male individually; 3 from twenty years old and upward, everyone in Israel able to go to war. You and Aaron shall enroll them, company by company. 4 A man from each tribe shall be with you, each man 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 These were the ones chosen from the congregation, the leaders of their ancestral tribes, the heads of the divisions of Israel.
17 Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated by name, 18 and on the first day of the second month they assembled the whole congregation together. They registered themselves in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, individually, 19 as the Lord commanded Moses. So he enrolled them in the wilderness of Sinai.
20 The descendants of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, individually, every male from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war: 21 those enrolled of the tribe of Reuben were forty-six thousand five hundred
22 The descendants of Simeon, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, those of them that were numbered, according to the number of names, individually, every male from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war: 23 those enrolled of the tribe of Simeon were fifty-nine thousand three hundred.
24 The descendants of Gad, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war: 25 those enrolled of the tribe of Gad were forty-five thousand six hundred fifty.
26 The descendants of Judah, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war: 27 those enrolled of the tribe of Judah were seventy-four thousand six hundred.
28 The descendants of Issachar, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war: 29 those enrolled of the tribe of Issachar were fifty-four thousand four hundred.
30 The descendants of Zebulun, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war: 31 those enrolled of the tribe of Zebulun were fifty-seven thousand four hundred.
32 The descendants of Joseph, namely, the descendants of Ephraim, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war: 33 those enrolled of the tribe of Ephraim were forty thousand five hundred.
34 The descendants of Manasseh, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war: 35 those enrolled of the tribe of Manasseh were thirty-two thousand two hundred.
36 The descendants of Benjamin, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war: 37 those enrolled of the tribe of Benjamin were thirty-five thousand four hundred.
38 The descendants of Dan, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war: 39 those enrolled of the tribe of Dan were sixty-two thousand seven hundred.
40 The descendants of Asher, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war: 41 those enrolled of the tribe of Asher were forty-one thousand five hundred.
42 The descendants of Naphtali, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war: 43 those enrolled of the tribe of Naphtali were fifty-three thousand four hundred.
44 These are those who were enrolled, whom Moses and Aaron enrolled with the help of the leaders of Israel, twelve men, each representing his ancestral house. 45 So the whole number of the Israelites, by their ancestral houses, from twenty years old and upward, everyone able to go to war in Israel— 46 their whole number was six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty. 47 The Levites, however, were not numbered by their ancestral tribe along with them.
48 The Lord had said to Moses: 49 Only the tribe of Levi you shall not enroll, and you shall not take a census of them with the other Israelites. 50 Rather you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the covenant, and over all its equipment, and over all that belongs to it; they are to carry the tabernacle and all its equipment, and they shall tend it, and shall camp around the tabernacle. 51 When the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. And any outsider who comes near shall be put to death. 52 The other Israelites shall camp in their respective regimental camps, by companies; 53 but the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the covenant, that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the Israelites; and the Levites shall perform the guard duty of the tabernacle of the covenant.
54 The Israelites did so; they did just as the Lord commanded Moses.
The Order of Encampment and Marching
Numbers 2:1 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 2 The Israelites shall camp each in their respective regiments, under ensigns by their ancestral houses; they shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side. 3 Those to camp on the east side toward the sunrise shall be of the regimental encampment of Judah by companies. The leader of the people of Judah shall be Nahshon son of Amminadab, 4 with a company as enrolled of seventy-four thousand six hundred. 5 Those to camp next to him shall be the tribe of Issachar. The leader of the Issacharites shall be Nethanel son of Zuar, 6 with a company as enrolled of fifty-four thousand four hundred. 7 Then the tribe of Zebulun: The leader of the Zebulunites shall be Eliab son of Helon, 8 with a company as enrolled of fifty-seven thousand four hundred. 9 The total enrollment of the camp of Judah, by companies, is one hundred eighty-six thousand four hundred. They shall set out first on the march.
10 On the south side shall be the regimental encampment of Reuben by companies. The leader of the Reubenites shall be Elizur son of Shedeur, 11 with a company as enrolled of forty-six thousand five hundred. 12 And those to camp next to him shall be the tribe of Simeon. The leader of the Simeonites shall be Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai, 13 with a company as enrolled of fifty-nine thousand three hundred. 14 Then the tribe of Gad: The leader of the Gadites shall be Eliasaph son of Reuel, 15 with a company as enrolled of forty-five thousand six hundred fifty. 16 The total enrollment of the camp of Reuben, by companies, is one hundred fifty-one thousand four hundred fifty. They shall set out second.
17 The tent of meeting, with the camp of the Levites, shall set out in the center of the camps; they shall set out just as they camp, each in position, by their regiments.
18 On the west side shall be the regimental encampment of Ephraim by companies. The leader of the people of Ephraim shall be Elishama son of Ammihud, 19 with a company as enrolled of forty thousand five hundred. 20 Next to him shall be the tribe of Manasseh. The leader of the people of Manasseh shall be Gamaliel son of Pedahzur, 21 with a company as enrolled of thirty-two thousand two hundred. 22 Then the tribe of Benjamin: The leader of the Benjaminites shall be Abidan son of Gideoni, 23 with a company as enrolled of thirty-five thousand four hundred. 24 The total enrollment of the camp of Ephraim, by companies, is one hundred eight thousand one hundred. They shall set out third on the march.
25 On the north side shall be the regimental encampment of Dan by companies. The leader of the Danites shall be Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai, 26 with a company as enrolled of sixty-two thousand seven hundred. 27 Those to camp next to him shall be the tribe of Asher. The leader of the Asherites shall be Pagiel son of Ochran, 28 with a company as enrolled of forty-one thousand five hundred. 29 Then the tribe of Naphtali: The leader of the Naphtalites shall be Ahira son of Enan, 30 with a company as enrolled of fifty-three thousand four hundred. 31 The total enrollment of the camp of Dan is one hundred fifty-seven thousand six hundred. They shall set out last, by companies.
32 This was the enrollment of the Israelites by their ancestral houses; the total enrollment in the camps by their companies was six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty. 33 Just as the Lord had commanded Moses, the Levites were not enrolled among the other Israelites.
34 The Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses: They camped by regiments, and they set out the same way, everyone by clans, according to ancestral houses.
Devotionals, Videos and more ...
by Bill Federer
Susan B. Anthony, whose face is on the U.S. dollar coin, died this day, March 13, 1906. She was raised in a Quaker home, known properly as the Society of Friends, she was taught individuals could have a personal relationship with God and that armed conflict and slavery were wrong. The self-reliance instilled in her upbringing aided Susan in her crusade against slavery and alcohol and to give women the right to vote. Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting in the 1872 Presidential Election and fined. Finally, in 1920, all women in America were given the right to vote.
Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.
by D.H. Stern
The human spirit is a lamp of ADONAI;
it searches one’s inmost being.
Grace and truth preserve a king;
with grace he upholds his throne.
Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.
by Oswald Chambers
The abandonment of God
God so loved the world that He gave … --- John 3:16.
Salvation is not merely deliverance from sin, nor the experience of personal holiness; the salvation of God is deliverance out of self entirely into union with Himself. My experimental knowledge of salvation will be along the line of deliverance from sin and of personal holiness; but salvation means that the Spirit of God has brought me into touch with God’s personality, and I am thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself; I am caught up into the abandonment of God.
To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification, is to get into a side-eddy. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ. The fact that He saves from sin and makes us holy is part of the effect of the wonderful abandonment of God.
Abandonment never produces the consciousness of its own effort, because the whole life is taken up with the One to Whom we abandon. Beware of talking about abandonment if you know nothing about it, and you will never know anything about it until you have realized what John 3:16 means, that God gave Himself absolutely. In our abandonment we give ourselves over to God just as God gave Himself for us, without any calculation. The consequence of abandonment never enters into our outlook because our life is taken up with Him.
Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest
the Poetry of R.S. Thomas
The Survivors
I never told you this.
He told me about it often:
Seven days in an open boat - burned out,
No time to get food:
Biscuits and water and the unwanted sun,
With only the oars' wing-beats for motion,
Labouring heavily towards land
That existed on a remembered chart,
Never on the horizon
Seven miles from the boat's bow.
After two days song dried on their lips;
After four days speech.
On the fifth cracks began to appear
In the faces' masks; salt scorched them.
They began to think about death,
Each man to himself, feeding it
On what the rest could not conceal.
The sea was as empty as the sky,
A vast disc under a dome
Of the same vastness, perilously blue.
But on the sixth day towards evening
A bird passed. No one slept that night;
The boat had become an ear
Straining for the desired thunder
Of the wrecked waves. It was dawn when it came
Ominous as the big guns
Of enemy shores. The men cheered it.
From the swell's rise one of them saw the ruins
Of all that sea, where a lean horseman
Rode towards them and with a rope
Galloped them up on to the curt sand.
Collected Later Poems, 1988-2000
Berakhot 51b
There is much to be said against any mitzvah performed by means of a transgression, of doing a good deed in a way that breaks the law. Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor. While aiding the needy is a laudable act, accomplishing this act by defrauding others is less than praiseworthy. After all, we still express our moral disapproval by saying that Robin Hood “stole” from the rich—not “borrowed,” “recovered,” or even “took.”
Thus, we are aware that we must be careful not only that we do mitzvot, but also how we perform them. The power of this rule is attested to by the fact that all of us know of those who perform mitzvot through a transgression and thus bring shame to God, the Torah, and the Jewish people. The slumlord who keeps his tenants living in squalor, who denies them heat in the winter and running water all year long, yet gives generously to many worthy causes has performed a mitzvah by means of a transgression.
Surprisingly, the Gemara does not come down unequivocally against the mitzvah performed by a transgression. It seems that if the transgression is insignificant (freeing a slave) or the need is great (a minyan to fulfill the prayer obligation), then the general rule is waived, and the mitzvah is allowed even though a minor transgression is involved.
But what is a minor transgression? What constitutes the “public good” or a “great need?” The answers to these questions are surely debatable and subjective. Perhaps this is the point of the Gemara. There are no hard-and-fast rules for conduct that will cover every possible case. This text, like much of the Gemara, forces us to think without thinking for us.
Every one of us will undoubtedly face issues where we see good happening via corruption. We can then recall this Gemara and ask ourselves: Is the need that great that we can allow the transgression? And is the sin so awful that we have to speak out against the good that will be done? Some would prefer a legal system that gives us every answer and covers each conceivable situation. Halakhah, Jewish law, does not do this, not only for practical reasons (it’s impossible), but also for philosophical reasons (it’s unhealthy). Though we are made uncomfortable by the situation, and by our need to work out a suitable answer, we are reassured by our texts which limit the choices and bring the values into focus, while not totally limiting our free will and personal involvement.
The frequent and the infrequent—the frequent takes precedence.
Text / Our Rabbis taught: “The differences between Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel regarding a meal—Bet Shammai says: ‘The blessing is first said over the day and then over the wine, because it is on account of the day that the wine is used; and the day already was sanctified before the wine was brought.’ Bet Hillel says: ‘The blessing is first said over the wine and then over the day, because the wine provides the opportunity for the prayer of sanctification to be said.’ Another explanation: ‘The blessing over the wine is said frequently, while the blessing over the day is said only infrequently, and [in a case of] the frequent and the infrequent—the frequent takes precedence.’ ”
Context / The text of kiddush recited Friday evening: Praised are You, Lord our God, King of the universe who creates fruit of the vine. Praised are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe whose mitzvot add holiness to our lives, cherishing us through the gift of His holy Shabbat granted lovingly, gladly, a reminder of Creation. It is the first among our days of sacred assembly which recall the Exodus from Egypt. Thus You have chosen us, endowing us with holiness, from among all peoples by granting us Your holy Shabbat lovingly and gladly. Praised are You, Lord who hallows Shabbat. (Translation, Siddur Sim Shalom)
At the beginning of Shabbat and festivals, a special prayer, kiddush (“sanctification”), is recited over a cup of wine at the evening meal. Kiddush is composed of two parts: A one-line blessing for the wine, and a longer blessing praising God for having created the special day. The question that Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel are discussing is which of the two blessings is recited first. Bet Shammai holds that Shabbat begins Friday at sunset; only afterwards do we sit down to a meal and recite the kiddush over the wine. Therefore, the blessing over the day (“Praised are You, O Lord, Who hallows Shabbat”) is recited first. It is then followed by the blessing over the wine (“Praised are You, O Lord … Who creates fruit of the vine”).
Bet Hillel takes the opposite position: The prayer praising God for having created the special day is recited only by virtue of our drinking wine in celebration of the day. Therefore, the blessing over the wine should come first. Another reason is offered by the Gemara for this position: We drink wine quite often, and the blessing over wine is recited each time we do so. But the blessing “over the day” is recited only at the onset of that special occasion. Bet Hillel follows the principle that things which comes frequently take precedence over things which come infrequently.
The halakhah today follows the opinion of Bet Hillel: We begin with the blessing over the wine and follow with the blessing over the day.
Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. (1998). Swimming in the Sea of Talmud: Lessons for Everyday LIving
. Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.by Diana Wallis
He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. --- 1 John 3:8
“Is of the devil”—you know what he means: imitates the Devil. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Second Series, 14 Volumes
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8). Now then, beloved, mark! All sinners are born of the Devil, as sinners. Adam was made by God, but when he consented to the Devil, he was born of the Devil, and he fathered all as he was himself. With lust itself we were born, even before we add our sins; from that condemnation we have our birth. For if we are born without any sin, why this running with infants to baptism that they may be released? Then mark well, friends, the two birth-stocks; Adam and Christ are two men, but one of them, a man that is human; the other, a Man that is God. By the man that is human we are sinners; by the Man that is God we are justified. That birth has cast down to death, this birth has raised up to life; that birth brings with it sin, this birth sets free from sin. For this purpose Christ came as human, to undo human sins. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the Devil’s work.
Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers
Numbers Overview
With the Law given, the priests ordained, and the sacrificial system which provided for forgiveness of sin instituted, it was time for God’s people to move on. Israel had come to Sinai exactly three months after leaving Egypt. On the twentieth day of the second month of the second year out of Egypt they would set out again (Numbers 10:11). From this point on, Israel would be responsible to God for the choices individuals, groups, and the whole community made. Despite punishments for disobedience along the way, this generation did not learn the vital lesson of obedience. When the time came to make life’s most significant choice, these people would hear God’s voice, and turn away. Outline I. At Sinai 1–9 A. Organizing the people 1–4 B. Culminating worship 5–9 II The Lost Generation 10–20 A. The journey 10–12 B. Israel’s disobedience 13–14 C. Years of wandering 15–19 III. Prelude to Victory 20–36 A. Warfare 20–21 B. Baalam 22–25 C. The new generation 26–31 D. Victory preview 32–36 A most significant statement about God is found in this section of Scripture: “The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished” (Numbers 14:18). God is love. But persons are responsible to Him for their choices.
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