Shabbos Parashas Nasso - 5778

Shabbos Parashas Nasso - 5778

Rabbi Hal Miller

They shall carry the curtains of the Tabernacle and the Tent of Meeting, its cover

and the tachash cover that is over it from above, and the screen of the entrance

of the Tent of Meeting, the lace-hangings of the courtyard and the screen of the

entrance of the gate of the courtyard that were around the Tabernacle and the

Altar, their ropes and all the utensils of their service, and everything that is made

for them, and they shall serve. [Bamidbar 4:25-26]

Last week, the Kehat family of Leviim began their duties. They took down the

Mishkan, cleaned and packed it. Before this, all three Levi families were given

their "charge". Kehat in 3:31 get the Ark, the Table, the Menorah, the Altars, and

the various vessels and partition. Gershon in 3:25-26 gets the tent and cover, the

screen at the entrance, the curtains of the courtyard with its screen, and ropes.

Merari in 3:36-36 gets the planks, bars, pillars, sockets, pegs and ropes.

This week we see that Gershon gets assigned curtains, tent, over, screen, utensils,

and ropes. In 4:31-32, Merari is charged with planks, bars, pillars, sockets, pegs

and ropes.

Two obvious questions arise. First, why does the Torah need to repeat all of this?

Second, there seems to be a lot of overlap between families, so who did what?

From time to time, the Torah repeats something, yet does not repeat. This is a

good example. The lesson here is that God told Moshe what to have the Levites

do, and then they did exactly what it was Moshe told them. In effect, the Torah is

here commending the Levites for doing their job properly.

Rashi's approach gives the most clear answer to the overlap question, discussing the

sockets, pegs, and ropes assigned to Merari. He calls these ropes and pegs, "their

pegs and their ropes", meaning that Merari carried only those pegs and ropes that were

part of the pillar and socket set for the framework of the Mishkan. He explains, "see

now, the pegs and the ropes of the curtains were in the load of the sons of Gershon.

There were pegs and ropes for the panels and for the curtains at the bottom so that the

wind should not raise them, and there were pegs and ropes for the pillars all around to

hang the curtains from them." The idea that there were several sets of pegs and ropes,

for different purposes, makes a lot of sense, but why did the Torah go to such lengths

to list something so mundane as supporting items that applied everywhere? It did not

list tools or other supplies.

Ramban challenges Rashi, showing that there were no pegs for the pillars, thus the

entire explanation falls apart. He instead relates "their pegs" back to what was carried

by Gershon. He then shows in a complex argument how Gershon also did not actually

have pegs, but only Merari did. Thus the pegs Merari carried were "theirs", meaning

for the items that were carried by Gershon. But this seems to contradict the simple

meaning of the verses.

Rav Hirsch takes a compound approach to explain these issues. First from the practical

side, he tells us that there are three sections to the Mishkan, and that each of the Levi

families was responsible for one section. He spends a great deal of effort showing how

each item in the lists is in fact distinct and applies only to one of the sections. He then

goes into depth explaining how each item is in fact an allegory, that it represents some

spiritual aspect about the section to which it applies. The ropes and pegs were not on

the list as tools, rather as references to what tied together and protected the whole

Mishkan. This could easily be divided, and in fact existed in all sections. Rav Hirsch's

explanation seems to fit best also with our first question, in that the Torah is telling us

that this is not really a repetition, but that there were in fact separate sets of ropes and

pegs. Unlike other tools and supplies, these items were an integral part of each section.