Shabbos Parashas Pinchas - 5778

Shabbos Parashas Pinchas - 5778

Rabbi Hal Miller

You shall stand him before Elazar the Kohen and before the entire assembly, and

command him before their eyes. [Bamidbar 27:19]

This verse shouts out a question, command him what?

Moshe makes one final attempt to sway God to allowing him entry into the promised

land. When that fails, Moshe asks that God appoint a replacement leader, one who

will take care of the people as they cross the Jordan. He lists what he feels are the

leadership qualifications necessary, in careful detail. God immediately answers, "take

to yourself Yehoshua bin Nun."

Having made the selection, the next step is to determine the process. Making it

public seems obvious, although there are many points involved. Each seems

pretty obvious for the "how" or "what", except for this portion of our verse. The Torah

does not explain what is to be commanded. To be fair, the next verse tells Moshe to

"place some of your glory on him", which could be a possible explanation, but that

leaves us asking why the Torah needed two verses when it could more easily have

said, command him by giving him, etc. Some commentators translate the word as

'charge', but the Hebrew word is tzivitah, which clearly means "command him".

Sforno teaches that it means 'appoint', and compares it to the appointment of David.

If we accept 'appoint', then we can understand the various commentators discussing

how Moshe needed to make sure the people would follow Yehoshua. But if so, what

are Rashi and Ramban talking about? Rashi says that our verse means Moshe must

warn Yehoshua about the Israelites being troublesome and uncooperative, that he is

taking this on with that understanding. Ramban writes that the verse means Moshe

was to assign the obligations of ruler and judge, that he was entrusting Yehoshua

with his beloved people. He then points out that the simple meaning of the verse

refers to appointing.

in Sifrei we find that Moshe was to command Yehoshua regarding Torah learning, to

strengthen him and give him resolve. There cannot be two leaders for a generation,

thus Yehoshua was to take on the role alone.

Our verse either means that Moshe was to appoint Yehoshua publicly to ensure there

would be no question of the passing of authority, or it means that Moshe was to

direct Yehoshua in how to do his job, what his responsibilities were.