Shabbos Parashas Pinchas - 5779

Shabbos Parashas Pinchas - 5779

Rabbi Hal Miller

And of these, there was no man of those counted by Moshe and Aharon the Kohen,

who counted the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. [Bamidbar 26:64]

At first glance, we have to ask, but what about Pinchas? He was born to Elazar, son of

Aharon, while the nation was still in Egypt. He shows up in various events throughout

the forty years in the desert, and he shows up after Yehoshua leads the nation over

the Jordan river in the conquest. We are told that all of the generation who left Egypt

died in the desert, except Yehoshua and Caleiv, but what about Pinchas?

Our verse occurs during the census by Moshe and Elazar, nearly 40 years after the

referenced count by Moshe and Aharon. Since Pinchas was alive at the time of the

earlier census, he must not have been counted. How would that have occurred?

A couple weeks ago we read [Bamidbar 14-29-30] that God told the people that all of

them would die in the desert, "all of you who were counted in any of your numberings,

from 20 years of age and above" except for Caleiv and Yehoshua. So we might think

that Pinchas was not 20 yet by the time of that earlier census. This is entirely possible,

since the census occurred fairly early in the desert travels, roughly 2 to 3 years. If

Pinchas had been born within the last 15 or so years of the time in Egypt, he would

still have been in his teens and not been counted.

But what about Pinchas' father, Elazar? He was certainly older than 20 at the first

census. Bava Basra [121b] explains that there was an upper limit as well, age 60.

Perhaps Elazar was over 60 at the time, but if so, he was around 50 years older than

his son. Not impossible, but something to wonder about.

The Gemora makes the case that the tribe of Levi was not included in the decree of

dying in the desert. One explanation is that Levi was not counted until "30", but there

is a disagreement as to whether that refers to days or years. Another explanation is

that both the counts done by Moshe were done in two parts, all the nation except

Levi, then Levi. Since Levi did not participate in the golden calf episode, their count

was excluded from this decree. This works for both Pinchas and Elazar, although

the Torah does not explicitly exclude Levi from the phrases "any of your numberings"

or "counted by Moshe and Aharon".

If so, it would seem that more than 20,000 Levites of the 600,000 men who left Egypt,

plus the women, plus those who were over 60 or under 20, could have arrived in

the land with Yehoshua, or at least arrived in the Golan with Moshe, a rather large

number. We do not see much discussion on this. Certainly it seems difficult in light of

the simple meaning of the verses that only Caleiv and Yehoshua survived to enter the

land. We can see that perhaps only those two from the non-Levi men between 20 and

60 at the time of the first census survived, but the Torah does not get that explicit.

Perhaps the lesson is that we, in studying Torah, are to learn beyond the simple

meaning.