Shabbos Parashas Bemidbar - 5780

Shabbos Parashas Bemidbar - 5780

Rabbi Hal Miller

God spoke to Moshe in the desert of Sinai, in the Mishkan, on the first of the

second month in the second year after their exodus from the land of Egypt,

saying [Bemidbar 1:1]

Most commentators discuss why our verse tells the place God spoke to Moshe this

time and not other times, but I have two other questions, neither of which seems to

be well discussed. Why did the Torah specify the date of this discussion, and why do

so many people pronounce the title word for the parsha and chumash incorrectly?

The first six words are "va'yidabeir Hashem el Moshe bemidbar Sinai." The Torah

scroll does not include vowels, but virtually every Chumash out there does. All of

those that transliterate into English letters write the fifth word as "ba-midbar",

meaning "in the midbar". But, as Onkelos notes, the Hebrew vowel under the beit is

a sheva, not a patach, and the word should be pronounced "be-midbar", meaning

"in the midbar of", and tied to the following word.

The root of the word midbar is dalet-beit-reish, which can also mean a leader, a

shepherd, a word, or the verb to speak. Plenty of room for confusion here. For

example, we could legitimately read our verse, And God spoke with Moshe the

shepherd of Sinai, referring to Moshe's role. This would eliminate the apparent

doubled place reference, since midbar is followed by "in the Mishkan". Or we

could possibly read it, And God spoke to Moshe with His speech at Sinai.

Bamidbar Rabbah [1:7] says, "Whoever does not make himself hefker like the desert

will not be able to acquire wisdom and Torah." In other words, Moshe made himself

humble enough to be open to what God commanded. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reads this

to mean, "To receive the word of God, we must make ourselves open, the way a desert

is. If we bring our presuppositions, we will only hear what we want to hear." Thus

bemidbar would mean, And God spoke to Moshe, who was open like the desert of Sinai.

Ba'al HaTurim says that one cannot internalize Torah unless he makes himself like a desert.

Further, there is no explanation for why the "first of the second month in the second

year" is important in this verse where such a date is not relevant to other verses.

Rashi notes that Moshe erected the Mishkan for the first time on the first of Nisan, the

first month, marking a year from the exodus (which occurred in mid-Nisan). Now, 30 days

later comes our verse on the first of Iyar. From this Talelei Oros points out that although

the Shechinah descended upon Its new home in Nisan, it does not become a permanent

dwelling for another 30 days, thus our verse is telling us both that the census to follow

was the first to occur with God fully in our midst, and that a dwelling does not become

real for the first 30 days, with the relevant halachas covering putting up mezuzas, etc.

We can also note the possibility that this itself is an anniversary. The slaying of the firstborn

in Egypt was the night of the 14th/15th of Nisan, and the Jews left Egypt some time the

next day. The Torah relates events as of the 15th of Iyar, but leaves the dates of events in

the middle rather fuzzy. Doing some counting and estimating, the crossing of the Reed Sea

and the singing of the Song would have occurred right about the halfway point of this

travel, meaning around the 1st of Iyar. It could be that our verse is telling us that God

chose to re-count His nation exactly one year after He gave us our real freedom from the

Egyptians at the Sea.