Shabbat Parashat Naso - 5784

Shabbat Parashat Naso - 5784

Rabbi Hal Miller

  The one who brought his offering on the first day was Nachshon ben Aminadav

  of the tribe of Yehudah [Bamidbar 7:12]

Many people wonder why the Torah gave us the identical verses for the offerings, just

changing the order number, tribe and prince's name. But they are not entirely identical.

In verses 10 and 11 immediately preceding our verse, it seems clear that the princes of

each of the twelve tribes were about to bring offerings. In our verse, the word nasi, or

prince, is not mentioned, although it is for all eleven of the others. In verse 18, on the

second day the verse says that Netanel offered, but for the remaining ten it does not

mention that verb. Numbers three through twelve are in fact identical, as are all twelve

offerings, so there must be some reason that the first two are different.

Nachshon ben Aminadav was clearly the tribal prince of Yehudah. Why did our verse not

mention that, as it did for the other eleven? Chizkuni says it is "so that he would not be

puffed up with pride that he was chosen to bring the first offering" which seems to mean

that he had some negative trait here that we had not seen before. Baal HaTurim explains

that the tribe of Yehudah was known for humbling itself, so the title was hidden because of

the humility of Nachshon. Talelei Oros writes that "since Nachshon distinguished himself at

the sea, it did not seem necessary to also mention that he was the nasi" referring to Nachshon

being the first one to enter the Reed Sea to cause the split. I would note also that since the

tribe of Yehudah was designated for the monarchy, the title might instead have been 'king'

rather than 'prince'. It was left off here entirely for two reasons, not to be insulting to Nachshon

who might not like the demotion to nasi, and second not to be insulting to the other princes, all

twelve of whom were acting in equal status here.

Our verse uses the word 'hamakriv', which means "the one who offered". Verse 18 uses 'hikriv'

which means "offered", with regard to Netanel of Yissachar. The other ten do not use the word

in any form in the opening verse of their section. Some note that this is an honor for Nachshon,

that he was offering from his personal assets on behalf of the tribe, although that opinion is not

universal. If so, then the 'hikriv' means that from Netanel and on, they were offering from the

assets of their tribe, and as Rav Hirsch says it, once verse 18 explains this, the Torah does not

need to repeat that fact for each of the following ten, rather uses a "shorter style". This fits with

Rashi's opinion regarding the change in word order, where in 18 the Torah says, "on the second

days, Netanel ben Tzurar, prince of Yissachar, offered", but in 24 and on for the other princes,

the wording is "on the third day, the prince for the sons of Zevulun, Eliav ben Cheilon, offered."

Netanel's name comes before "prince of Yissachar" and the "sons of" does not appear, whereas

for the remaining ten, the name of the tribe comes before the name of the prince, and it specifies

that the offering was for the children of that tribe. Thus Netanel was given special honor here, not

only as the prince of a tribe, but as the one who set the contents of the offering for all so that they

would all be equal.