Shabbos Parashas Pinchas - 5782

Shabbos Parashas Pinchas - 5782

Rabbi Hal Miller

For God had said of them, "They will surely die in the wilderness" and not a man was

left of them except for Caleiv ben Yefunneh and Yehoshua bin Nun. [Bamidbar 26:65]

When the spies that Moshe sent to see the land returned, ten gave a report that was at best

ambivalent, and at worst, downright slander of the land and the nation. These two, Caleiv

and Yehoshua, gave a report that supported what Moshe had relayed from God. When the

people accepted the slander instead of the good, God decreed that everyone would die in

the desert and only the next generation would enter the land, except for Caleiv and Yehoshua.

But it wasn't quite that simple. The women were exempted, as were children under 20. The

elderly, meaning above 60, may have been exempted (there are differing opinions) but

most of them would die during the next 40 years anyway.

Moshe and Aharon had been condemned to die in the desert for entirely different reasons.

When Aharon died, his son Elazar became the Kohen Gadol, worked closely with Yehoshua

and lived a long time in the land. Elazar's son Pinchas became the Kohen for war and served

many generations in the land. Why were Elazar and Pinchas not mentioned in our verse?

The two verses prior to ours provide our answer. 26:63-64 "These are the ones counted by

Moshe and Elazar the Kohen, who counted the children of Israel in the plains of Moav by

the Yarden near Yericho. 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."

The key is "the ones counted by Moshe and Elazar". The command to take the census is in

26:2, "Take a census of the entire assembly of the children of Israel, from twenty and above,

according to their father's houses, all who go out to the legion in Israel." In 26:52 God said,

"To these shall the land be divided", referring to those counted prior to Levi, whose count

begins in 26:57. In 26:62, we see regarding Levi, "every male from one month of age and

above, for they did not count themselves among the children of Israel for an inheritance

was not given them."

We know that Levi did not "go out to the legion" and was thus not included in the command

in 26:2. Levi was counted from one month and up, where the rest were counted from twenty

years and up. The counted people referred to in our verse must be the other tribes. Since

Elazar and Pinchas were son and grandson of Aharon, they were Levites, and not included

in the decree nor involved in the "not a man was left of them" count.