Torah portion Bamidbar

It’s easy to see why the English name of this next book in the Torah is called Numbers. It starts out with a whole bunch of numbers as Moses counts the Children of Israel, but not all of them.

 Numbers??

 In Hebrew, the name of the book is Bamidbar, in the wilderness, because we are still residing in the wilderness at the foot of Mt. Sinai, but soon we will be journeying through the land.

While it should have been a short journey, it is going to end up being forty years long, and for many of the Israelites that forty years is their lifetime. We read in the beginning of our portion the instruction to count the males by their polls.

What’s a poll?

 Head Count

 Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines poll as “a person’s head.” It’s where we get the concept of a poll tax, or a head tax, each person is taxed, or a head count where we count each person. The Hebrew word behind poll is gulgoleth, skull.

If gulgoleth rings a bell, it might be because in the book of Matthew Golgotha is the location of Yeshua’s crucifixion.

Mat 27:32-33  And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.  (33)  And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,

So, who did Moses count?

Num 1:1-3  And Yehovah spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,  (2)  Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;  (3)  From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: you and Aaron shall number them by their armies.

Notice how long we have been camped at Mt. Sinai, two years! Now, here is an interesting observation.

Num 1:47-49  But the Levites, according to the tribe of their fathers, were not numbered among them.  (48)  And Yehovah spoke to Moses, saying,  (49)  However, you shall not number the tribe of Levi, nor shall you count their heads among the sons of Israel.

 Levites are set apart again 

 Why didn’t Father want the Levites to be numbered along with all the rest of the tribes of Israel? Maybe because He knew what would happen when they arrived at the border of the Promised Land, and He needed a quick and easily understood method of dividing the Levites from the rest of Israel. The Levites belong to Him in place of the firstborn of all Israel.

Num 14:29  Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,

 Hebrew roots are everywhere

 On a side note, how many of you have heard of the term the big kahuna? It is a Hawaiian term but used in reference to the most important or dominant person or thing in an organization or group. We can find the Hebraic origin of this concept in this week’s portion. It is the word translated as priesthood, and in its responsibility we can see why it means important or dominant.

Aaron and his sons were to guard their priesthood, to the extent that any stranger (zur) who comes near shall be put death. Stranger here is not the friendly ger or goy, but the zur, the rebellious ones, the strangers who are just there to cause mischief or ridicule.

Num 3:10  And you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall keep (shomer, guard) their priesthood (kehunnah). And the stranger (zur) who comes near shall be put to death.