Calculate the total of captured spoils of people and animals... Divide the spoils in half... Take off from the soldiers, a tax for G-d, one of each five hundred... Take from the half of the Children of Israel one of each fifty... And you shall give them to the Levites. Moshe and Elazar the priest did as G-d commanded Moshe... The calculation of the spoils was... The half... The tax for G-d was.... (31:26-37)
Question: Since it already states that Moshe and Elazar did as G-d commanded, why is it necessary for the Torah to elaborate and give the overall total count, how much one-half of that was, and how much the one-of-five-hundred tax came to?
Answer: The total number of cattle taken was 808,000. It was divided between the soldiers and the rest of the community, each segment receiving 404,000. In addition, there were 32,000 human beings. It undoubtedly took much time to count such a large number of animals and people and then divide it and take off the taxes. By giving us all the fine details of the tallies, the Torah is describing a great miracle: namely, from the time they were taken into captivity till the time they were divided and the taxes were given, not one single animal or person died.
Alternatively, it was also miraculous that the total of all species was an even number and not odd, so that the spoils could be easily divided, and that from the number each side received it was easy to separate one of fifty or one of five hundred without even one single extra animal or person. Thus, though it states clearly that the Jewish people did exactly as Moshe was commanded, the Torah gives detailed numbers, because otherwise we would have remained puzzled as to what happened with the remainders after division.
Moshe said to the children of Gad and the children of Reuben, "Shall your brothers go out to battle while you settle here?" (32:6)
Question: If they were settling in a different land, what was the problem with not participating in the war for the land of Israel?
Answer: Though the Jewish people are dispersed to many parts of the world, they are strongly united and psychologically interdependent. Thus, when a Jew in any part of the world experiences misfortune, Jews throughout the world feel compassion and express concern.
Moshe was not questioning the legitimacy of their action, but rather saying to them, "Considering the emotions of the Jewish people it would be impossible for you to sit calmly and enjoy your land in Jordan when at the same time your brethren are engaged in war."
LOGIN
ASK THE RABBI
