CHAPTER 1

Bamidbar

"HEADS UP!"(AND COVERED)

Hashem's command to Moshe to count the constituents of thecongregation contains curious language that clamors for ourconsideration. "Se'u Es Rosh Kol Adas Bnei Yisroel L'MishpichosamL'Veis Avosam ..." "Take a census of the entire assembly of theChildren of Israel according to their families, according to theirfathers' house ..." (1:2) Although we have interpreted the boldedwords above to mean "take a census," since that is the universallyagreed-upon translation, it is far from their literal meaning: "Lift upthe head." And while we can certainly understand-in a colloquialsense-the use of such terminology (as in "have them raise their headsso we can do a `head-count'"), that is not traditionally the way theTorah speaks; Hashem could have commanded Moshe to simplycount the people.

Rashi, as quoted by the Ramban (N.B.-the following quote that theRamban scrutinizes does not appear in our standard text of Rashi, butit does appear in the Alkabetz edition), cites the Medrash (BamidbarRabbah), which tells us

Se'u Es Rosh-Take a census (literally: Lift the head)-It isas they say to the king's executioner "Lift off this one'shead!"

Well that's a downer! Why would the Torah employ such ominouslanguage when commanding Moshe to count the people? TheRamban, disturbed by that, analyzes:

[Regarding] the (above) words that Rashi wrote ... itis not clear to me why they expounded ["lift the head"]as a disparagement ... For in the Aggadah of VayikraRabbah (a different Medrash) it expounds ["lift the head"]as praise: "Lift [the head]" is nothing but an expressionof greatness" ... [Thus Hashem] hinted to Moshe [withthe ambiguous terminology] "lift the head", that if [theJews] are meritorious, they will rise to greatness, as it says(Bereishis 40:13) "Pharaoh will lift your head and restoreyou to your post," and if they are not meritorious, they willall die, as it says (ibid., v. 19) "Pharaoh will lift your headfrom you and hang you on a tree."

In other words, the Ramban explains that the term "lift the head" hasa dual meaning-one positive and one negative-and its interpretationis dependent upon the subjects of the census command: Bnei Yisroel.If we are meritorious, our heads will be lifted; if not, they will belifted off.

Well that's a relief (it's not exclusively negative), but there is a smallproblem with that interpretation. The command to "lift the head[s]"of the people is given to Moshe, not the general populace. If Hashemhad wanted to subtly apprise the people of the behavior-based rewardsand punishments that await them, then He would have deliveredHis warning directly to them. Or, as is more commonly the case, Hewould have commanded Moshe to convey those words to the people.Rather, in this instance, the command to count the people is given toMoshe, Aharon and the tribal leaders exclusively; no such imperativeis imposed on the masses! So what are we supposed to make of themerit/demerit message to Moshe and the other leaders?

Furthermore, it is interesting to note that this admonition isadministered in the context of the passuk "Lift the heads (take acensus) of the entire assembly of the Children of Israel according totheir families, according to their fathers' house ..." What is the Torahadding with the seemingly superfluous words "their fathers' house"?If we know they are to be counted according to their families, thenthe bolded words seem unnecessary. Rashi informs us that it is toresolve tribal affiliation when one's mother hails from one tribe, andone's father from another (it goes according to the father), but RavShamshon Raphael Hirsch expounds more expansively

From various places, it is clear that "fathers' house" denotesthe unity of a tribe. The individuals together form families;the families, which descend from one common home,together form tribes; and the tribes, which likewise descendfrom one common home, together form the "House ofIsrael" ... This is the uniqueness of Jewish nationalism:the nation as a whole is always considered one house, theHouse of Israel ... The conception of the nation as the"House of Israel", and all of its members as the "Children ofIsrael" ... does not exist merely as fiction, as an imaginaryunion of elite representatives. The Jewish nation is alwaysconceived of in the actual unified entirety of its members.They are united by a common inner element, and each oneof them is an actual and integral part of this unity.

Being that they are mentioned in the same passuk, we can properlydeduce from the above that there is some connection between theRamban's suggested dual-interpretation of the words "lift the heads",and the unity of Bnei Yisroel, which is suggested by the words "theirfathers' house". Precisely what that connection is, and how to resolvethe question we asked on the Ramban, we shall propose shortly, butfirst let us take note of the "travel instructions" that were issued tothe nation immediately after the census.

During the process of describing the formation of the tribes when theywould encamp in the desert (a diamond-shaped formation consistingof three tribes in each direction, all surrounding the Tabernacle), theTorah interrupts to state "Ka'Asher Yachanu,...