1:2 records G-d's command to Moshe to count the people on the 1st day of the 2nd month of the 2nd year of the people’s stay in the desert. Why was the count necessary?
Rashi (on 1:1) explains that the count showed G-d’s love of the people and G-d counted the people in conjunction with important events such as the exodus from Egypt, the sin of the golden calf and here with the completion of the mishkan in the first month of the second year.
Ramban (on 1:45) mentions three reasons. One (see also Rashbam on 1:2), it was to muster an army for the coming invasion of the land of Israel. Two, the census was to show G-d’s goodness to the people that they started from 70 people when Yaakov went to Egypt, Bereshit 46:27, and now they were a large nation. I think this is a likely reason for the count in Bemidbar 26, as the count in Bemidbar 26 follows the exact order of Bereshit 46, but the count in chapter l does not have any literary affinities with the count in Bereshit 46, see our discussion on 26:1-51, "To count again." Three, the count was to show the importance of each person, and this would show that each person/ family was part of the covenant, which was just completed with the laws of the book of Vayikra. (This counting by families might also explain why twenty years was chosen to be youngest age included in the count, as maybe the age marked the person as being a separate household from his parents.)
Another possibility is that this count was to know the census of each tribe, as the previous population data (Shemot 12:37, 38:26) did not provide the population of each tribe. Even thought the count of each tribe could have been calculated from the donations of the shekalim (see our discussion below on 1:46, "Significant data"), this calculation was not simple and not known. Thus, maybe the point of the census in Bemidbar 1 was to publicize the census of each tribe that each person would know how many people were from each tribe.
Why was there a need for people to know the census of each tribe? The information would be important according to the Ramban's first idea that the census was to muster the army. Yet, if the count was for mustering troops, then why was there no upper age limit or exemption from the count for those unable to fight? The lack of an upper age limit is more conspicuous since the Levites had an upper age limit by their work requirements, 4:3. Milgrom (1990, p. 5) claims that the lack of an upper age limit was because everybody had to fight. However, still if a person was too old they could not fight and according to this rationale, the conscription could have started at a younger age. Two, when the people fought with Arad, Sihon and Og (21:1-3,23-25) there is no mention of another count of the people even though these battles happened 39 years after this count. Three, N. Leibowitz (1980, p.12) rejects the military explanation because if that was the reason for the count the Torah could have simply given the total population number without recording all the details of the count.
The answer to these questions depends on how the army was to be organized. From chapter two it seems that the army was based on tribal affiliations, but how was the number of soldiers from each tribe to be chosen. It could not be that everybody went to fight since surely some people stayed on the home front. A different possibility is that each tribe was to supply a fixed number of people, as occurred by the war with Midyan, 31:4, but since the land of Israel was going to be divided based on the number of people this would not be the fairest way. Thus, my guess is that the army was to be organized as a certain percentage from each tribe, for example 90%, 50% or 10% from each tribe.
This idea that the army was a percentage of each tribe can explain why it was important to publicize the census of each population since then it would be known how many soldiers each tribe had to supply. Furthermore, the whole nation had to know these numbers in order that nobody would think that one tribe was providing more or less than other tribes.
In addition, there was no need to have an upper limit since the count was the potential pool of soldiers from each tribe, and then each tribe would choose which soldiers based on the percentage of the total pool of soldiers. The particular soldiers would be chosen based on various factors such as willingness and ability to fight, and then the age cut off would be different for each tribe. However, with the minimum age being twenty, no tribe was allowed to choose soldiers who were less than twenty.
Finally, this system of a percentage of each tribe was appropriate when there was enough time to do a census and /or the goal of the war was to split the land/ booty according to the total number of people in each tribe. However if there was a sudden danger, such as by the war with Arad, Sihon and Og, then a census could not be taken. Also, by Midyan it was sufficient to send a thousand from each tribe since the goal was to stop Midyan from attacking them and not to settle the land of Midyan, see our discussion on 25;14,15 "Ongoing hostilities."
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