Avodah Mailing List

Volume 43: Number 39

Thu, 26 Jun 2025

• 1. The Census Numbers In Bmidbar (Jay F. Shachter)
• 2. Lashon Hara in the Torah (Rabbi Meir G. Rabi)
• 3. agency (Joel Rich)
• 4. name calling (Joel Rich)

In Avodah v43i32 someone wrote:

>
> If you look at the numbers 12 of the 13 tribes end in 00 and the 13th
> Yehuda ends with 50.
>

No, it was Gad (see Bmidbar 1:25), not Yehudah (Bmidbar 1:27)


>
> So the numbers seem to be clearly rounded and so says the Meshech
> Chochma.  However it is strange that only one tribe is rounded to
> 50.  If the Torah was rounding to the nearest 50 you would expect a
> more even distribution between 50 and 00.
>

No, the numbers (which were inherently approximate, vide infra) were
rounded to the nearest 100, except for one number which ended in 50,
which was kept at 50.  I don't know that this is true, but it is such
a simple and plausible explanation that I am satisfied with it.


>
> What is more difficult is the end of the parsha where the leviim
> redeem the first borns.  The Torah gives an exact number of first
> borns 22273 and matches it with a rounded number of leviim, 22000.
> Rashi points out that if you add up the numbers there were 22300
> leviim and therefore quotes Chazal that 300 were first borns, again
> a very suspiciously round number.  So how does that work using a
> rounded number and comparing it to an exact number?  To say that the
> numbers of leviim was exact both the total number (22300) and the
> number of first borns (300) seems to be quite difficult especially
> when all the other tribal numbers are rounded.
>

I have been hearing this question all my life, and I do not understand
why anyone has ever asked this question, because the answer is obvious.
I can only conclude that the people who have asked this question, have
not thought about it for more than 30 minutes.  Obviously a man would
normally know exactly whether or not he was a firstborn.  But how
would a man know whether he was 20 years old?  He could know that only
approximately.  Here are the 4th and 5th sentences of the
autobiography of Frederick Douglas:

 I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of
 his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time,
 harvest-time, cherry-time, spring-time, or fall-time.

Our slave ancestors were not separated from their families the way the
African slaves in Maryland were separated from theirs, but nonetheless,
even if a man's parents told him on what day of the month he was born
(and I think that is implausible, there is no record of anyone in the
Bible except Pharaoh caring about, or even knowing, his date of birth)
and in what season he was born, how would he know whether he was born
in the 11th month or in the 12th month?  Or in the 13th month?
Obviously the number of men in a tribe who were over the age of 20 --
in contrast with the number of men in a tribe who were firstborn --
was a number that could be known only approximately.

(To what can this be compared?  To knowledge of the time of sunset,
which one can know precisely, because one can see the sun as it
touches the horizon.  In contrast, one can only know approximately the
time of peleg hamminxa.)


               Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter
               6424 North Whipple Street
               Chicago IL  60645-4111
                       (1-773)7613784   landline
                       (1-410)9964737   GoogleVoice
                       j...@m5.chicago.il.us
                       http://m5.chicago.il.us

               When Martin Buber was a schoolboy, it must have been
               no fun at all playing tag with him during recess.

The Torah discloses Miryam's indiscretion
but not that of Aharon HaCohen
[although we ought to ask if the T did not why did Chazal]

Rashi explains it teaches us
even though she respected and loved MRabbenu
and only had the best intentions

Why does the T disclose the indiscretion of Sarah Immenu?

BTW,
would someone please offer to explain the Ohr HaChaim - VaTeChaChesh Sarah
18:15
what Sarah Imenu feared
in particular his words
Lo YaAtzor KoAch LeHodos Al Asher Assah



Best,

Meir G. Rabi

0423 207 837
+61 423 207 837
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20250623/a60ba86a/attachment-0001.htm>

Rabbi Fuerst posited the following case: A group of siblings agreed to
purchase a set of 12 cups for their parents as a gift. Sibling A did the
ordering and when the cups came two of them were cracked. The merchant told
him to keep the cups and the merchant would send another full set. Does the
sibling who did the ordering have to share the ?free? cups with his
siblings. Rabbi Fuerst says no because the first sale is a mekach taut and
the second sale becomes the only sale.
I?d like a better understanding of how this mechanism works assuming that
the first sibling is acting as an agent of the other siblings. thoughts?
bsorot tovot
Joel Rich
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20250625/cc9fceaf/attachment-0001.htm>

------------------------------


?????? ??? ?????????????. ???????? ? ?????? ?????? ?????????!
as it is taught in a baraita: One who calls another a slave shall be
ostracized. One who calls another a mamzer incurs the punishment of forty
lashes. If one calls another a wicked person then the insulted person may
harass him in all aspects of his life. In light of this halakha, it is
clear that the court will not force the accused to respond to this insult
by taking an oath.

Any thoughts on which is worse and why the specific punishments?

bsorot tovot

joel rich
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20250625/e396c8e3/attachment-0001.htm>

------------------------------



_______________________________________________
Avodah mailing list
Avo...@lists.aishdas.org
http://www.aishdas.org/lists/avodah
http://lists.aishdas.org/listinfo.cgi/avodah-aishdas.org


------------------------------


**************************************

Send Avodah mailing list submissions to
	avodah@lists.aishdas.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
	http://www.aishdas.org/lists/avodah/avodahareivim-membership-agreement/


You can reach the person managing the list at
	avodah-owner@lists.aishdas.org


When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Avodah digest..."

A list of common acronyms is available at
        http://www.aishdas.org/lists/avodah/avodah-acronyms
(They are also visible in the web archive copy of each digest.)