Parsha Bemidbar: Numbers 1:1-4:20

Parsha: Bemidbar

Day 2: Numbers 1:20-54

(Study Notes)

This portion of Tanakh provides the details of the census taken by the 12 Chieftains, which was recorded by Moshe Rabbeinu. The census provides total numbers of the individuals enrolled in each Tribe of Israel. These numbers can be compared to the census taken in Genesis 46:8-26, which records the names of those 70 Hebrews who went down to Mitzrayim.

The census here in Numbers 1 does not provide the full list of names, arguably because the list was so vast: 603,500 men. We learn that the total number provided for each tribe is

Day 2: Numbers 1:20-54

וַיִּהְי֤וּ בְנֵֽי־רְאוּבֵן֙ בְּכֹ֣ר יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל תּוֹלְדֹתָ֥ם לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖ם לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֑ם בְּמִסְפַּ֤ר שֵׁמוֹת֙ לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָ֔ם כׇּל־זָכָ֗ר מִבֶּ֨ן עֶשְׂרִ֤ים שָׁנָה֙ וָמַ֔עְלָה כֹּ֖ל יֹצֵ֥א צָבָֽא׃

20 And the children of Reuben, Israel’s first-born, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, by their polls, every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war;

פְּקֻדֵיהֶ֖ם לְמַטֵּ֣ה רְאוּבֵ֑ן שִׁשָּׁ֧ה וְאַרְבָּעִ֛ים אֶ֖לֶף וַחֲמֵ֥שׁ מֵאֽוֹת׃ {פ}

21 those that were numbered of them, of the tribe of Reuben, were forty and six thousand and five hundred.