Hot answers tagged bamidbar-numbers-book-of
8
The alternation you are speaking of is between a zakef gadol (on the many, short names) and a 'pashta'-zakef katon (on somewhat longer words). Both of these are really a zakef. When the zakef comes on the first word of a clause, or of a pasuk, as it does here, then there is no place for the servus. This is where we typically see a zakef gadol version of the ...
7
Sifsei Chachamim (Bamidbar 2:20):
לעיל לא צריך רש"י לפרש מידי, שהרי גבי "ועליו" כתיב "והחונים" אם כן ודאי פירושו כתרגומו, אבל כאן אין כתיב כלום רק ועליו מטה מנשה אם כן אין אני יודע פירושו, לכן פירש רש"י כתרגומו
Apparently, Rashi felt that the wording "והחונים עליו" is clear enough as meaning "adjacent to", but just "עליו" is ambiguous and therefore ...
6
Perhaps you mean the king of Cheshbon?
Cheshbon was the capital city of Sichon, king of the Amorites ("Emorim"). The Jews conquered it.
See Numbers 21:21--27:
Israel sent emissaries to Sichon king
of the Amorites ... Sichon, however,
did not let Israel pass through his
territories. Instead, Sichon mustered
up all his people, and went out to
...
6
Although the Gra is famous for saying that there is remez (symbolism) behind all the ta'amim (trope) in the Torah, simply speaking the ta'amim we use are purely grammatical.
There are several levels of "stopper" ta'amim that indicate a pause in the text, i.e. that this word is not connected to the next. Grammatically speaking, zakef gadol and ...
6
The repetition of the population figures:
Ibn Ezra (to 2:32) and Ramban (to 2:4) say that it underscores the fact that from the census (on the 1st of Iyar, Num. 1:1) until the next time they traveled (on the 20th of that month, ibid. 10:11), no one in such a vast multitude died (against all natural expectations) - so that the figures remained the same.
...
4
The Medrash Bamidbar says "the Torah was given with three things: fire, water, and desert. The Medrash may have one more lesson that is not so readily apparent that is the Kosher aspect. That is, just as the Torah expects our dishes to be Kosher so to Hashem expects no less of us, in order to receive the Torah. The Three elements are clear illustrations of ...
3
Some of this is conjecture on my part, but it seems like Rashi commentary discusses why we need all these dates (except Aharon's passing). He seems to be implicitly answering your question.
The first census
Rashi (Bamidbar 1:1) says that G-d often counted the Jews because He loved them. The Maskil Ledavid, in his commentary on Rashi, explains that all the ...
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