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When Parsha & Calendar Meet

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When Parsha & Calendar Meet e"dl zyxt zay xacna e"qyz xii` h"k May 26•27, '06 This Shabbat is the 236th day (of 354); the 34th Shabbat (of 50) of 5766 • We read/learn the SIXTH perek of Pirkei Avot an:k ` l`eny :mlFrÎc© «¨ r L£grx©f «§ oi¬¥aE ir§ ²¦x©f oi¬¥aE LÀ¤pi¥aE i´¦pi¥A | d´¤i§d«¦i 'ºd... When Parsha & Calendar Meet Parshat Mishpatim this year was at the end of Shvat. Anything to say about that? Don't know. Parshat Balak in early Tammuz? Don't know. Sometimes it isn't easy to find a Parsha•Calendar connection. But sometimes it is. Like theA weekly feature of Torah Tidbits to help clarify practical fact that Parshat No'ach is in Cheshvan. The obvious common factor is Rain.and conceptual aspects of the Jewish Calendar, thereby better fulfilling the mitzva of HaChodesh HaZeh Lachem... And the sedras that deal with Yosef and his brothers are read around This Shabbat we bench Chanuka time. There's something there to make a connection. Rosh Chodesh Sivan, How about reading Parshat Bamidbar, beginning the book of Bamidbar, and which will be on Sun• day • Yom Rishon, that benching Rosh Chodesh Sivan on the same Shabbat? With the Molad of Sivan is. Sivan's Rosh Chodesh is always one being on that Shabbat. With Rosh Chodesh Sivan beginning even beforeday, in our fixed calendar, because Iyar Shabbat Bamidbar is over? Seems as if we have what to say. has 29 days. Sivan itself always have 30. This Shabbat, we read of G•d's command to Moshe to count the people. It was oFW`¦x mFi§A x¨g¨n d¤i§d¦i o¨ei¦q y¤Cog W`ox on Rosh Chodesh Iyar 2449, that's 3317 years ago and one month. It was:d¨aFh§l l¥`¨x§U¦i l¨M l©r§e Epi«¥l¨r `¨A©d more than a year after we left Egypt, a little less than a year after arriving at The Molad of Sivan will be on Shabbat Sinai. It was almost 10 months after the golden calf fiasco and a little more afternoon, 5:20pm Israel Summer time. than three months before the Sin of the Spies. The first annual Pesach was;The molad is announced as follows • the first Pesach Sheni was still to come. In addition to the Meraglim still towithout adjusting for locale or daylight. happen, we also know that Korach and his rebellion as well as several other z©g©`¨e mi¦r¨A§x©` ,W¤cFw z¨A©W ,mFi©d d¤i§d¦i c©lFO©d events that angered G•d (so to speak) will soon be occurring. .m¦i©x¨d¨v©A r¨A§x©` i¥x£g©` mi¦w¨l©g i¥p§WE zFwc © Now take a step back. Rosh Chodesh Sivan will be Machar, on Yom Rishon. So In Rambam notation, that's nyz:ak 'y let us ride the Wayback Machine (without Mr. Peabody and Sherman) to 11 The actual (astronomical) molad (full months before when our sedra begins. To our arrival at Sinai, and moon)the is Shabbat morning at 8:25am. experience of camping at the foot of Har Sinai "as one person with one heart". Everything is potential. The good and the bad. Once again we relive the challenge of accepting the Torah AND Eretz Yisrael and maybe this time to skip past Galut and punishment straight to the Geula Sh'leima `"aa www.radiou.org The OU Israel Center and Torah Tidbits do not and necessarily endorse the political or halachic positions of www.israelnationalradio.com its editor, columnists, or advertisers, nor do we New shows from Thursday guarantee the quality of advertised services or products Ranges are FRI•FRI • 28 Iyar • 6 Sivan • (May26•Jun 2) OU ISRAEL CENTER Earliest Talit & T'filin • 4:39•4:36am Seymour J. Abrams • Orthodox Union Sunrise • 5:36½•5:34am Jerusalem World Center Yitzchak Fund, President Sof Z'man K' Sh'ma • 9:06•9:05 am (8:12•8:11am) Rabbi Emanuel Quint, Senior Vice President Sof Z'man T'fila • 10:16•10:16am (9:40•9:39am) Correct for TT 716 • Rabbeinu Tam (J'm) • 9:02pm Prof. Meni Koslowsky, Vice President Chatzot (halachic noon) • 12:36•12:37pm Rabbi Dovid Cohen, Vaad member 7:01pm (6:09) Jerusalem 8:18pm Mincha Gedola (earliest Mincha) • 1:12•1:13pm Moshe Kempinski, Vaad member 7:18pm (6:11) Raanana 8:21pm Sandy Kestenbaum, Vaad member Plag Mincha • 6:09•6:13pm Simcha Rock, Vaad member 7:16pm (6:10) Beit Shemesh 8:19pm Sunset • 7:41•7:45½ (7:36•7:40pm) Zvi Sand, Vaad member 7:18pm (6:12) Netanya 8:21pm Harvey Wolinetz, Vaad member 7:17pm (6:11) Rehovot 8:20pm Menachem Persoff, Director of Programs, Israel Center 6:58pm (6:11) Petach Tikva 8:21pm In the Wolinetz Family Shul Phil Chernofsky, Educational Director and TT editor 7:17pm (6:10) Modi'in 8:20pm OHEL SHMUEL (entrance floor) 22 Keren HaYesod • POB 37015 • Jerusalem 91370 7:16pm (6:10) Be'er Sheva 8:19pm phone: (02) 566 7787 • fax: (02) 561•7432 7:15pm (6:09) Gush Etzion 8:18pm Early Shabbat Minyan email: [email protected] • website: www.ou.org/torah/tt 7:18pm (6:11) Ginot Shomron 8:20pm Mincha 5:55pm (before PLAG) Orthodox Union • National Conference of Synagogue Youth 7:01pm (6:09) Maale Adumim 8:18pm This publication and many of the programs of 7:15pm (6:09) K4 & Hevron 8:18pm Shabbat Shiur 5:00pm Mincha 6 the Israel Center and NCSY in Israel are assisted by grants from The Jewish Agency for Israel 7:08pm (6:10) Tzfat 8:21pm Rabbi Binyamin Wolff 7:18pm (6:11) Tel Mond 8:21pm Produced and printed "in house" at the Israel Center Israel Center TT #716 · page 1 · The Shabbat Parshat Bamidbar • Machar Chodesh 5766 issue Kohen • First Aliya • 19 p'sukim • 1:1•19 [P> 1:1 (19)] The command from G•d is to count the people, specifically the males from 20 years and up. 20 is the Torah's age for military service. Assisting in the census are Aharon and a representative of each tribe. The command came a year and a fortnight out of Egypt, on Rosh Chodesh Iyar 2449. The census was carried out as commanded. Commentaries point out that the command to count the SDT people was given to Moshe and Aharon (as opposed to just Moshe) because the census was done by collecting half•shekels from the people. Since money was involved, it is not proper to have only one person dealing with the matter • even if that person is Moshe Rabeinu! This became the ethical standard of dealing with public funds. On the other hand... Another commentator suggests that this census was not done with shekels, but rather with a direct head count. Although we learn that it is improper, and even potentially dangerous, to count people directly, in this case there was a direct command to count the people. Hence, no harm would befall them during the carrying out of these Divine orders. This, in contrast to Ki Tisa, where the Torah says, "WHEN you count, then you MUST collect the half• shekel, etc. There, the language in the Torah indicates that the counting was optional or practical, but not obligatory. Therefore, the indirect method was necessary. K'RU'EI HA'EIDA, a term for leaders of the people, is BAMIDBAR STATS written with a YUD in place of the VAV as in the word's pronunciation. Baal HaTurim says that we can look at 34th of 54 sedras; 1st of 10 in Bamidbar the YUD as a chopped VAV, to tell us that among the Written on 263 lines in a Sefer Torah, ranks 3rd leaders was a "not so worthy" individual. He says that Shlumiel b. Tzurishadai, the leader of Shimon, was Zimri 30 Parshiyot; 23 open, 7 closed, ranks 4th b. Salu, who caused G•d's anger to kill many thousands 159 p'sukim • ranks 3rd (3rd in Bamidbar) of people, until Pinchas' act put an end to Zimri (and to the plague). Having G•d's name in his didn't help him. 1823 words • ranks 13th (4th in Bamidbar) Note that there is a broken VAV in the Pinchas story, the VAV of BRITI SHALOM. Could be a REMEZ•level 7393 letters • ranks 9th (3rd in Bamidbar) connection. Note the difference in rank from p'sukim to words. BaMidbar's p'sukim are among the shortest in the Torah • 11.5 words/pasuk. Levi • Second Aliya • Compare: Vayelech: 18.4, Book of Bamidbar: 12.7, the Torah: 13.7 35 p'sukim • 1:20•54 [S> 1:20 (2)] The Torah lovingly records the census MITZVOT: results for each Tribe, beginning with Reuven, iden• tified as Israel's firstborn. Largest of the 17 sedras with none of the 613 mitzvot In light of all the "problems" that Reuven had, and the fact that Yehuda, Yosef, and Levi each ended up with an element of that which might have been Reuven's, it is interesting that Reuven retains the title "B'chor". Aliya•by•Aliya Reuven's count was 46,500 (7th). Sedra Summary [P> 1:22 (2)] Shimon, 59,300 (3rd). [P> X:Y (Z)] and [S> X:Y (Z)] indicate start of a parsha p’tucha or s’tuma[P> 1:24 (2)] Gad, 45,650 (8th).
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