Weekly Torah portion: Bemidbar
And for the redemption of the two hundred seventy-three of the firstborn of the Israelites who exceed the number of the Levites, you shall take five shekels for each head, by the sanctuary shekel, you shall take, twenty gerahs to the shekel, and you shall give the silver to Aaron and his sons as redemption for those among them who exceed that number (Numbers 3:45-48).
Prof. Robert Alter asks: “How would the Israelites know who were the 273 who exceeded the number of the Levites and hence had to pay this price of redemption? Several early rabbinic sources plausibly suggest that a lottery was conducted to select the 273” (Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary). Thus, for example, we find in the Talmud:
Our Rabbis taught: But there remained two men in the camp. Some say: They (i.e., their names) remained in the urn. For when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, Gather unto me seventy of the elders of Israel, Moses said (to himself): ‘How shall I do it? If I choose six out of each tribe, there will be two more (than the required number); if I select five, ten will then be wanting. If, on the other hand, I choose six out of one and five out of another, I shall cause jealousy among the tribes.’ What did he do? — He selected six men (out of each tribe), and brought seventy-two slips, on seventy of which he wrote the word ‘Elder’, leaving the other two blank. He then mixed them all up, deposited them in an urn, and said to them, ‘Come and draw your slips.’ To each who drew a slip bearing the word ‘Elder’, he said, ‘Heaven has already consecrated thee.’ To him who drew a blank, he said: ‘Heaven has rejected thee, what can I do?’ Similarly, thou readest, Thou shalt take five shekels apiece by the poll. Moses reasoned: How shall I act toward Israel? If I say to a man, ‘Give me (the shekels for) thy redemption,’ he may answer, ‘A Levite has already redeemed me.’ What did he do? He brought twenty-two thousand slips and wrote on each, ‘Levite’, and on another two hundred and seventy-three he wrote, ‘five shekels’. Then he mixed them up, put them into an urn and said to the people, ‘Draw your slips.’ To each who drew a slip bearing the word ‘Levite’, he said, ‘The Levite has redeemed thee.’ To each who drew a ticket with ‘five shekels’ on it, he said, ‘Pay thy redemption and go.’ (Sanhedrin 17a, and see Sifrei Numbers 95 s.v. Vayetze Moshe).
- Why did the sages connect the story of Eldad and Medad and the selection of the seventy elders with the redemption of the firstborn? Is the connection based solely on the common solution, or are there common values as well? What was Moses’ motive in each of the cases?
- In the Talmud tractate Bechorot (51b) we read: “(The Mishnah here) teaches what our Rabbis have taught: If one gave to ten priests simultaneously, he has discharged his duty of redemption.” Thus, the Shulhan Arukh (YD 305) states: “If he gave five selas even to ten priests, either simultaneously or one at a time, his son is redeemed.” Yet some rabbis are of the opinion that the reason that Moses collected all of the money before handing it over to Aaron and his sons was so that each firstborn would be redeemed individually by Moses, as agent of the priests, before the money was divided amongst the priests. If it is it permissible to divide up the redemption fee of a single firstborn, why might it be preferable that this not be done in regard to a group of firstborn?
- In Midrash Tanhuma (Ki Tisa 7) we read: “R. Berachya said in the name of Resh Lakish: You sold Rachel’s firstborn for twenty pieces of silver, therefore each of your firstborn will be redeemed by five shekels of silver.” Rashi adopts this midrash in his commentary to parashat Bemidbar. What connection did the sages see between the sale of Joseph and the redemption of the firstborn?
Iyunei Shabbat is published weekly by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, The Masorti Movement and The Rabbinical Assembly of Israel in conjunction with the Masorti Movement in Israel and Masorti Olami-World Council of Conservative Synagogues.
Chief Editor: Rabbi Avinoam Sharon
