במדבר ב – דגלי המחנות (Auto Translated)

Parshat Bamidbar: The Order of the Camps and the Flags

Connection to the Previous Parsha

In the previous parsha, the Jews were counted, but it was explained that this was to know how many people there are who are fit for military service, what the order should be for war, and so forth. In this week’s parsha, this is actually organized. Now that we know how many there are in each tribe, we can know who is stronger, who is weaker.

When one counts, one doesn’t only know how many people there are, but one understands by names, by their families, by their fathers’ houses. It follows that one understands each individual’s talents, where he belongs, what things he’s better at, whether he can better attack, or whether he can better defend. Each person has his talent and his trade, perhaps according to what he was appointed to in his family, and he is more accustomed to following his father, and so forth.

The Explanation of the Verse “Each Man by His Flag”

So in this week’s parsha, the verse actually organizes how each person will stand. And there are two parts. There is, first of all, what it means when it says “each man by his flag.” What does “degel” (flag) mean?

Two Interpretations of the Word “Degel”:

“Degel” has two meanings. “Degel” can mean a banner, as it is commonly called today, a flag. But the simple meaning in the verse is that “degel” means as it says in Song of Songs “awesome as bannered hosts” – it means like a large camp. For example, a tribe is just a small group of soldiers. The “degel” is like the entire division, as one says in English, a whole group of soldiers – that’s called a “degel.”

Rashi: The Practical Purpose of the Flag:

And presumably that’s why a “degel” is called what one uses as a banner, perhaps with signs – meaning, this is Rashi’s interpretation, that one brings a sign, a flag. It didn’t begin just as a symbol, but it has a practical purpose, a practical meaning, that one hangs up the flag, and every soldier knows where he needs to go. Each section has its own flag, and perhaps each individual had a flag. But the main point is that the flags are being organized here, how to actually organize the army.

Two Orders: Encampment and Travel

The Order of Encampment:

And the army has two things. There is “the Children of Israel shall encamp” – where one rests. This was already stated in the previous parsha – it stated that the Levites rest around the Tabernacle, and the Jews around them. This is around the Tabernacle, meaning during the encampment. Resting doesn’t mean when traveling or when fighting, but when one sits in one place, that each person has his place to sit. And this is all around the Tabernacle. One can understand that it’s as if they are protecting the Tabernacle. The Levites protect the Tabernacle, and the Jews afterward are not – the Jews are around the Tabernacle. So it was instructed. In any case, this was the order of how one rests.

The Order of Travel:

Perhaps this is also the order of how one is organized. When one enters the military, one must always be accounted for. Just as each person sits in his place as he can, and afterward as one stands in the middle, “as they encamp so shall they travel” – the same order, or more or less the same order. One could say it was exactly the same order – there is already a dispute in the Sages about this – but as they encamp, so do they also travel.

But when traveling on journeys, now traveling – I mean there is a third matter of war, when one is actually fighting, then presumably there is already a third order, not exactly everyone travels the same way. But when traveling before war, traveling to the Land of Israel, one travels in the same order of the flags.

The Four Camps

Now, when making the flags, the tribes were first counted into four parts, yes?

The Camp of Judah:

You have the camp of Judah, he is the head, and the chief of the tribe of Issachar afterward. By the third time it no longer says “chief of the tribe of Zebulun,” so that they should be joined together – he is only secondary to the secondary.

The Meaning of the Counting:

And the Torah counts over the numbers, both the numbers of each tribe – there are two countings – and also the number of the entire camp, the entire flag together. And essentially nothing new is revealed here, because one can make these calculations oneself from what is known in the previous chapter. But it appears that this has significance – the counting doesn’t just mean to know how many, it also means to organize, to be able to accomplish this, because this gives more – it states he is in the front. And so forth – there are commentators who want to say, the Baal HaTurim, it expresses another thing, that it was indeed organized in the same manner.

The Other Camps:

On the second side there is Reuben and Simeon and Gad. Afterward it states in the middle, the camp of the Levites travels in the middle, “and afterward as they encamp so shall they travel” – this means that the Tabernacle travels together, just as the Tabernacle when the camps sit in the middle, they will also transport it in the middle. Afterward there is the camp of Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin. Afterward Dan, Asher, and Naphtali – this is the fourth camp, the rear. So this is the order.

The Order According to Families

Preserving the Family Structure:

And essentially, each person remains with his family, with his tribe. Not like sometimes today, when one goes into the army, everyone separates from his tribe, and everyone is divided according to their talents. No, the army is “as they encamp so shall they travel, each man by his flag according to their families” – it is very organized according to how each tribe is the child of his family, of his father’s house.

The Advantage of This Order:

Although we said earlier, perhaps each person according to his talent, but it could simply be that it’s better for people to fight together with their brothers, together with their relatives, with their cousins, which is closer, which works out better this way, and it doesn’t change. Many times when one goes home, one begins to travel, there becomes a great confusion. I actually already mentioned confusion later regarding this matter.

The Summary:

But for now, the intention is that the order should be around the Tabernacle, each person should know his place and remain. Even when traveling, “as a man shall do, each man by his flag with signs” – each person knows exactly his place, knows where he goes, knows where he comes, knows what number he is, how many people, what his job is, which family he belongs to, which father’s house – all the details. Just as it is when one rests, so it is when one travels as well.