Bamidbar Chapter 5: The Mitzvos Section

Introduction: Structure of Sefer Bamidbar

Today we're reading Bamidbar, Chapter 5. This chapter, along with Chapter 6, is a chapter of mitzvos. As we discussed in our preface to the book, there are mitzvos interspersed somewhat randomly with the narrative or chronological structure of Sefer Bamidbar. I won't entirely call it a narrative because there isn't clearly a narrative all the way from beginning to end, but there is a chronological structure to the book. Within it, there are somewhat interspersed chapters or parshiyos that are all about mitzvos—law parshiyos, chapters that give laws of specific things.

We've come now from four chapters, clearly census chapters, matching with the name of the book, the Book of Numbers. Or maybe the Book of Census might be a better translation if we understand that *pekudim* also means something like appointments. So the Book of Appointments and Numbers, or census—counting people and giving them their positions, their appointments.

Now we have a group of mitzvos, and I'll run through the whole group all the way through the next two chapters so we can at least see what these mitzvos are about:

1. Sending away the *tmei'im* (the impure people, contaminated people) from the camp

2. A specific *asham* (guilt offering)—what happens with it in specific cases

3. The mitzvah of *sotah*—what happens with a *sotah*

4. The mitzvah of *nazir*

5. The mitzvah of *birchas kohanim*

These are the five mitzvos in this group, and then we go back to the narrative.

The Chronological Structure

Since we discussed that there's the census, which has an explicit date—it's dated Rosh Chodesh of the second month of the second year—then the story sort of skips back. This is one of the clear examples of the Torah not being in chronological order. I said that the book is generally in chronological order. That's only after you assume that there are these three steps in the book which are in chronological order.

Within those steps, right now we're within step one, which is the *mikdash* being set up and the *mishkan* being set up, and everything around it being set up. It's explicitly not in order because the book puts the census, which was after the *mishkan*, before the *mishkan*. When the book gives us very explicitly the dates and they're not in order, it's meant to tell us to read this as if it's afterwards.

In other words, the narrative structure is that we're still up to the story of the dedication of the *mishkan*. After that, or appended to that, is the census of everyone around it. And here we have, in between these two things, somehow appended to that, this list of five mitzvos.

Now to explain how each of these mitzvos belongs here is not a very simple thing. The first one is pretty obvious though.

Mitzvah #1: Sending Away the *Tmei'im*

The first one is simple. Since we've set up these *machanos* (camps)—of course we've set them up backwards, right? Assuming that we've finished the *mishkan* and we've finished all the camps around it—now we have the law of who is allowed to be in the camp. So this makes sense.

This mitzvah is also explicitly presented in a narrative structure. Many narratives in the Torah are presented in that narrative structure—like parashas Bereishis, like all the parshiyos of the *mishkan* have this narrative structure, these two parts.

The Command

We have the mitzvah: Hashem speaks to Moshe, commanded Bnei Yisrael—commanded the children of Israel—to send away from their camp everyone who has *tzara'as* (as we've discussed in parashas Tazria in the previous book), or *v'chol zav*, *v'chol tamei nefesh*. So these three kinds of *tmei'im*—*tzarua*, *zav*, and someone who is *tamei nefesh* (in other words, a *tamei meis*)—shall be sent away, no matter if they're male or female, so they would not contaminate the camp which I am within.

*Asher ani shochein b'tocham*—"that I am within"—is of course the *mishkan*. People who are impure in these ways will contaminate it, so therefore they will be sent away.

The Fulfillment

And they did it. They did what Moshe told them. They sent out of the camp these people, as Hashem said.

The Halachic Complexity

Of course, the halacha may complicate this. The halacha understands there's three levels of the camp: *machaneh Shechinah*, *machaneh Leviyah*, *machaneh Yisrael*. And there's different levels of who gets sent out from where. All of that is not in the explicit text here, so we can skip it for now since we're reading the explicit text.

But in any case, this matches very well to the place we are in the narrative structure, which is: this is where the camp was set up, or we could say this is where the camp was sanctified. There was a camp before—from *yetzias Mitzrayim* there's a camp—but they didn't have to send away the *tmei'im* from them because there was not yet the *mishkan*. *Asher ani shochein b'tocham* is what causes the camp to need to be careful, to need to send away these people that are *tmei'im*. And therefore that's what happened.

So that's mitzvah number one here, pretty clear about its location.

Mitzvah #2: The Specific *Asham* Law

Mitzvah number two is something whose location can't really be explained by reference to the place in the narrative in which we are. It can be explained by some sort of general principle.

The Ramban's Principle

The Ramban has a general principle: there are some random parshiyos which are set up in Sefer Vayikra, in *Toras Kohanim* (Leviticus), but have some completions, have some appendixes to them, some things added to them which add details to the parshiyos. And those parshiyos are in Sefer Bamidbar.

Maybe we could see this as sort of part of the full structure of Sefer Bamidbar as being like the thing added or the outer layers of the camps, the outer layers of the *mishkan*. But it's still not clear why specifically these details of these mitzvos would be in Bamidbar, not in Vayikra, the same place. But this seems to belong to that kind of series of mitzvos, and I don't have a better explanation for why it's here.

Reading the Parshia

What we have here is a parshia, and I'll say what it says and a little bit of how it's interpreted. What this parshia seems to be talking about—and we have to read every parshia to see what is the story, what is the background that it assumes (which it says always in the beginning), and what it's adding.

The Background

So the background that it's assuming is like this: Hashem speaks to Moshe, he speaks to the Bnei Yisrael: *ish o ishah*—meaning any man, any person—who will do any sin, *ya'asu mi'kol chatos ha'adam*, *lim'ol ma'al ba'Hashem*.

*Lim'ol ma'al ba'Hashem* can be, of course, understood for any *chatos ha'adam*—anything, any sin you do is a kind of *me'ilah*, it's a kind of transgression against Hashem, or kind of *begidah*, kind of treason or something like that.

*V'ashma*—they will be guilty. I think *v'ashma*, as I might have discussed in the parshia of the *asham* in parashas Vayikra, means something like they will be caught, we will know that they were guilty, or they will admit that they were guilty.

The Confession and Restitution

As we said, *v'hisvadu es chatasam asher asu*—they will admit that they were guilty, so now we know that they're guilty.

*V'heishiv es ashamo b'rosho*—will bring *asham*, or give back his sin, *v'chamishiso yosef alav*—will add a fifth, add 20%, *v'nasan la'asher asham lo*—will give to who he sinned.

So obviously now we understand that although the beginning started with *kol chatos ha'adam*, it seems to be talking about some kind of sin *bein adam lachaveiro*, some kind of sin to a fellow man, because otherwise you can't give anything back. So obviously this is talking about some kind of sin *bein adam lachaveiro*, where you stole something.

Connection to Vayikra

This very much reminds us of something we've learned in parashas Vayikra, which is some kind of case where someone has stolen something, or maybe swore falsely, or something he could swear falsely about, and he has to maybe even bring a *korban asham*.

So we could interpret this as bringing a *korban asham*, as we see here, somehow. Although it doesn't really say—the word *asham* might not mean a *korban asham* here. As we see in the next part, it talks about *ayil* specifically besides for the *asham*, so *asham* might mean just return what he has taken.

And here we get that he also has to add a fifth. We've seen this number "fifth" in several contexts earlier. It seems to be the number that the Torah likes to give for adding to things. Here maybe people understand it as kind of a fine or a *knas*. You have to add because you took it without permission, so it's like besides for the value, the monetary value you have to give back, you have to also give back something for the sin, like for the *torcha*, for the work of having to deal with this, the processing fee sort of. So that's 20%, and that's given—both of these are given to the person who he owes.

So that's now the main law, and this might be something that we sort of should know already before.

The Novel Element: No Redeemer

Now we get an addition, which was definitely not mentioned before: what happens if someone who has no redeemer? Again this is referencing language from the end of Sefer Vayikra—someone from your family can sometimes redeem your land, as we've seen from *hekdesh* or from someone it was sold to.

And apparently we're assuming here that the person who you stole from or you took from died, so we don't have him himself. So what happens? So this is like a kind of question of what happens with money owed to someone who is not here—it's like lost, unclaimed funds.

And here we have the answer: that goes to the *kohen*. So this is one more function of the *kohen*, somehow, or one more—not function of the *kohen*—one more way that the *kohanim* get supported. They receive this *asham*, this repayment goes to the *kohanim*. And you can understand the *kohanim* as some representative of the community, so like money that belongs to someone else, like it's in the community, it goes to them.

The Ram of Atonement

*Milvad eil hakippurim asher yechaper bo*—besides the *eil hakippurim*, they have to bring the *korban asham*. He has to give this money back to the *kohen*.

Reaffirmation of Kohen's Rights

And here we have a repetition of something which we might already know: *v'chol terumah l'chol kadshei Bnei Yisrael*—every *terumah* of the whole *kadashim* of Bnei Yisrael, all kinds of *terumah* belong to the *kohen*.

*V'ish es kodashav lo yihyu, v'ish asher yiten la'kohen lo yihyeh*—not a very clear pasuk. Who is this *ish* who is having the *kodashim*? This seems to be a pasuk, again reaffirming—so since we have, I understand that this pasuk is not really a pasuk telling us what to do with *asham*, it's really a pasuk telling us mainly the second level, the second *chiddush*, which is that sometimes it goes to the *kohen*. And therefore it repeats also who these things called *terumah* and *kodashim* belong to.

This is a very unclear—as Rashi quotes, many midrashim are said to explain this. It's not clear what this literally means. Probably *lo yihyu* means for the *kohen*, I would assume that, and then there's some other way in which it means that it goes to the *kohen*.

So that's I think what it means. So besides for—I think that's...

The Sotah Procedure and Its Place in Sefer Bamidbar

Matnot Kehuna and Transitional Verses

Of course, we have to understand what is adding here, what is new here. Something like trumah and kodashim dedicated to the kohen — whether it's this thing which has to go to the kohen because there's no go'el for the asham, or whether it's something less specific but somehow still goes to the kohen. That is, I think, the simple meaning of this, and it also goes to the kohen. So this somehow belongs to these series of parshiyos, because as we've seen, this organization of leftover — we could say additional matnot kehuna, additional things that the kohanim get — is also something that belongs to Sefer Bamidbar. Although some of it was in Vayikra, we'll see later in Bamidbar even more about this. Again, it's out of order, but it somehow belongs to the general concept of this book. I can't explain why it's in this place.

The Sotah as an "Outer" Function of the Mikdash

Now we have mincha sotah, which again, I can't really explain why it's in this place, but it also belongs to the general concept of the book. So it's a kind of korban, but not a kind of korban like the ones we've discussed in Sefer Vayikra — a new kind of korban which somehow belongs with, again, something like the more outer things. We could somehow conceptualize this parsha, maybe this whole thing, as more outer things. Just like we discussed, this gift that the kohen gets from the asham gezeilot is something more outer — the kohen sort of becomes his inheritor, like he's his yoresh. In the same way, this korban which is about a sotah can be seen as something more outer, right?

Until now, we had korbanos for a chet, but it seems like maybe those were considered more okay, or maybe like for a shogeg, a chatas, smaller aveiros. A sotah is like a big problem. It's not really the main function of the Mikdash. The main function of the Mikdash is for purity and for kedusha — for kedusha v'tahara, as we've seen in Parshas Tzav and so on. But this is a function of the Mikdash as solving some marital issues. So it's somehow like a more external function, but still belongs to the kohen, belongs to the Mikdash, and therefore it's in this parsha.

The Three Scenarios Presented

And that's the story that we have. And it goes like this. I will read it in the way I understand it. Of course, since there's a halacha about this, there's many halachos about it, and even the halacha has a lot of transformations within it. But in any case, what it's talking about is — earlier we had ma'al, ma'al ba'Hashem, someone can have some kind of betrayal or treason relative to God. And here there's a treason or a betrayal from a wife to her husband. But what actually happened? Now it's not always so simple. So this is like a header. But really, we don't really know. If that's obvious, then obviously there were laws about that. But now, sometimes there's things that happen that we don't know.

For example, sometimes someone has slept with her, but her husband doesn't know, and she wasn't caught. There's no witnesses. That's one case.

Or there can be another case. Sometimes a man gets angry or jealous. I think kina means something more like angry than jealous, usually in the Torah. But something like he gets angry or suspected something, and he screamed at her, he got angry at her. That's what the kina says. Of course, in halacha, it's explained that kina means something very specific, but it doesn't need to mean that. It means he got angry at her, and she actually nitma. She was tumah. So again, we have this language of tumah here. Although it's like a sin, this sin is considered to be tumah. All sins really are considered to be tumah. It's an impurity.

Or sometimes someone gets mad at his wife, and we learn that she is not sinful, that she has not become tumah. So now this is the discussion. These are the problems. What do we do when we don't know? It might have happened, and nobody saw it. It might have happened, and he's even mad about it. It might have happened that he's mad, and he doesn't have a real reason to be upset. He's just imagining something or suspected something, but really nothing happened.

The Mincha and Its Significance

So there's a solution. The solution is, the man brings his wife to the kohen, and he brings her korban. So I think this is very interesting, because people think that minchas sotah is the only kind of thing that works like this, like I just said. I think that in a certain sense — and I think also generally all menachos — that's just my hunch, but I think that one of the functions of korban was to solve debates, to solve questions, to solve sfekos. When you don't know something, what to do, you don't know what's going on, I think a korban mincha specifically has its function, or one of its functions, as resolving things we don't know. So here we don't know. So we bring a mincha.

Now we bring a specific kind of mincha. We've already heard these laws earlier, that a mincha's chayos doesn't have shemen and levonah, so that's what happens. Why? And the pasuk gives the reason. It's not a good mincha. It's not a nice mincha. It's only to remind the sinner, or to discover whether she's sinned. So therefore it doesn't deserve nice shemen and levonah. It's a very simple mincha. Also specifically seorim, specifically barley, which is considered a lower, something we say, some animal food. It's not even human food, but it's a lower level. It's not so nice.

The Ritual Procedure — "Stagecraft"

And he brings it to the kohen, and he brings her to the kohen. Now the kohen has a new thing to do. What he does is, he takes holy water. Where do we find holy water? It doesn't tell us. There's something called holy water. He puts it in a kli cheres, an earthenware vessel, and he takes some sand, from the sand, from the floor of the Mishkan. Remember the Mishkan has no floor. It has a roof. It has the yerios, the fabrics. It has the walls, the kerashim. But it doesn't have anything under it. It's totally on the ground, on bare ground. Very interesting. Unlike, of course, the Mikdash will be different, and then we'll have to find a way to do this. But in the Mishkan, very clearly, there's karka ha'Mishkan. So he takes some of this earth, and he puts it into the water. Now what he does, and we'll see what happens with this.

Now he takes the woman, and he puts her in front of lifnei Hashem. So in other words, he presents her before the mizbe'ach, or before the Mikdash. He puts her on the head, so he uncovers her head. And this process is some kind of humiliation, or some kind of putting her to the test. He gives her the — and he puts on her hands this mincha that her husband brought, and the kohen is holding the water.

And he called, given her a name, the holy water. Five minutes ago, there was holy water. Now suddenly, mayim hamarim hame'orerim. So bitter, cursed water. There's an alliteration here. Marim hame'orerim. Bitter and cursed. Meaning the same thing, they're not bitter, they're just bitter because of what they're doing. And this is like the ma'amit. So this is like, I think, very clearly, we see how they're setting up. There's a stagecraft going on here. They're setting her up to take this very seriously, very scared.

The Oath — Connection to Shevuot Generally

And really, what happened here is a kind of shevua, or ala, or swearing. And I think, again, like I said, mincha does this always. Also, this is the same logic as every shevua. Like we learned in Parshas Mishpatim, last week in the Parshas Shavua, this whole elaborate show. But something similar. We make someone swear in front of God, and then if he doesn't swear, that's what it always implies. Like we say in English, damned. If I don't swear, I will be damned. Or if he doesn't, if he swears falsely, something bad will happen to him.

What we have here is really not different than that in its basic logic. It's just an elaboration of that. We know exactly what will happen bad if she swears falsely or if she doesn't admit and so on. So that's what we do. So we have the kohen swearing, how we say, administering the oath towards the woman and he tells her, if nobody has slept with you and you have not become impure from under your husband, you will be clean, this water will do nothing to you.

But if you did, and he doesn't finish. If you did, this is something that often is in the language, also in our language, when you swear or when you curse, you curse self-conditionally. It's like, if I did this, then? And we assume all kinds of bad things. Later we'll see. He does give her the curse, but it's not explicitly presented together. Or maybe this possible in between, which means the curse of the oath is just the condemnation. If not, then what? Hashem will make you into the curse in your nation. In other words, the next person will say, I will curse myself if I didn't do this, that what happened to so-and-so will happen to me.

And what will happen? Your thigh will fall and your womb or your beten, I think it might mean your womb will blow up, something like that. And these cursed words will come into your intestines. These are all different words for your insides. And we'll do something, latzbes beten, I usually interpret it as blow up your stomach or your womb and your thigh will fall. These are also words that are usually sometimes euphemisms or sometimes literally words for internal parts. It also means the womb or the place where she sinned.

Amen and the Written Curse

And the woman accepts the oath. She says, amen, amen. This is where we learn amen from the Torah. Amen means I accept. She doesn't speak herself, but she accepts the oath. The kohen administers the oath and she says, I do.

And that's what he does. So now, what does he do? He takes these curses, they write them down on a sefer. Sefer doesn't mean a book, sefer means a written document, maybe something like a document. And he deletes it, somehow mumbles it up, or how do you say, grinds it into this water and makes her drink the water which has some sand and these words in it. So it's something to speak like she literally drinks her curse or her oath.

The Ritual Sequence and Outcomes

And then he takes the Mincha, makes something called Tnufa — he raises it. We've seen this with many Minchas, or many korbanos. He puts it on the Mizbeach, takes the Azkara, like the Kometz, puts it on the Mizbeach. And then after — which is like including the Mizbeach, including Hashem into this test — and then he makes her drink the water.

The Two Possible Outcomes

And then what happens? If she is Teme'ah, if she has actually betrayed her husband, then what will happen is exactly what the curse said. And if not, the next day she will be clean, and she will have children.

This also makes us think that this whole test has something to do with zera. Like we said, it goes into her beten, her yerech — these locations, or her womb. We could gloss it all as her womb. And therefore the other option is that her womb gets blessed. When it is "venizre'ah", she is clean — in other words, she is purified, she is, how do we say, vindicated from the accusation that her husband made. So that's the other side of the story, if it wasn't true.

The Closing Formula: Toras Hakenaos

And if we end with an ending, this is Toras Hakenaos — so this is the law of someone who is jealous. Either she is Nitmah, that's one option, or if someone gets jealous and he brings her to the kohen, and she does this whole Torah, this whole law, this whole Torah. And then "venikah ha'ish me'avon" — the man will be vindicated. In other words, there is nothing wrong with you suspecting.

So this is where we think, probably this is not talking about someone who is just crazy and has suspicions. We assume that there is something for these suspicions to go on. But if the woman says "zavina" — it's her fault because she caused something, to have something for the suspicions to go on. Or maybe this is really for when something bad happened to her. We could say, well it's not your fault, because this is how God decided, right? This is a difficult situation where there were no edim, so we can't humanly decide what happened, but we have this divine way of deciding what happened.

And that's the end of this law. As I said, not clear why it's here, but that's this law. Then we have another law, that's the end of this chapter. The next one we'll do tomorrow.