Questions on Parshas Bamidbar to think about and discuss:

1. What is the theme of Parshas Bamidbar?
2. What is the significance of the Degolim – the formation of the Jewish camp?
3. Why do we almost always read Parshas Bamidbar before Shavuos (Shulchan Oruch O.C. 428:4)?
4. Why count Bn’ei Yisroel as Hashem already knows their number?
5. Why count the Jews only those above the age of twenty (who were ready for the army)?
6. When at the beginning of the parsha it lists the people from each tribe selected to assist in the counting, it names them with their sheivet. What lies behind this unusual order of the list of the shevotim?
7. Why is Sheivet Levi counted separately to the rest of the Jews and also from a different age – one month instead of twenty years?
8. Where do we see the Degolim already alluded to in Sefer Bereishis?
9. Why are the Jews sometimes called “Sheivet” (Vayichi, 49:28) and sometimes “Matei” (Bamidbar, 1:4) (both mean branches/sticks)?
10. Chazal tell us that the number of Yiden are 600,000. Why is this number quoted when in the two times that the Jews were counted there were more than that? In Parshas Bamidbar there were 603,550 and in Parshas Pinchos there were 601,730? In a similar vein, chazal tell us that ישראל ר”ת יש ששים רבוי אותיות לתורה. But when the number of letters in the Torah are counted there are far less. How are we meant to understand chazal when they tell us these numbers – i.e. what is the significance of exactly the number 600,000?
11. What is the idea of the Leviyim being the ones redeeming the first born Jews and the first born donkeys?

Questions on the preparing the mishkon for travelling (end of Parshas Bamidbar):

1. What lies behind the order of covering the Keilim of the Mishkon?
2. Is there any pattern between which keilim had which covers?
3. We find that the top cover of all the keilim (besides the Aron) was made out of the skin of tachash. (We also find by the skin coverings of the Mishkon that the top layer was made out of tachash skin – Teruma, 26:14.) Why was this chosen always as the top cover?
4. Why do we not find the kiyor and kanoi discussed amongst the keilim being covered?
5. Why was their a special separate covering only for the keilim of the mizbayach hazohav while by all the other ones their keilim are grouped with the main keili?
6. Why do we find that only the menorah was grouped together on one layer with it’s keilim while the other keilim were on different layers to their serving keilim?
7. Why does only the shulchan have an additional covering of Bigdei Toiloas Shoni (more than the mizbayach hanechoshes)?
8. The possuk (4:6) says that after covering they placed the badim (back into the rings). Tosfas (Yuma 72a) asks that the possuk (Shemos, 25:15) tells us that we must never remove the badim from the Aron’s rings. How then in our parsha could they remove them?

Ideas for answers on the general parsha:

1. The theme of Parshas Bamidbar is the counting of the Bn’ei Yisroel for each of the twelve tribes. These were then grouped into Degolim. The Leviyim were assigned to help the Kohanim and the Leviyim were counted separately and then split into three each group being allocated to carry when journeying different parts of the mishkan. Additionally the Leviyim redeem the firstborn Yisroelim.
3. The Levush (Shulchan Oruch O.C. 428:4) explains that we read Parshas Bamidbar before Shavuous to act as a separation between the din of the curses (read in Parshas Bechukosai) and the din of the fruit of trees that takes place on Shavuos. Rabbeinu Bechai (Parshas Bamidbar) expresses the idea that before receiving the Torah one needs to make oneself like a desert.
4. The counting is not for Hashem’s sake but is for the benefit of the Jews. Rashi brings that it comes to show how they are beloved and each one counts.
5. We know that there are different stages in adulthood. There is the age nine when a child can potentially father children; thirteen was he becomes Bar Mitzva and counts to join in a minyan, etc. – i.e. when he has two pubic hairs; twenty when he becomes liable to the kores punishment. This means that the age of twenty represents full adulthood and responsibility for actions.

Ideas for answers for covering the keilim of the mishkon for travelling:

1. The order of the keilim listed to be covered are from the innermost and holiest outward. Starting from the Kodesh Hakodoshim was the Aron, then into the Heichel was the shulchan, menorah and mizbayach hazohav. Then the keilim used with the mizbayach hazohav and then outside the heichel to the mizbayach hanechoshes.
2. The pattern is that the all the keilim inside the heichel were covered with the bigdei techeiles. The only keili left outside the heichel was the mizbayach hanechoshes that was the only one that had bigdei argoman.
4. The kiyor and kanoi are not mentioned since they were different to all the other keilim – they are hechsher keilim. Therefore they were not covered like the others whom were carried by the Leviyim. Instead, they were placed on the wagons when travelling. (Chizkuni, Shemos, 30:18)
5. The Shach answers that only the keilim assisting the mizbayach hazohav were covered separately since tis mizbayach was so small in size – one ama by one ama. It was too small to act as a base for its functioning keilim and therefore only they were covered separately.
8. Chizkuni/Moishav Zekainim offers two answers. Really there were four badim. Two had to remain there permanently and this is what the possuk in Parshas Teruma is referring to as never being allowed to be removed. Parshas Bamidbar is talking about the other two badim that could, and as seen here, were removed. Another answer is that the Aron had grooves. As they were about to travel, the badim needed to be locked into these positions to prevent the Aron from sliding up and down the badim when it was being moved. Therefore the badim never were removed from the rings only that in our parsha they were moved within the rings to be fixed into position.