במדבר סיני, “in the desert of Sinai;” at what location did G-d speak to Moses? From the Tabernacle; before the Tabernacle had been erected, G-d had communicated from the top of Mount Sinai. From the day the Ten Commandments had been given, G-d’s presence had not moved away from Mount Sinai until the day after the Tabernacle had been erected on the first day of Nissan of the second year, as we have been told in the Talmud, tractate Beytzah, folio 5.

בשנת השנית לצאתם, (on the first of the second month) in the second year of the Exodus. Regarding all other matters, the first of Tishrey was considered as the first day of the New Year.

שאו את ראש, “take a count of the sum;” seeing that within twenty days the Israelites would break camp and start marching toward the Holy Land, as reported in chapter 10 verse 29 of this Book. There it has been spelled out: נוסעים אנחנו אל המקום, “we are about to set out on the journey to the place, etc;” (Moses speaking to his fatherinlaw Yitro).

מבן עשרים שנה ומעלה, “from twenty years old and up;” from that age and up the males were considered as mature enough to serve in the army. Based on this verse, our sages at the end of chapter 5 in Ethics of our fathers, made the well known statement: בן עשרים לרדוף, “when having attained the age of twenty, one is fit to join the pursuit.”

כל יצא צבא בישראל, “all who are able to go to war on behalf of Israel;” the repetition of this word excluded the mixed multitude who had joined the people only at the Exodus.

לראובן אליצור בן שדיאור, “of Reuven, Elitzur son of Sh’deyur. He was mentioned first, as the original Reuven had been Yaakov’s firstborn son.”

שלומיאל בו צורישדי, “Shlumiel son of Tzurishaday.” This was his name. He was also known as זמרי בן סלוא, (compare Numbers 25,14) or שאול בן הכנענית, “Saul, son theCanaanite woman.” (According to the Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin, folio 82 where this statement is elaborated on.)

לבני יוסף, “of the Children of Joseph;” they are mentioned after the children of Leah as a sign of respect to their mother Rachel. The Torah mentions the younger son Ephrayim first, as this is what their father Yaakov did when he blessed them before his death. (Ibn Ezra) Ephrayim and Menashe, though grandsons of Yaakov, are mentioned before his son Binyamin, as combined they represented Rachel’s firstborn son Joseph.

לדן, “of Dan;” he is mentioned first among the four sons of the concubines, as he was the firstborn among them. Asher is mentioned next to him, as his tribe was the leading one in the group of tribes encamped around his flag. (Numbers 2,27) This is followed by Gad, who was the firstborn son of Leah’s servant maid.

אלה קריאי, “these are the elect, etc.” the word קריאי, is read as if it had been spelled ;קרואי

ראשי אלפי ישראל, “the heads of the thousands of Israel.” Each of the people named here was the head of the thousands belonging to his tribe.

ויתילדו, “they declared their pedigrees;” (according to Rashi). Another interpretation of this word: they asked their parents for details of when they had been born in order to determine if they had been twenty years old at the time of the Exodus. (Ibn Ezra)

כאשר צוה ה' את משה, “as the Lord had commanded Moses;” these words belong to verse 18, where Moses is reported as having assembled all the people. [I suppose our author found a sentence commencing with “as, כאשר,” as somewhat unusual. Ed.]

ויפקדם במדבר סיני, “he counted them in the desert of Sinai.” The tribes were counted there, one after another in the order in which their respective flags had been arranged He commenced the count with the eldest son of Yaakov, Reuven.

ויהיו בני ראובן, “and the members of the tribe of Reuven, (the males over 20 years) amounted to, etc;” the tribes (excluding the tribe of Levi) were counted there one after another, in the order of their respective flags. Therefore Moses began with Reuven, followed by Yehudah the leader of all the tribes, followed Ephrayim and Dan.

ראובן בכור ישראל, “Reuven, Israel’s firstborn;” this point had to be made again as the first tribe in the marching order was Yehudah. (B’chor shor) The reason why this point was made by the Torah at this juncture, was to explain that the only reason why he was counted first was that biologically, he was the first son of his father.

לבני גד, “of the members of the tribe of Gad;” the Torah ranks him as third in the list, as he was the firstborn of the maidservants of his mother. (His mother was the maidservant of Leah, who also had produced Yaakov’s firstborn).

ואת ראשם לא תשא בתוך בני ישראל, “and you are not to number them as part of the Children of Israel.” The reason was that the criteria for counting the Levites were not the same as the ones applied to the other (12) tribes. The Levites were counted from age thirty days in this portion, (3,14), on the one hand, and again from the age of 30-50 (in chapter 4,47.) A different interpretation: seeing that none of them would serve in the army, but they would only perform duties as security guards for the holy objects, a different yardstick was applied to them.

המה ישאו, “they will carry;” whenever the people broke camp and continued on their journey.

והמה ישרתוהו, “and they would minister to it;” when the Tabernacle would be put up again.

וסביב למשכן יחנו, and they would encamp immediately around the Tabernacle from all sides to ensure that no unauthorized person would enter the Tabernacle.

יורידו אותו הלוים, יקימו אותו, “the Levites will dissemble it and will reassemble it;” they will do so by inserting the bolts through the rings in the planks and removing same, as required. This is all considered as part of their ministrations.

והזר הקרב יומת, “and a common man that comes too near will die.” Levites are also considered “common” men in this respect. They may not enter these holy precincts once the Tabernacle had been reassembled. Assembling or dissembling did not require their entering, and when the Tabernacle had been taken apart, the site it had stood on was no longer considered as a holy site.

והלוים יחנו סביב, “and the Levites are to encamp around it.” Their camp was situated between that of the ordinary Israelites and the Tabernacle. This fact prevented them from approaching too close to it. (B‘chor shor)

והלוים יחנו סביב, when the same statement was made earlier in verse 50, why was the wording different, i.e. וסביב למשכן יחנו, “and around the Tabernacle they are to encamp?”In verse 50 the Torah spoke about carrying the Holy Ark when the people broke camp, something of the highest degree of holiness. Here the Torah only speaks about the Tabernacle which houses the sacred vessels. Its holiness derives from the vessels it houses.

ולא יהיה קצף, “so that there will not be Divine anger against the community of Israel.” The Torah had already warned of this in verse 51, when spelling out that coming too close was a capital offence and would be punished with execution. (Ibn Ezra) This is precisely what happened in Samuel II 6,7 when Uzza mistakenly, and with noble intentions, touched the Holy Ark in order to steady it and prevent it from falling from the wagon.

על עדת בני ישראל, against a member of the community of Israel, not against the whole community. We find similar construction in Exodus 21,11: אם שלש אלה לא יעשה לה, which does not mean that the master has not done all these three procedures for the servant maid, but that he has failed to do even one of them. Compare also: ויקבר בערי הגלעד, “he was buried in the towns of Gilead;” (Judges 12,7) The meaning is not that different parts of Yiftach were buried in different towns, but that his remains were buried in one of those towns. Compare also Zecharyah 9,9, ועל עיר בן אתונות, “but riding on a young donkey, born by asses.” The meaning is not that this donkey had more than one mother, but “by one of the many sheasses.” (Ibn Ezra)

ויעשו בני ישראל ככל אשר צוה וגו, “The Children of Israel did in accordance with all that the Lord had commanded Moses;” why did this Book not mention Aaron thus far? Rabbi Joshua son of Nechemyah quoting Rabbi Chiyah, says that Aaron had been busy establishing his family’s pedigree. The people had said to him that until he could prove the pedigree of Pinchas (his grandson) and to whom his son Elazar was married, (not to a daughter of Putiel, as written in Exodus 6,25, where he is reported as having married one of the daughters of that man, an idolater), he could not be included in the census. When G-d saw that the people were trying to belittle Aaron, He Himself testified that Pinchas was the son of Elazar who was the son of Aaron the High Priest, (Numbers 25,11) one fanatic having sired another fanatic. (Vayikra Rabbah 33,4)[This is a veiled reference to the founding father of the tribe of Levi, having been a fanatic, as is clear from when Levi and his brother Shimon killed all the males in the town of Sh’chem as retribution for the rape of their sister Dinah. (Genesis 34,2526) Pinchas had inherited part of that DNA when he killed Zimri the prince of Shimon for having cohabited with the Midianite woman Cosbi. (Numbers 25,15) Ed.] An alternate explanation: the verse above is testimony that none of the Israelites ever violated the commandment not to enter the sacred area of the Tabernacle and thus become liable to execution. (Ibn Ezra)