Bemidbar (Part 2) - Numbers 1:1-4:20

Daddy Issues

At the beginning of this weeks Torah portion, the following formula is repeated over and over, "You shall count them according to the father's house (tribe)..." (Num. 1:2, 1:4, etc).

Following that, we are told how each tribe got its own flag and position for marching through the wilderness, With the tribe of Yehudah (Judah) taking the lead, and the others following. (Num. 2:3)

Non-Jews

But what if you didn't have a Jewish birth father? (I am using "Jewish" as a simple identity rather than switching between "Hebrew" and "Israelite" and "Community member".)

We read in Leviticus 24:10 the story of a man who had a Jewish mother from the tribe of Dan, but whose father was an Egyptian. And while the mother was accepted, the son was not, and he cursed God for his situation. The result was that he was stoned to death. (Lev. 24:23).

There were gentiles travelling with the Jews, who left with the Jews (Ex. 12:48, 12:49, 22:20, etc) . While leaving Egypt, the term geyr occurs repeatedly. Sometimes this word is translated as "sojourner", or "stranger", or "proselyte". But what it really means is a gentile who dwells among the Jews. Typically this is called a geyr toshav, but geyr is a simplified form.

There is also a term called eyrev rav, which is often translated as the "mixed multitude", as in Ex. 12:38, "And the eyrev rav went up also with them..." This is typically read as being those who did not have a Jewish father, and were tribe-less. And when the eyrev rav start complaining (see Num. 11:4, for example), several commentators (Rashi and Sifrei 86, for example) see this as a problem being initiated by outsiders.

No converts

Keep in mind that as far as Yahweh was concerned, if your father was a descendant of Jacob and his sons, you were part of His people. If your father was not, then you were not. The idea of a proselyte or a convert is post-Biblical and the Hebrew word for conversion (להתגיר) did not exist in the Tanach.

As far as the Torah was concerned, if the man was a Jew, and he acquired a woman, then by virtue of her relationship with him, she was a Jew. And if he died and she had children, then by virtue of his children, she was still part of the tribe. If she had no children, but her husband had a living male relative (typically a brother, but we read in Genesis where the father of the dead husband (Judah) could stand in), then she retains her status as part of the Jewish people and becomes her brother's woman (unless they both agree that it's a bad idea).

The myth that Ruth was a convert (the text never says that) is exposed when one reads that she performed chalitzah (an odd ceremony of severing the requirement to marry the dead husband's relative) with her dead husband's brother, which is something that only a Jewish woman who was married to a Jewish man is obligated to perform. The myth that the text that forbids Moabites from joining with Israel only means the men is also exposed when one realizes that a Jewish woman who leaves to bed a gentile is not making him part of the Jewish people but, rather, when a Jewish man takes a gentile woman, he is including her as one of the Jewish people.

In the Book of Ezra, he changed all of that. As far as he was concerned, taking a gentile woman was wrong, and that all of the Jewish men who had done so needed to divorce themselves from such relationships and send away the women and the children, since none of them were Jewish. 

As far as Ezra was concerned, conversion was not an option.

It would only be generations after that period that Rabbinical Judaism would tweak the system to introduce conversions.

Marching orders

So since we know who was being counted in this week's Torah portion and why, and the gentiles were excluded from this count, there are several questions that the Torah doesn't answer:

• How many of the "mixed multitude" were there? This would affect the overall total!
• Where did they march? Did they march behind the Jews or in the middle of a V-shaped formation?
• Who were these people and why did they leave Egypt with the Jews?
• Did some choose to become perpetual slaves to have a tribe to live with?

We don't know.

But they are interesting questions to ponder.