Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”LTo sponsor an episode please visit: https://itistaught.com/support-this-project/To get the daily chumash summaries in your email click here https://substack.com/profile/182692001-sarede-rachel-switzer?utm_source=profile-page.Subscribe on SpotifySubscribe on Apple PodcastsPlease consider leaving a review on the platform of your choice! For comments and inquiries, email itistaught@gmail.comLand Division. Tzlophchad’s Daughters.Land DivisionG-d told Moshe that the land should be divided up amongst the families which Moshe and Elazar the Kohen just counted in the census. The census took place by the plains of Moav by the Jordan near Yericho.Even though the land took seven years to conquer and then it wasn’t divided up for seven more years after that, only those who were 20 years old or older at the time of the census were counted (even if they turned 20 during the conquering or the dividing they were not counted).The land was to be divided in accordance with the size of each tribe. So the more populous tribes were to be given better quality land than the less populous tribes. The land was divided up by value rather than size as different areas differed in terms of their value so if it were just by size it would not have been a fair measurement*.*Side note:Rashi lists a low value area as being a “beis kor” which means it’s an area (75,000 square cubits (170,000-300,000 square feet in modern day terms) that needs a kor of seed to be sown. A kor has a volume of 4,320 eggs (67-120 gallons in modern day terms).A high value area, Rashi calls a “beis se’ah”. A se’ah is 1/30th of a kor. Thus less seed was needed to sow such an area.The divvying up of the land was done according to lottery, however the lottery was divinely inspired. So what would happen is that there were 12 tickets each with the name of one of the tribes and then 12 other tickets with the boundaries of the various land areas. Elazar the Kohen wore the Urim V’Tumim and would call out each tribe and what the portion of land should come up from the lot with it. And then the prince of that tribe would come up and draw out two tickets from the lot. The first would be of his tribe and the second would be his designated inheritance of land. And the lot itself could call out “I the lot arose for this boundary and this tribe”, which is the meaning of the phase “by the mouth of the lot” in verse 26:56.(requires further study: This inheritance was different than all others in Torah. Other inheritances involve the living inheriting from the dead but here the dead inherited from the living).Calev and Yehoshua were not included in this divvying up. Calev was given Chevron and Yehoshua was given “the city that he requested” )see Yehoshua 19:50).Converts and freed slaves were also not included in the lottery as they didn’t have a tribe.Chumash now gives a breakdown of the Levite family which was made up of the Gershonites, Kehotites and Merarites. It omits the Simetites, Uzzielite and part of the Izharites as these factions of the Levites were no longer.The subfamilies within the Levite family were: Levnites, Chevronites, Mahalites, Mushites and Korachaties.Chuamsh then details the lineage of Kohath who gave birth to Amram who married Levi’s daughter Yocheved. Yocheved was born inside the walls of Egypt (though she was conceived earlier outside of Egypt) thus bringing the count of the Israelites to 70 people when they entered that land.Yocheved and Amram begot Aaron, Moshe and Miriam.Aaron begot Nadav, Avihu, Elazar and Ithamar. Nadav and Avihu died after offering an alien fire to G-d.There were 23,000 male Levites aged one month or older. They were not counted in the recent census nor were they counted only according to those aged 20 or older as they were not given a portion of the land.Tzlophchad’s DaughtersTzlophchad (son of Hepher son of Gilead son of Machir son of Menashe son of Yosef*) had four daughters: Machlah, Noah, Chaglah, Milca and Tirzah (later listed in diff order Machla, Tirzah, Chaglah, Milcha and Noah (see Bamidbar 36:11) to show that they were all equal in terms of importance.*Side note: Yosef is mentioned to the credit of Menashe since it is already known that Menashe was Yosef’s son. The Land of Israel was dear to Yosef the way it was to Tzlophchad’s daughters, as we see from him asking for his bones to be buried there. Whenever scripture provides a detailed lineage of a person like this in listing their name it is either to illustrate their greatness or to disparage them (if their lineage was bad).Tzlophchad’s daughters approached Moshe and Elazar (this shows us that this took place in the 40th year after Aaron died). Moshe and Elazar were in the house of study at this time and the daughters approached them both at the same time. They pleaded with Moshe and Elazar saying that their father was not ...
