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LEVITES DIDNT PARTICIPATE IN WARS |
RASHIS COVERD: Dt01-23c Levites didnt participate in Spying
VERY BRIEF SUMMARY
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Dt01-22:23 mentions how the Jews asked to send spies to find out
how to conquer the land--and Moses then picked 12 spies, one
per tribe. On a simple literal level, since only 12 spies
were selected--one per tribe--it follows that the Levites did
not send spies. On a deeper level, the spies were sent to find
out how to best conquer the land. But the Levites did not
participate in the wars of conquest for they did not inherit
land(They worked in the temple)--this is explicitlys stated 3
times in the Torah. Hence they had NO NEED for spying. Hence
we infer that the Levites saw no need for spying.
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TODAYS RASHI RULE: ALIGNMENT
TODAYS RASHI SUBRULE: FURTHER NUANCES
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF RULE
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Many Rashis do NOT focus on an internal analysis of the verse.
There may be nothing bothering Rashi in THAT verse. The words
used may all be normal.
But when the given verse is compared with another verse--that
is, when the two verses are ALIGNED together-- we see blatant
differences.
The ALIGNED verses therefore suggest that these ALIGNED
DIFFERENCES were deliberately placed there to emphasize
certain nuances. The standard example will illustrtae this.
STANDARD REFERENCES FOR THIS RULE
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http://www.Rashiyomi.com/align-58.htm
http://www.RashiYomi.com/calendar1.htm
This calendar presents a day by day listing of Rashis.
The ALIGNMENT series occurs between 7-28-01 and 10-10-01.
TODAYS EXAMPLE
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We align the two parshas that talk about the spies in the
LIST below. As can be seen the emphasis in Dt is on sending
spies for purpose of conquest. Hence it follows that the
Levites that did not participate in conquest were not at all
involved in the spying.
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| Dt01-22:23 |
Nu13-02:20 |
| People approached |
God said |
| Lets send distinguished people*1 |
Send the princes of the tribe |
| who will spy the land |
to spy the land |
| And tell us how to conquer |
See how fortified they are |
| ANd I(Moses)thought this idea good |
Send if you want*2 |
| And I took 12 people-1 per tribe*3 |
1 person per tribe |
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COMMENTS |
*1 Rashi Nu13-03b shows that the nuances of the word ISH
means a DISTINGUISHED PERSON. We are simply supplementing
this observation with the explicit statement that God
ordered Moses to send the PRINCES
*2 Rashi Nu13-02b derives this from the use of the indirect
object TO which when used with a verb always denotes
personal activity.
*3 Of course there is an added emphasis in Dt--1 per tribe
TWELVE PEOPLE. But a more direct approach is the
emphasis in Dt on PEOPLE WANTING TO KNOW WHICH CITIES
TO CONQUER FIRST--HOW TO CONQUER (This request is absent
in Nu).
It follows that the SPYING is directly linked, in Dt,
to CONQUEST. Hence since the LEVITES did not participate
in CONQUEST or in division of land--see Dt18-01:02 or
Dt10-08:09, Nu18-23:24, it follows that they did not
participate in the SPYING*10
----------------------- LONGER FOOTNOTES -----------------------
*10 In the main posting at http://www.Rashiyomi.com/h14n18.htm
I explore how the above analysis strengthens answers to
questions by several rashi commentators.
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