Sefer Bemidbar, also known in English as the “Book
of Numbers”, is the fourth of the “Five Books of Moses”
(Chamishe Chumshe Torah). Bemidbar continues the story of the Children
of Israel wandering in the desert for forty years. The word “bemidbar”
means “wilderness” and is one of the first opening words
of both the sefer and the parsha that shares its name. The English name,
derives also from the opening verses in which Moses is commanded to
make a census of all the males above age twenty.
During their forty-year wanderings, the Jews would test the patience
of Moses many times. There is the rebellion of Korach, the complaints
about the lack of food and water (despite the manna), the attempt of
Balak to curse the people using the prophet Bilaam (who then utters
the famous phrase: “Mah tovu o’halech Yaakov; mish kinotecha
Yisroel; “How goodly are your tents O Jacob, Thy dwelling places
O Israel), and the actions of Pinchas, grandson of Aaron, who single
handedly stops a plague that has killed twenty-four thousand people
by slaying an Israelite man and a Moabite woman who were engaged in
a public display of immorality. G-d rewards Pinchas by declaring that
his seed will forever possess the status of Kohanim.
There will be another war with the Midianites, Miriam and Aaron will
die, and Moses is told that he will not cross over into the “promised
land”. As the sefer ends, the people are camped on the other side
of the Jordan River and Moses is shown the land promised by G-d.
