Fact-Checking the Torah -- the second principle

The drill-down-structure is not the only way of organizing Torah material in the books of Exodus through Numbers. Two other features function to govern not only which drill-downs come in what order, but also what order material is presented inside a drill-down.

This one should ring a bell with anybody who has studied Mishnah and Talmud.

“All that is more frequent comes first.”

Expressly used in Mishnah Zevachim to prescribe the order of sacrifices on a New Year’s day that falls on Shabbat, it also suggests a structure for tractates and sedras in Mishnah. Tractate Berakhot or Blessings is used several times a day by Jews, and it comes at the head of the first Sedra in Mishnah, Zeraim which has to do with making sure to grow food in accordance with Jewish law. Hardly anything occurs more frequently than eating, unless it’s prayer and saying other blessings like grace before and after meals.

The frequency principle might govern the order in which the specifications for sacrifices show up.

The first offering discussed in Torah is the whole offering, brought at least twice every day, and it first shows up in Exodus.  Next come the class of zevachim, brought by individuals on their own behalf, usually to celebrate something. The owners get to eat part of these offerings.

The associated conclusion is that the sin offering, which we don’t get specs on until Leviticus 5, was less frequent than the zevachim. The very least frequent offering was brought by an individual who had transgressed by mistaking what a court said, or acting on what a court said when it was known that the court had made a mistake. This issue comes in Numbers 15.

The very last ritual specified is the laws of the red heifer in Numbers 19, and Mishnah Parah 3:5 records the tradition that only one was performed until after the Babylonian Captivity, under Ezra’s guidance. The frequency principle plays another role in this placement.

The use for the red heifer is with people who have come into contact with a corpse, and the possible situations include a battlefield. Numbers 20 records the battles with Sichon and Og. Lots of people died. Lots of Israelites needed the red heifer ritual before they could return to their homes and families after the battles.

But there’s another case where the red heifer ritual applied, in my opinion, and that’s the consecration of the Levites in Numbers 8. What unites the two cases is the term yitchata, the technical term for the ritual. Why would the Levites need the ritual?

Go back to Parshah Ki Tissa: in Exodus 30-34. The golden calf incident was punished by the Levites. Lots of other stuff intervenes, but by Numbers 8 we only have three kohanim; there’s no way they can do all the work of the tabernacle. To prevent ordinary Israelites from coming into contact with the tabernacle services (600,000 people is way too many to train all at once and prevent a catastrophe), Gd has Mosheh press the rest of Levi’s descendants into service.  The number is about 22,000 – but they are in a state of tumah due to the execution they have done. They can’t touch the tabernacle or its components in that situation, and they can only get out of it with the red heifer ritual, the same as any other soldier.

But 600,000 soldiers fighting the Emori in Numbers 20 is way more than the number of Levites so the laws of the red heifer gravitate to that.

So the red heifer ritual is an example of both the drill-down and the frequency principles, and that pulls them away from the consecration of the Levites.

What winds up in sequential order doesn't always rely on frequency, however, and that's for next week.