Sunday, January 13, 2013

Perek 35

The perek opens with Hashem commanding Bnei Yisroel to give land outside of their inherited cities to the Leviim.

Question: In passuk 4 it says that 1000 ama should be measured from the city wall outwards for the Leviim, but then in passuk 5 it says that 2000 ama should be measured in every direction. Was it 1000 or 2000 ama?

Quotes Rashi: It was really that they were given 2000 ama, 1000 of which (the half closer to the wall) was for settling, and the other 1000 were for fields, grazing, vinyards, etc.

Ramban takes it a little differently, which he views as the pshat: He says that originally it was supposed to be 1000 ama surrounding the city, which they did (this 1000 ama being added directly adjacent to the wall). But when you do that you only get 500 ama in each section (on either side of the city) and that totals 1000. So then it says that it should be done as a 2000 X 2000 ama square, and then you will get 1000 ama on each side (this 1000 ama beign added not directly against the wall).

(Proof: The word "Pe'ah" which is used here means that the measurement should be dont in its totality on the side it is ordered, based on a proof from Shemot 27:9 where it talks about measuring out the Chatzer and a the word "Pe'ah" in Yichezkel. He makes a distinguish in the passuk between ומדותם מחוץ לעיר לפאת קדמה, if it actually meant to measure off the 2000 from the outskirts of the city and ומדותם את פאת קדמה which is what the passuk actually says, which means it totals 2000...)


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