The Weekly Shtikle Blog: The Weekly Shtikle

The Weekly Shtikle is dedicated le'iluy nishmas my Oma, Chaya Sara bas Zecharia Chaim, a"h.

This week's shtikle is dedicated for a refuah sheleimah for my father.

Please include Reuven Pinchas ben Yehudis in your tefillos.

I would like to resurrect a question that has vexed me for many years: At the beginning of this week's parsha, B'nei Yisrael are split into camps. One of Rashi's explanations of "ish al diglo le'osos" (2:2) is that each tribe's camp had a flag which bore the colour of the stone of that tribe's stone on the choshen. The purpose of this, Rashi explains, was so that everyone would know which camp was theirs. What bothered me about this was that Efrayim and Menasheh, who had separate camps, did not have their own stones on the choshen as the stones were assigned exactly to the sons of Yaakov, not to the tribes as we know them. What then would be the colour of their flag? Even if you say that they both had Yosef's colours, the objective of this plan is not achieved.

Even more intriguing is the explanation of Targum Yonasan here. He explains that each large camp of three had a flag bearing three colours corresponding to a row of stones on the choshen. For instance, the camp of Yehuda, Yissachar and Zevulun had a flag with the colours of odem, pitda and barekes on them. While this would take care of the problem with Efrayim and Menasheh, the difficulty is that those stones are the stones of Reuven, Shimon and Levi (according to all opinions). What is their connection to that camp?

Back to my original question, this is not the only example where the 12 tribes appear to be assigned to 12 stones, creating the Yosef problem (as well as a Levi problem in the following case.) When the nesi'im come forward and bring the avnei shoham and avnei miluim, (Shemos 35:27) some commentaries indicate that each brought the stone that pertained to their tribe. So who got to bring Yosef's stone? And who brought Levi's stone?

Have a good Shabbos

Eliezer Bulka

WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Shtikle Blog Weekly Roundup:

Dikdukian: Clarification of a Sheva Na rule

Al Pi Cheshbon: No Population Increase

Al Pi Cheshbon: Tens and Ones by Ari Brodsky

Al Pi Cheshbon: Rounded Numbers

Al Pi Cheshbon: Discrepency in Levi's Population

Al Pi Cheshbon: Explaining the Uncounted Levi'im

Al Pi Cheshbon: Pidyon HaBen Probability

Dikdukian: Be or Ba?