בּמִדְבּר • B'midbar
(“In the Wilderness”)
The Fourth Book of Moses,
Commonly Called
Numbers

~ 9 ~

ix. The Second Passover (9:1-14)

(iii) 1 In the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt ADONAI spoke to Moshe in the Sinai Desert and said, 2 “Let the people of Isra'el keep the Pesach in its appointed season. 3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at dusk, you shall keep it in its appointed season. You shall keep it according to all its statutes and according to all its ordinances.”

4 Moshe told the people of Isra'el that they should keep the Pesach. 5 They kept the Pesach in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at dusk, in the Sinai Desert. According to all that ADONAI commanded Moshe, so the people of Isra'el did. 6 There were certain men who were unclean because of the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Pesach on that day, and they came before Moshe and Aharon on that day. 7 Those men said to him, “We are unclean because of the dead body of a man. Why are we kept back, that we may not offer the offering of ADONAI in its appointed season among the people of Isra'el?”

8 Moshe answered them, “Wait, that I may hear what ADONAI will command concerning you.”

9 ADONAI told Moshe, 10 “Say to the people of Isra'el, ‘If any man of you or of your generations is unclean by reason of a dead body, or is on a journey far away, he shall still keep the Pesach to ADONAI. 11 In the second month, on the fourteenth day at evening they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break a bone of it. According to all the statute of the Pesach they shall keep it. 13 But the man who is clean, and is not on a journey, and fails to keep the Pesach, that soul shall be cut off from his people. Because he didn’t offer the offering of ADONAI in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.

14 “‘If a foreigner lives among you and desires to keep the Pesach to ADONAI, then he shall do so according to the statute of the Pesach, and according to its ordinance. You shall have one statute, both for the foreigner and for him who is born in the land.’”[14]

[TO PARSHA TOP]
 

x. The Cloud Above the Tabernacle (9:15-23)

(iv) 15 On the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, even the Tent of the Testimony. At evening it was over the tabernacle, as it were the appearance of fire, until morning. 16 So it was continually. The cloud covered it, and the appearance of fire by night. 17 Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, then after that the people of Isra'el traveled; and in the place where the cloud remained, there the people of Isra'el encamped. 18 At the commandment of ADONAI, the people of Isra'el traveled, and at the commandment of ADONAI they encamped. As long as the cloud remained on the Tabernacle they remained encamped. 19 Even when the cloud stayed on the Tabernacle for a long time, the people of Isra'el kept ADONAI’s command, and didn’t travel. 20 Sometimes the cloud was a few days on the Tabernacle; then according to the commandment of ADONAI they remained encamped, and according to the commandment of ADONAI they traveled. 21 Sometimes the cloud was from evening until morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning, they traveled; or by day and by night, when the cloud was taken up, they traveled. 22 Whether it was two days, or a month, or a year that the cloud stayed on the Tabernacle, remaining on it, the people of Isra'el remained encamped, and didn’t travel; but when it was taken up, they traveled. 23 At the commandment of ADONAI they encamped, and at the commandment of ADONAI they traveled. They kept ADONAI’s command, at the commandment of ADONAI by Moshe.

Chapter 10

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14. ADONAI repeatedly tells Moshe that the rules and ordinances that He is giving Israel apply equally to the foreigner who lives as part of Israel. I cannot help but understand this to mean that the Torah applies not just to ethnic Israelites, but to everyone who wants to be associated with the God of Israel. [BACK]