The Ultimate Pedigree
Take a census of all of the assembly of the Bnei Yisrael according to their families, according to their fathers’ household, by number of the names…[2]
Chazal speak about several challenges to Hashem’s giving the Torah to the Bnei Yisrael. One of them[3] focuses on our pasuk. “Why this closeness to them, rather than us,” they ask. Hashem responds, “OK. Let’s talk. First things – let’s see your pedigree chart!” That apparently stopped them dead in their tracks. But it also explains, continues the midrash, the continuity between the very end of Vayikra and the beginning of Bamidbar. Vayikra concluded with “These are the mitzvos that Hashem commanded Moshe to the Bnei Yisrael on Har Sinai.” Our pasuk serves to justify the giving of those mitzvos exclusively to us, rather than any other nation, by emphasizing yichus. Not only were people counted, but each person fit into a family with ties to the past.
How are we to understand this midrash? Must it conflict with its better-known competitor, that has Hashem offer the Torah to the nations, all of whom rejected it, after first asking for a preview of what it contained? Does the midrash at which we are looking ignore the fact that the Bnei Yisrael enthusiastically responded with na’aseh v’nishmah when they were offered the Torah? Isn’t that the chief reason that we have the Torah, while others do not?
Furthermore, while yichus may be important, is it the sine qua non of receiving the Torah? Is it really a deal breaker?
We can begin to piece together an approach by looking at another passage in Chazal, where the gemara[4] describes at great length the desperate attempts of the nations of the world to claim some of the rewards in a messianic utopia. Hashem responds to them that the Jews earned their share by living by the Torah. The nations present two challenges to HKBH: Did we ever receive a Torah, and then fail to observe it? Had we received it, we would certainly have observed it! Did You hold a mountain over our heads, like You did to the Bnei Yisrael? Had You done so, we too would have accepted Your Torah. The gemara offers Hashem’s response to their first point. (Well, actually, you folks do have a pretty convincing failure record regarding commandments. You were given just a small number of mitzvos – the Seven Noachide laws – and you struck out completely with them. That should be a pretty good indication of how you would have fared with a full 613 mitzvos.) Strangely, the gemara does not offer a response to their second point, the one about not having been coerced into acceptance, like the Jews were.
For that, we need to go to yet another text,[5] which pinpoints the answer: Hashem suspended the mountain over our heads only after we had already proclaimed na’aseh v’nishmah. Those two words reflected the inner state, the penimiyus of our souls. They demonstrated that we were already with Hashem, and that the mountain held over us did not coerce us into something that wasn’t already there.
Here we have the real answer to the challenge of the nations, when they asked, “Why the Jews? Why not us?” We had a sefer yuchasin, a pedigree chart that rooted us in the lives of the avos. The kedushah of Avraham, Yitzchok, and Yaakov still coursed through our veins. We identified with a glorious and G-d centered past.
The nations had nothing like it.
- Adapted from Be’er Moshe, by the Ozherover Rebbe zt”l ↑
- Bamidbar 1:2 ↑
- Yalkut Shimoni #684 ↑
- Avodah Zarah 2b ↑
- Tanchuma, Shofetim 9 ↑
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Date: May 30, 2025
