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  |      Rashi is Simple Version 2.0                         |
  |      (C) Dr Hendel, Summer 2000                          |
  |       http://www.RashiYomi.Com                           |
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VERSE: Nu31-04a
NOTE: This posting is an addendum to a theme fully developed
        elsewhere

Nu31-04 "1000 per tribe From ALL tribes conscript for the army"
RASHI: "ALL" even the tribe of Levi.

In volume 6 number 20 (http://www.RashiYomi.Com/h6n20.htm) we
showed that the word "ALL" means no exceptions and is used in
5 ways.
--all GROUPS (eg Speak to ALL the Jews--even minors)
--EVEN BORDERLINE CASES (eg if you listen to ALL commandments
                        ---even light commandments)
--PARTS (eg touching ANY dead body will render you impure
        --even if you only touch part of a dead body(an organ)
--NO EXCEPTIONS (eg ALL of Sedom gathered to rape--ALL of the
        city without exception)
--DON'T MAKE OBVIOUS EXCLUSIONS
  eg Bzalel did ALL God told Moses--ALL-Bzalel even did things
  God told Moses but Moses forgot to tell Bzalel (ie he
  intuited them)

Returning to our verse "ALL tribes should prepare for war on
Midian", I would think this means "ALL tribes involved in
territorial wars"--hence I would exclude the Levites who did
not inherit land (Indeed the next chapter shows how the
Gadites joined in the war effort only because they
inherited land).

By saying "ALL" we are warned against excluding the Levites

I guess the underlying argument is that the war against
Midyan was NOT a territorial war but a religious war. It
was a war to avenge the murder of 24000 Jews in a plague
brought on as a punishment to malicious Midianite prostitution

Hence  the Levites joined this war (By analogy the Levites
were involved in the war effort against those who sinned with
the Golden calf)


RULE: SPECIAL WORDS
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Volume 6 Number 25


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