Parshas Bemidbar:

Question:

In this week’s parsha the Torah discusses the order of an establishment of camps of the twelve tribes. What is the purpose of the details described here?

Answer.

As is known, the Jewish people are called "Tzivos Hashem". All Jews together deserve that presence of the Creator lives among them[1]. Thus, the unity of Jews connects their souls under the general spiritual root and Shechinah lives among us[2]. The revelation of Hashem was the greatest if the exact order of an arrangement of twelve tribes was kept. This order is discussed in many books[3]. It is impossible to describe everything in details, we will just mention a few general words.

As a whole, twelve tribes were divided into four groups and situated in four directions of the world[4]. As we mentioned before[5], the number four has a great significance, and is related to the four letters of the Name of the Creator and four kinds of Hanhagah of the world. In his vision, prophet Yechezkel[6] saw angels with four faces: of a lion, a bull, an eagle and a person. As you will see in the table below, symbols of the main tribes located in each direction (Yehudah, Reuben, Yoseph and Dan) correspond to these four faces. It’s also brought in Midrash[7] that the four main angels (Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael) correspond to these four directions of the Jewish camps[8].

In general, the twelve tribes[9] correspond to 12 months of the year, 12 signs on the zodiac, 12 kinds of key actions; each tribe had a flag of a specific color with a picture. Detailed discussion this is beyond the limits of our commentary, we will only describe in brief, being based on the GR”A to Sefer Yetzirah (The book of creation, 5:3-9) and Rabeynu Bachye (Bemidbar 2:2).

Tribe	Month	The Sign of zodiac	Action	Color of the flag	Picture on the flag:
Yehudah	Nisan	Aries	To speak	Blue	lion
Issachar	Iyar	Bull	To think	Black	The sun and the moon
Reuben	Sivan	Gemini	To look	Red	A person[10]
Naftali	Tamuz	Cancer	To go	Violet	deer
Shimon	Av	Lion	To listen	Green	City of Shechem
Gad	Elul	Maiden	To do by hands	Black with white	Camp
Yoseph	Tishre	Scales	To have relations	Brightly black	Bull[11]
Levi	Cheshvan	Scorpion	To smell	White, black and red	Urim and Tumim
Binyamin	Kislev	Archer	To sleep	The mixture of all colors	Wolf
Dan	Teves	Capricorn	To be angry	Black as ink	Eagle[12]
Asher	Shevat	Aquarius	To eat	Light yellow	olive tree
Zevulun	Adar	Fishes	To laugh	White	Ship

For those who read our comments to the previous parshios, much in this table will be quite clear. You can also try to explain the correspondence between spiritual roots of each tribe, actions corresponding to them, their flags and months, when you read carefully Yakov's blessings to the children and Moshe’s blessing to the 12 tribes, but the detailed explanation is beyond our comments.

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[1] Certainly, to some extent, the Divine Presence is even with one individual who is studying Torah or observing mitzvahs. But the more Jews together do the will of the Creator, the greater is the degree of Divine revelation they deserve (see Avos 3:2; Talmud, Brochos 6a). In particular, 600000 Jews deserve special closeness to the Creator. There is even a special blessing when one sees 600000 Jews (see the Talmud, Brochos 58a). It is interesting, that according to some opinions, the prohibition against carrying on the street on Shabbos applies according to the law of Torah only to a place where 600000 people assemble. In other places it is forbidden to carry only Rabbinically (see Shulchan Aruch 345:7, see however Mishna Berura, Biur Halacha starting with words Sheein). Note, that the Jewish people were counted a few times during our travels in the desert (see Rashi Shemos 30:15, Gur Arye in the same place, Ramban Shemos 30:2), and the general number each time had to be no less than 600000 (see Zohar 1:2a)

[2] See also Tania, chapter 32 regarding the mitzvah to love every Jew as yourself.  

[3] See for example Bemidbar Raba 2:10; Zohar 154a-155a; Ramban, Rabeynu Bachye, Rekanti to Bemidbar 2:2; GR"A to the first chapter of Sifra Detzniusa.

[4] The Talmud (Gitin 31b, Bava Basra 25a) and Zohar Chadash (Bereyshis) also mention about the four directions of winds which blow every day, see with our words to Parshas Vayera, in relation to four parts of day.

[5] See our words to chapters Vayera, Bo, Truma, Tzav and Shmini.  

[6]  In general, the first chapter of Yechezkel is refered to as "Maase Merkava" and is one of the most mystical doctrines of Kabbalah (See the Talmud, Chagigah 13a).  

[7] Bemidbar Raba 2:10.

[8]  In some Sidurs a prayer before going to sleep includes the words: "to my right is Michael, at my left - Gabriel, ahead – Uriel and behind - Rafael".

[9]  Though after division Yoseph into two tribes, there seem to be altogether thirteen tribes, nevertheless, the Torah always considers twelve. Sometimes Levi it is considered separately, as in case of our parsha. This tribe settled in the center, and was also divided into four camps in four directions of the world. In other cases, the Torah considers Levi with other tribes but then Yoseph it is considered one tribe. And in case of blessing of tribes in the end of the Torah, Levi, Ephraim and Menashe have received separate blessings, but Shimon is not mentioned, his blessing is included with Yehudah (see Ramban Devarim 33:6). Thus, the total number of tribes always remains 12.

[10]  According to other opinions the flag of Reuben had "dudaim" - the plants that look like a form of a person and help to become pregnant. The Torah describes, that Reuben had brought these plats to his mother (Bemidbar Raba 2:7).

[11]  According to other opinions, Yoseph’s flag had two princes (Bemidbar Raba 2:7).

[12]  According to other opinions, on Dan’s flag was a snake (Bemidbar Raba 2:7).