Counting Twelve Tribes by Nachmanides (17 November, 2014, 24 Cheshvan, 5775)
Contents:
1. Introduction by Brit-Am Editor
2. Who Was Nachmanides?
3. Disputation of Barcelona and Movement to Israel (from Wikipedia).
4. Foreword to the Explanation of a Tribal Quorum in the Words of Nachmanides. A Universal Law of the Universe?
(a) Simeon, Levi, Ephraim and Manasseh as separate tribes.
(b) Other Ways of counting the Tribes
(1) Midrash Tanchuma
(2) Midrash Lekach Tov
(3) Shnei Luchot HaBrit
(c) Parallels to Physical Laws of the Universe
5. Nachmanides and the 12 (free translation by Yair Davidiy)
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1. Introduction by Brit-Am Editor
There were Twelve Tribes of Israel.
This number of tribes is repeated over and over in Scripture. When we count them however we receive Thirteen!
The 12 sons of Jacob (otherwise known as Israel) were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, Asher, Gad, Naphtali, Dan, Joseph, Benjamin.
Joseph however became two separate tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 47:5). There should therefore be thirteen, not twelve!
This problem was addressed by Nachmanides.
Nachmanides was a foremost scholar who is greatly revered.
Over the years we have quoted him on several occasions.
See:
Israel in Exile. Ten Tribes Lost But will Return by Nachmanides
http://www.britam.org/Nachmanides.html
[Note that as far as we known we were the first to translate the extracts in question. It was not an easy task. The Medieval Rabbis often thread together Biblical verses.
Shortly afterwards an English translation of all Nachmanides writings became available but we have not yet seen it.]
Amongst other matters Nachmanides insisted that the Ten Tribes are still in exile but will return. Quoting Obadiah 1:20 Nachmanides (Sefer ha-Geulah [Book of Redemoption] in Kitvei HaRamban edited by Rabbi Chaim David Chavel (5762) and published by Mossad HaRav Kook, Jerusalem] said the Ten Tribes are in Tserefat at the northern extremes. Tserefat is usually taken to mean France (Rashi, Iben Ezra); Abarbanel said it means both France and England. Nachmanides evidently understood it to mean Western Europe, especially the northern sections in general [see Chavel, p.275 editorial note ].
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2. Who Was Nachmanides?
Nachmanides is better known to Jews as the Ramban [Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman] with a stress on the "n" sound at the end so as not to confuse him with the Rambam (Maimonides).
Here are a few extracts and adaptations from the Wikipedia entry with some minor additions of our own :
Nahmanides [Nah-man-nid-ez] , also known as Rabbi Moses ben Nachman Girondi, Bonastruc ca (de) Porta and by his acronym Ramban (1194 - 1270), was a leading medieval Jewish scholar, Catalan Sephardic rabbi, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator. He was raised, studied, and lived for most of his life in Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
He was the cousin of Jonah Gerondi (Rabbeinu Yonah). Nahmanides studied medicine which he practiced as a means of livelihood; he also studied philosophy. During his teens he began to get a reputation as a learned Jewish scholar. At age 16 he began his writings on Jewish law. These writings reveal a conservative tendency that distinguished his later works, an unbounded respect for the earlier authorities.
Nachmanides is known for his Commentary on the Torah, commentary on the Talmud, and a series of shorter works some of which are quite important.
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3. Disputation of Barcelona and Movement to Israel (from Wikipedia)
Nachmanides, first as rabbi of Girona and later as chief rabbi of Catalonia, seems to have led a largely untroubled life. When well advanced in years, however, his life was interrupted by an event which made him leave his family and his country and wander in foreign lands. This was the religious disputation in which he was called upon to defend his faith in 1263. The debate was initiated by an apostate rabbinic Jew, Pablo Christiani, who had been sent by the Dominican Master General, Raymond de Penyafort, to King James I of Aragon, with the request that the king order Ramban to respond to charges against Judaism.
Pablo Christiani had been trying to make the Jews abandon their religion and convert to Christianity. Relying upon the reserve his adversary would be forced to exercise due to fear of offending the feelings of the Christians, Pablo assured the King that he would prove the truth of Christianity from the Talmud and other rabbinical writings. Ramban answered the order of the King, but asked that complete freedom of speech should be granted. For four days (July 20-24) he debated with Pablo Christiani in the presence of the King, the court, and many churchmen.
The subjects discussed were:
whether the Messiah had appeared;
whether the Messiah announced by the Prophets was to be considered as divine or as a man born of human parents
whether the Jews or the Christians were in possession of the true faith.
As the disputation turned in favor of Nahmanides, the Jews of Barcelona, fearing the resentment of the Dominicans, entreated him to discontinue; but the King, whom Nachmanides had acquainted with the apprehensions of the Jews, desired him to proceed. The controversy was therefore resumed, and concluded in a complete victory for Nachmanides, who was dismissed by the King with a gift of three hundred gold pieces as a mark of his respect. The King remarked that he had never encountered a man who, while yet being wrong, argued so well for his position.
As a result of this event the Dominicans forced the king to banish Nachmanides. Nachmanides went first to France, then to the Land of Israel in 1267. Here he wrote his Commentary to the Torah and did much good before passing away in 1270.
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4. Foreword to the Explanation of a Tribal Quorum in the Words of Nachmanides. A Universal Law of the Universe?
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(a) Simeon, Levi, Ephraim and Manasseh as separate tribes.
In the Bible a quorum of 12 tribes is maintained even though technically there were 13 tribes.
Joseph became 2 separate tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 47:5). In some cases these two tribes could be counted as the one tribe of Joseph.
Levi was not to receive its own tribal Inheritance but rather to have cities scattered throughout the other Tribes. In order to maintain a quorum of 12 and also mention both Ephraim and Manasseh in some cases Levi could be left out.
Simeon was to be its own entity but also both engulfed by Judah (Joshua 19:1) and scattered amongst the other Tribes ( Genesis 49:7). In one case where Levi, Ephraim, and Manasseh were all mentioned Simon is left out (Deuteronomy 33), as shown below.
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(b) Other Ways of counting the Tribes
There were even opinions that actually more than 13 Tribes should have been mentioned yet the quorum of 12 was still maintained, e.g.
(1) Midrash Tanchuma
Midrash Tanchuma ("VeYechi" 15): Rabbi Yochanan said, "How can you say there were only Twelve Tribes? Scripture already tells us, "EPHRAIM AND MANASSEH, AS REUBEN AND SIMEON, THEY SHALL BE MINE". We therefore have fourteen tribes! However when Levi is counted in the quorum they are not counted with him, and when Levi is not counted they are each counted separately.
Midrash Tanchuma is here saying that Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh should all be counted as separate tribes. This could be relying on the opinion that Joseph had other sons apart from Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 47:5). This is actually frequently the case in Scripture e.g. Canaan was the forefather of the Canaanites. The term Canaan became both a generic name for all the 12 tribes of Canaan as well as a separate tribe by that name amongst all the others (Genesis 10:15-18, cf. Deuteronomy 7:1).
(2) Midrash Lekach Tov
Midrash Lekach Tov (Shmot 20:14): The Ten Commandments are given 13 different titles parallel to the quorum of Israelite Tribes together with Ephraim son of Joseph for Manasseh is considered part of Joseph, cf.
" from the tribe of Joseph, that is, from the tribe of Manasseh.. (Numbers 13:11).
Here Joseph and Manasseh are considered one and the same but Ephraim is separate.
(3) Shnei Luchot HaBrit
Shnei Luchot HaBrit:
The Tribes numbered fourteen with Ephraim and Manasseh. The Land however was divided into 12 sections. Deduct the Tribe of Levi from the number since the Almighty is his inheritance (Deuteronomy 18:2).
Deduct also Joseph himself since he has the aspect of Jacob [i.e. Israel father of the 12 sons] who is above all the Tribes: For he is Joseph and his two sons are Tribes.
Here Shnei Luchot HaBrit (Isaiah Horovitz 1565-1630) here says Levi is not in the quorum, and neither is Joseph but for some reason he should have been. That leaves Ephraim and Manasseh to make twelve.
We therefore see that though there may have been fourteeen Tribal-like entities a quorum of Twelve was always maintained in Biblical Nomenclature.
Taking Ephraim and Manasseh each as separate Tribes and each as equal to the other Tribes we actually get 13 tribes. Since however in Biblical Thought the number twelve has special significance whenever the Bible lists the tribes a quorum of twelve tribes is always maintained. This is done by either counting Ephraim and Manasseh as the one tribe of Joseph, or by counting Ephraim and Manasseh as separate tribes but not counting Levi who was the Priestly Tribe and separate from the rest. In one case Ephraim, Manasseh, and Levi are counted but the Tribe of Simeon is left out and assumedly included with Judah. The Commentators give their reasons as to why in particular instances one tribe is counted and another is not. At all events a quorum of Twelve Tribes is maintained.
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(c) Parallels to Physical Laws of the Universe
In the extract below from Nachmanides we shall see he suggests that the quorum of Twelve needed to be kept to maintain a parallelism with Laws of the Universe, 12 constellations, etc. Nachmanides mentions, "twelve borderlines of division which are, as it says in the Midrash (Safer HaBahir) the borders of the universe". The word we translated here as "universe" is "olam" whioch may also mean creation, or the world i.e. 12 divisions of the world. What exactly Nachmanides intended is for scholars of a more philosophical or scientific bent than myself but it may well correspond with modern sceintific thought as shown below.
All this involves spiritual and mystical considerations beyond our field of involvement.
Nevertheless the idea should not be dismissed out of hand.
Compare the extract below where well-respected and highly-trained physicists are quoted as opining that infinity really does have 12 sides to it!
The Jerusalem Post magazine ("The Jerusalem Post UpFront" October 17, 2003) p.19 has an article by Hillel Halkin, "Trouble with Infinity".
# The universe, if you've been wondering, is finite. It is also shaped like a twelve-sided soccer ball. #
That, anyway, is the theory published by several American and European mathematicians in the latest issue of the scientific journal Nature. It''s based on the an analysis of back-ground radiation from outer space as recorded by a NASA satellite.....Universe is Finite, "Soccer Ball"-Shaped, Study Hints
Sean Markey
National Geographic News
October 8, 2003
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/10/1008_031008_finiteuniverse.html
Extracts:
What is the shape of the universe? ...
Now a new study of astronomical data only recently available hints at a possible answer: The universe is finite and bears a rough resemblance to a soccer ball or, more accurately, a dodecahedron, a 12-sided volume bounded by pentagons.
The universe may be revealing its shape, new findings suggest
http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/041005_univshapefrm.htm
Oct. 6, 2004
Special to World Science
Extracts:
For centuries, scientists, philosophers and ordinary people have wondered whether the universe is infinite, and what its shape might be....
Some researchers say the universe may be shaped like a dodecahedron, in which objects that go out one side come back in the opposite.
As for its shape, if ever a shape could be at once hauntingly beautiful, yet impossible to draw or visualize exactly, this one might be it. But roughly, it would resemble a dodecahedron, a 12-sided box similar to some dice used in the popular role-playing game Dungeons& Dragons.
.... space is finite, say Jean-Pierre Luminet of the Paris Observatory, France, and colleagues.
The dodecahedral universe claims are based on observations of the furthest reaches of our universe. Since light takes time to travel, the further we peer out into space with telescopes, the further back in time we see.
In the September 2004 issue of the research journal Astronomy& Astrophysics, a group of researchers write that they has found 'hints' of the structure Luminet described. If space is structured this way, researchers believe that the cosmic microwave background should exhibit a specific pattern called 'matched circles.' This means that as we peer into space, certain areas of the radiation should look the same as other areas.
In the paper, Boudewijn F. Roukema of Copernicus University, Torun, Poland, and colleagues wrote that the patterns they found 'correlate unusually well' with the matched-circles pattern required by Luminet's theory. However, at present it's hard to prove that this is not a coincidence, they wrote.Is the Universe a Dodecahedron?
http://www.librarising.com/space/dodecahedron.html
Recent astronomical thinking proposes the over 2000 year-old idea that our material universe and perhaps all of creation is in the basic shape of a dodecahedron.
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5. Nachmanides and the 12 (free translation by Yair Davidiy)
Nachmanides on Deuteronomy 33:6 (Chavel edition, Mossad haRav Kook, Jerusalem, 5736, p.495):
#... Scripture does not number any more than twelve tribes of Israel. In the Blessing of Jacob it says,
" All these are the twelve tribes of Israel" (Genesis 49:28). Jacob mentioned here his twelve sons and spoke of Joseph as one tribe (Genesis 49:22-26). Moses however saw fit to recall Joseph as two tribes, as its says, "such are the myriads of Ephraim, such the thousands of Manasseh" (Deuteronomy 33:17). There are two reasons for this:# Firstly, the Almighty commanded that they [the sons of Joseph] should be counted as two separate tribes in the Consecration of the Altar (Numbers 6:48, 54); in the Tribal Ensigns (Numbers 2:18-21); and in the Inheritance of the Land (Numbers 34:23-24). He [Moses] had to count them as two in their blessing. He also mentioned Joshua who oversaw bequeathing the land. Joshua was from the Tribe of Ephraim who was the younger brother and since he was mentioned his older brother [Manasseh] had to be counted as well.
# The Tribe of Levi needed to be blessed since through them the rest of Israel were to receive a blessing as their sacrifices found favor before the Almighty. In this way one of the Tribes was to be left out [in the blessing of Jacob. In Deuteronomy 33 all the tribes are mentioned except Simeon who is only hinted at in the blessing to Judah. On the other hand Levi, Ephraim, and Manasseh are recalled separatedly] At all events only twelve tribes are to be counted. The Twelve Tribes parallel the twelve heavenly constellations, twelve months in the year, and twelve borderlines of division which are, as it says in the Midrash (Safer HaBahir) the borders of the universe, and as the Sages said in the Tractate Beracot (32;b):
'The Holy One Blessed He said to the Prophet, Go, and say to the Assemblage of Israel,
O My Daughter, Twelve Constellations I created in heaven parallel to Twelve Tribes.'
# So too, on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal where Levi is counted (Deuteronomy 27:12) but Joseph is not considered as two tribes [the quorum of twelve is thus maintained].
In the Division of Ezekiel Joseph is considered as two tribes in inheriting the Land (Ezekiel 48:4-5) but Levi is not spoken of.
When however the exits of the city are counted there is one gate for Levi (Ezekiel 48:31) and not two gates for Joseph, but rather
"one gate of Joseph" (Ezekiel 48:31 in the Hebrew original. Some English translations omit the word "one").
The Tribes of Israel shall never be numbered as more than twelve...# That leaves us Simeon [who is left out of the Blessings to the Tribes in Deuteronomy 33 when Joseph is counted as two tribes and Levi was also mentioned]. Simeon was not a large tribe and he had not been especially blessed by the Patriarch Jacob, but rather "I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel" (Genesis 49:7). Nevertheless, they [i.e. descendants of Simeon] also were to be blessed together with the blessings of the other tribes amongst whom they were to be located....