1Why This Commentary?
113ESSAY: The Heart Is Not to Be Trusted
2Who Is This Torah Commentary For?
114Most Fame Is Meaningless
3To Jewish Readers:
115ESSAY: The Torah Rejects Egalitarianism
4To Christian Readers:
116Is God in Everyone?
5To Non-Religious Readers:
117Ingratitude as a Source of Evil and Unhappiness
6The Torah Is Not Man-Made
118Why Did Moses Defend Himself to God?
7Man-Made or God-Made: Why It Matters
119Why Did Korach Go Along with Moses’s Test?
8How Was the Torah Transmitted?
120Most Good People Do Not Fight Evil
9Reason, Torah, and God
121Why Did God Punish the Rebels’ Families?
10Why Read The Rational Bible?
122The Case for Hereditary Priesthood
11Why Exodus Was Volume 1
123Once Again, a Miracle Doesn’t Produce Faith
12BC or BCE?
124Religious Morality Is Obligations-Oriented; Secular Morality Is Rights-Oriented
13God as “He”
125ESSAY: A Society without the Holy Will Not Survive
14How to Read This Commentary
126Death at the Hand of God
15PREFACE
127The Role of Levites Who Are Not Direct Descendants of Aaron
16Introduction to the Book of Numbers
128The Role of the Priests, the Levites Who Are Direct Descendants of Aaron
17The Antiquity of the Names
129Biblical Separation of Religion and the State: Not Even a King Could Encroach on the Priestly Role
18ESSAY: The Problem of the Number of Israelites in the Torah
130ESSAY: Why Were the Priests Well-Compensated for Doing Holy Work?
19Why the Levite Tribe Was Not Counted in the Census
131Why Only Men Could Be Priests
20CHAPTER 2: The Ten Commandments Were at the Center of Israel’s Life—Physically and Religiously
132“Redeeming” the Firstborn
21Aaron’s Descendants—and the Other Levites—Are Israel’s Priests, Just as Israel Is to Be the Nations’ Priests
133ESSAY: Do People Need to Understand Religious Rituals?
22The Tasks of Three Levite clans: Gershon, Kohath, Merari
134ESSAY: Explaining the Red Heifer
23The Gershon Clan: Responsible for Maintaining the Tabernacle
135The Meaning of Impurity and the Ritual of the Red Cow
24The Kohath Clan: Responsible for the Ark, Table, Lampstand, Altars, Etc.
136A Dark Chapter
25The Merarite Clan: Responsible for the Tabernacle’s Planks, Bars, Posts, Sockets, Etc.
137Miriam’s Death
26Death to Those Who Encroach on the Sanctuary
138Truly Irrational Israelite Complaints
27Another Proof of the Solution of the Census Numbers Problem
139What Did Moses Do Wrong at the Rock?
28Priests, Levites, and Their Descendants
140Why Did Moses Hit the Rock?
29Duties of the Kohathites (through Verse 20)
141ESSAY: Why Did God Not Permit Moses to Enter the Promised Land?
30What the Colors Signified
142ESSAY: The Moral Problem of the Destruction of Canaanite Cities
31ESSAY: The Importance of Sacred Objects
143ESSAY: The Conscience Is Not Morally Reliable
32Duties of the Gershonites
144Chronic Complaining Is Immoral
33Duties of the Merarites
145The Copper Serpent
34Purity and Impurity
146The War against the Amorite King Sihon
35The Emphasis on Life
147Avoiding Temptation
36Sins against People
148God’s Mystifying Response
37ESSAY: Guilt
149ESSAY: Can a Donkey Speak?
38A Strange Ritual which Protected Wives and Marriages
150Everyone Has a Moral Bank Account
39The Meaning of the Sotah Ritual
151Human Mistreatment of Animals Is an Important Part of the Balaam Story
40ESSAY: The Nazirite
152Balaam’s First Oracle
41The First Abstention
153ESSAY: The Jews: A People Apart
42The Second Abstention
154Balaam’s Second Oracle
43The Third Abstention
155Men and Gods Are Capricious—God Is Not
44When a Nazirite’s Vows Are Inadvertently Broken
156Balaam’s Third Oracle
45When the Nazirite Period Ends (Verses 13–21)
157Balaam Describes Israel’s Beauty
46ESSAY: The Torah’s Negative View of Asceticism
158Balaam Prophesies about Israel’s King and Kingdom
47The Famous Priestly Blessing
159Balaam Describes God’s Liberating Israel from Slavery
48The Gifts to the Gershonite, Merarite, and Kohathite Levites
160Balaam Describes Israel’s Defeat of Its Enemies
49And Now . . . God Will Speak
161Balaam Describes Israel as a Lion
50The Lampstand (Menorah)
162How Are We to Assess Balaam?
51Moses and Aaron: Another Torah Example of Tension between Brothers
163Balaam’s Fourth Oracle
52ESSAY: The Biblical Significance of the Number Seven
164ESSAY: Assessments of the Balaam Story
53The Menorah Differed from a “Chanukah Menorah”
165What a King Could Not Accomplish, Seductive Women Accomplished
54The Religious Importance of Aesthetic Beauty
166Did Moses Disobey God?
55Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness
167ESSAY: The Israelite Man’s Sin, Situational Ethics, and Public vs. Private Sin
56ESSAY: On Old People Retiring
168Why Phinehas Killed the Israelite Man and Midianite Woman
57A “Second Passover”
169Is Fanaticism Ever Justified?
58ESSAY: The Social Importance of Religion
170CHAPTER 26: The Decline of the Simeonites
59Do People Need a Direct Communication from God to Do the Right Thing?
171The Five Daughters
60ESSAY: Compassion versus Standards
172The Courage of the Five Women and the Moral Achievement of Ancient Israel
61ESSAY: Nations and Religions Need Rituals to Survive
173For What Sin Did Their Father Die?
62How God Navigated the Israelites through the Wilderness
174ESSAY: Moral Evolution or Immoral Revolution?
63The Trumpet Blasts
175Like His Brother Aaron, Moses, Too, Will Not Enter the Promised Land
64The Israelites’ Travels Recommence
176Why God Explained (Again) Why He Will Not Allow Moses into the Promised Land
65Tribe by Tribe, the Israelites Set Out
177Should Human Leaders Be “Shepherds”?
66Those Who Lived before Us Matter
178Leaders Must Be Chosen on the Basis of Merit
67Moses Invites His Midianite In-Laws to Enter the Promised Land
179Why Joshua Was Chosen to Succeed Moses
68The First Rebellion
180ESSAY: Purposes of Sacrifices
69Why Did the Israelites’ Complaining So Anger God?
181Burnt Offerings
70ESSAY: Constant Complaining as a Moral Defect
182ESSAY: The Meaning and Importance of Rituals
71Who Started the Rebellion?
183Daily Sacrifices
72ESSAY: Liberty Is a Value, Not an Instinct: Most People Prefer Free Things to Being Free
184Sabbath Sacrifices
73Even Moses Complained to God
185New Moon (New Month) Sacrifices
74Even Biblical Heroes Wanted to Die
186Passover Sacrifices
75Even Moses Doubted God
187Shavuot (Pentecost) Sacrifices
76If All Jews Were Prophets . . .
188The Seventh Month Is a Special Month
77Who Was Moses’s Wife?
189The Sacrifices of “The Day the Horn Is Sounded” (the New Year)
78ESSAY: Envy, Resentment, Equality, Violence
190Yom Kippur
79God Hears Everything We Say and Sees Everything We Do
191The Yom Kippur Sacrifices
80Why Are We Told Moses Was the Most Humble Man on Earth?
192The Festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles)
81ESSAY: Can a Humble Person Consider Himself Humble?
193The Sukkot Sacrifices
82Was Moses Hurt by What His Siblings Said?
194Shemini Atzeret—the Eighth Day of Assembly
83God Is More Interested in Our Behavior Than in Our Feelings
195The Sacrifices of Shemini Atzeret
84Once Again, a Torah Hero Is from Non-Israelite Stock
196ESSAY: The Seriousness of Uttering Oaths
85ESSAY: Three Life-Changing Lessons of the Spies
197An Oath Is an Oath Only When Expressed—Not Merely Thought
861. Expertise Has Little to Do with Judgment
198Annulment of Vows and Women’s Equality
872. In Times of Crisis, Nearly All Good Is Done by Outliers
199ESSAY: A Morally Difficult Chapter
883. Most Leaders Do Not Lead
200Why Take Vengeance on Midian?
89The Spies’ “Evil” Report
201ESSAY: The Order to Kill the Midianites
90The Power of Verbal Imagery: “A Land That Devours Its Settlers”
202Moses’s Anger at the Tribes of Gad and Reuben: Was It Warranted?
91The Spies’ Report Worked: It Disheartened the Israelites
203Do What Is Right in the Eyes of Both God and Man
92ESSAY: Like Many People Today, the Israelites Believed in a God, but Not the God (of the Torah): Sinai and Freedom
204Why Does the Torah List the Israelites’ Stops?
93ESSAY: Faith Is Produced by Effort, Not Miracles
205The Fifteen Stops of the First Year and a Half after the Exodus
94ESSAY: Why Would God Propose Ending the Israelite Nation?
206The Seventeen Stops of the Middle Thirty-Eight Years
95Moses Argues with God on Behalf of Israel: I
207The Ten Stops of the Fortieth Year
96Moses Argues with God on Behalf of Israel: II
208The Dispossessing of the Canaanites
97Did Moses Change God’s Mind?
209The Future Borders of the Land of Israel
98Why Is This Chapter Here?
210The Southern Border
99Does God Like Pleasing Odors and Nice Clothes?
211The Western Border
100The Specifics of Sacrifices to Be Brought (Verses 4–12)
212The Northern Border
101Every Citizen Brings the Same Sacrifice
213The Eastern Border
102The Greater Moral Power of Obligations
214ESSAY: Is There Luck in Life, or Is Everything Determined by God’s Will?
103An Example of Torah Behaviorism: Act Grateful and You Will Become Grateful
215Israel’s Divinely Appointed Leaders
104Sacrifices Atone Only for Sins Committed Inadvertently
216ESSAY: Cities of Refuge—Another Moral Innovation of the Torah
105Sacrifices for Inadvertent Sins Committed by the Community
217When Homicide Is Deemed Intentional (Verses 16–21)
106Sacrifices for Inadvertent Sins Committed by the Individual
218When Homicide is Deemed Unintentional (Verses 22–28)
107ESSAY: What Is the Punishment for Deliberate Ritual Sin?
219The Role of the Death of the High Priest
108ESSAY: The Need for Nations
220ESSAY: Why a Murderer Cannot Be Ransomed
109ESSAY: The Difference between Sinning in Public and Sinning in Private: The Case of the Israelite Who Publicly Violated One of the Ten Commandments
221Bloodshed Pollutes the Land
110ESSAY: Why Did Moses Not Know What to Do with the Public Sabbath Violator?
222Preserving the Lands and Identities of the Tribes
111ESSAY: Why Was the Man Executed for Gathering Wood on the Sabbath?
223God’s Solution to the Daughters of Zelophehad and the Inheritance Question
112ESSAY: The Potential Power of the Fringes (and of Religion)
224NOTES