Parshas Nasso - Parsha Stumpers

~ Something to Think About ~

פרשת נשא

Parsha Stumpers

By: Daniel Listhaus

1.    Why is the parsha of sotah so serious that based on suspicion we give her to drink from the bitter waters to determine whether she is guilty? We do not find this by other aveiros. For example, one who we suspect killed someone else, there is no potion to give him to determine his guilt, rather he is innocent until 2 witnesses come and go through the long process of demonstrating that their story is true and that the man is guilty?

2.    Rashi (7:11) writes that Moshe did not know which order the n'si'im should bring their offerings: if it should be in age-order or in order of their travels. Why was Moshe unsure though, Hashem had not yet commanded Moshe the order of their travels so that should not have even been an option?

3.    Why does the Torah repeat each karbon brought for each of the nasi'im? They are exactly the same! Why not just write it once and say that this is what each nasi brought?

4.    The karbanos that the nasi'im brought consisted of a young bull, one ram, one sheep, and one he-goat. Rashi writes that the bull corresponds to Avraham, the ram corresponds to Yitzchak, and the sheep corresponds to Yaakov. The he-goat is to atone for the selling of Yosef.

a. What place does the goat for the atonement of Yosef have here?

b. Not all the shevatim were involved in the sale of Yosef – and certainly not Ephraim and Menashe who themselves come from Yosef? So Why was this a universal karbon for all the nasi'im?

5.    Rashi (7:85) learns from the passuk that all the implements in the Beis Hamikdash were precise in their weight such as whether one would weigh them one by one or weigh them all together he would never find a discrepancy. What is Rashi coming to teach us? Obviously the collective sum of all the weights will always equal taking each weight separately and adding them together?