Backwards Nuns

In R. Amnon Bazak’s fourth essay on Parashat BeHa’alotcha, “HaMasa SheNikta” (Nekudat Peticha: Iyunim Ketzarim BePeshuta Shel Parashat HaShavua, [revised and expanded], Yediot Acharonot, Rishon LeTziyon, 2018, pp. 315-6), he notes that the well-known section from our liturgy in the Parasha, is surrounded by “backwards” Nuns:

BeMidbar 10:35-6

35 And it came to pass, when the Ark set forward, that Moshe said: Rise up, O LORD, and Let Thine Enemies be Scattered; and Let them that hate Thee Flee before Thee. 36 And when It rested, he said: Return, O LORD, unto the ten thousands of the families of Israel.

The Talmud takes note of these two verses, and the “Nuns” that precede and succeed them:

Shabbat 115b-116a

“And when the Ark set forward, that Moshe said: Rise up, O LORD, and Let Your Enemies be   Scattered; and Let them that hate Thee l Flee before Thee.”– And The Holy One, Blessed Be He, Made signs in the Tora for this portion, above and below (the backwards Nun’s) … Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi says: …The signs are there because this portion is considered a book unto itself.

(R. Bazak places a particular “spin” on R. Yehuda HaNasi’s explanation, contending that the verses, i.e., this separate “book” of the Tora, mark the end of the first portion of BeMidbar, where everything was going “swimmingly,” and the Jews were on a path leading to their relatively quick entry into the Land of Israel, only to have everything “placed on hold” with the advent of BeMidbar 11, where various and sundry sins of the Jews are listed. Consequently, a Divine Decree was Given that the people are to wander for forty years in the desert until virtually all men of the Generation of the Desert that were twenty at the time of the Exodus, would die in the wilderness.)

R. Bazak opines that these two verses mark the “tipping point” of the Exodus. Until BeMidbar 10:35-6, a) the order to the march of the encampment through the wilderness had been determined (Ibid. 11-34); b) silver horns had been made, among other purposes, to be able to announce when the encampment was moving (Ibid. 2-10); c) the second Passover had been celebrated by those who had been ritually impure the month before (Ibid. 9:6-14); d) the second Tablets had been given to replace the first ones that Moshe had dropped (Shemot 34:27-9); and e) Commandments for how the Tabernacle would be administered and used had been Given (VaYikra and BeMidbar). The first stage of this final journey took three days (BeMidbar 10:33), with the Aron leading the way.

At this point, in addition to interpreting the backwards “Nuns” in a particular manner, R. Bazak states that not only is the Ark is not mentioned as leading the people’s travels through the desert, but that it is completely omitted until the book of Yehoshua 3:2-3, when the people were readying themselves to actually enter into the land of Israel:

2 And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the midst of the camp; 3 And they commanded the people, saying: When ye see the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.

(In the continuation of the account recorded in Yehoshua 3, we are told how the Jewish people did as they had been commanded, following the lead of the Ark: 

14 And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over the Jordan, the priests that bore the Ark of the Covenant being before the people; 15 And when they that bore the ark were come unto the Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bore the ark were dipped in the brink of the water—for the Jordan overfloweth all its banks all the time of harvest—16 That the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap, a great way off from Adam, the city that is beside Tzarettan; and those that went down toward the sea of the Arava, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off; and the people passed over right against Yericho. 17 And the priests that bore the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, while all Israel passed over on dry ground, until all the nation were passed clean over the Jordan. 

(reminiscent in some ways of the splitting of the sea in Shemot 14.) 

The “absence” of the Ark, i.e., its not being mentioned in the subsequent verses of BeMidbar and Devarim despite the numerous movements of the encampment listed in BeMidbar 33,  coincides with the problems that the people experienced, immediately after the two verses of Ibid 10:35-6. Chief among them were: a) the sin of the lusters after meat (Ibid. 11:4-34); b) the sin of the spies (Ibid. 13:1-14:39); and c) the sin of the Ma’apilim, who tried to enter the land even after the Heavenly Decree had been announced. (Ibid. 14:40-45.)

Only after forty years of wandering and death, does the Aron pick up where it had left off.

Discussion. 

If indeed R. Yehuda HaNasi is correct, and that BeMidbar 10:35-36 is a separate book of the Tora, indicated by the backward “Nun’s” (the illustration above,) it is an ancient scribal technique, indicating that something is out of place. Indeed, the first position in the Talmud, before R. Yehuda HaNasi, is the following:

Shabbat 115b-116a

…in order to say that this is not its place…

RaShI, on BeMidbar 10:35 explains this first point of view by combining it with the second:

He (the LORD) made for it dividing marks in front and behind it, in order to indicate that this is not its proper place (it would more fittingly find a place in the section dealing with the march of the people in chapter BeMidbar 2 after v. 17). But why, then, is it written here? (R. Yehuda HaNasi:) In order to make a break between the narrative of one “punishment” and that of another “punishment” (by placing a “separate book of the Tora” between them) …

Two bad acts:

a. Moshav Zekeinim on BeMidbar 10:35

…And Rabbeinu Tam explains that it is written in the Midrash that they [the Jewish people] went away rapidly from Har Sinai [as soon as they were given permission] because they had studied Tora there [and didn’t want the “Teacher” to think of more “homework” to dole out]. A parable to a young child who flees from the school. This is the first problem… [The assumption is that the Jews didn’t realize that Mitzvot were a Zechut, rather than something onerous.]

b. BeMidbar 11:1

The people took to complaining bitterly before HaShem. HaShem Heard and was Incensed: a fire of HaShem broke out against them, ravaging the outskirts of the camp.)

It is interesting that these symbols well-known to scribes, would appear in the Tora, a Divinely-Given document. “Dibra Tora KeLashon Benai Adam” (the Tora speaks in a language that is known to man) apparently does not only have to do with nomenclature; it can be used to explain special marks and notations in the Tora.