What are the connotations of "u've'Nuchoh Yomar"? When is it referring to?
Rashi (in 9:18): Refer to 9:18:2:1.
What are the connotations of "Shuvah Hashem ? "?
Rashi (citing Menachem ben S'ruk): It means "Reside (tranquilly - Rashi), Hashem!" 1
Seforno: Moshe Davened that, even though Hashem's Shechinah moved to the front of Yisrael, in order to drive out the enemy from Eretz Cana'an, His Menuchas ha'Shechinah 2 should remain in the camp with Yisrael.
Targum Yonasan: It means 'Relent now Hashem (from your burning anger - Targum Yerushalmi) in Your good compassion, lead Your people Yisrael, and rest the Glory of Your Shechinah among them.'
Da'as Zekenim and Hadar Zekenim: It means that all the thousands and tens of thousands of Yisrael should return to their place, and not one should be missing.
What is the significance of the number "Riv'vos Alfei Yisrael" mentioned in the Pasuk?
Rashi: It teaches us that the Shechinah does not rest on Yisrael, when they total less than twenty-two thousand. 1
Seforno: The Pasuk means twenty times two thousand (forty million), 2 which it seems, Yisrael numbered at that time ? including men, women and children.
Targum Yonasan: 'Have compassion on the tens of thousands of the house of Ya'akov and of the thousands of Yisrael'. 3
See Torah Temimah, citing Yevamos, 64a and note 25. and Bava Kama, 83b and note 26.
Seforno: As in Tehilim, 68:18, in connection with the angels who came to Har Sinai at Matan Torah. (There were about six hundred thousand adult men. If there were millions of male youths below twenty, why were less men counted thirty-eight years later? There was no decree against youths! If almost all forty million were women, we must say that most did not marry, or the average man had more than thirty wives! - PF) The Pesikta gives the number as twenty-two thousand, equivalent to the total number of Levi'im at the time.
See Na'ar Yonasan.
QUESTIONS ON RASHI
Rashi writes that the Shechinah does not rest on less than twenty-two thousand people But the Mishnah in Avos - 3:2 states that if two people engage in Torah, the Shechinah dwells among them?
There are different levels of Shechinah, as is evident from Mishnah 6 there, which discusses the Shechinah resting on ten, five, three, two and even one person who learns Torah. Clearly, the Shechinah that rests on the whole of Yisrael is on an infinitely lsrger scale that that which rests of a group of people who learning Torah, 1
See also Torah Temimah, note 26.
