A Thought on Parshas Bamidbar

"...ae'leh kru'ae ha'aeda..." "...these are the ones who are called upon..." (1:16) The Torah introduces the tribal heads who were to lead the nation on their travels. Each tribe had a representative. They are referred to here, collectively, as "the ones called upon." They are the ones who were summoned to the task of leading, the ones whom the tribes turned to and called upon when in need of direction. The atypical feature of our verse is the spelling of that word "kru'ae". It is pronounced as I have transliterated it here (kru as in 'crouton'; ae as in 'atheist', 'weight', 'aimless' etc.) yet it is not spelled out letter by letter in the typical manner. Usually, a word with that pronunciation would be written kuf, reish, vov, alef, yud. The middle letter, vov, would give it the "u" sound when dotted in the middle. However, in the Torah, the word is written kuf, reish, yud, alef, yud. The vov is shortened and looks like the smaller letter yud. That means that by all rights, we would have pronounced the word kree'ae. It is our mesora, however, that we overlook the actual spelling and we are meant to pronounce the word as if the yud was a vov. It is pronounced kru'ae. What might we able to interpret from this contrast between the visible and audible? What secret meaning might await us here? Rabbeinu Avigdor says that the yud, which represents the number ten, means to allude to how each of these tribal leaders had been present at the giving of the Torah. They had each embraced the "Ten", meaning, the giving of the Tablets on Sinai. Hence, they were worthy and learned people. They were learning people, as well, and in a position to listen to the needs of their nation and to seek counsel from the Torah and listen to their Torah teachers. This is the lesson of the vov which is written as a yud. Rabbeinu Avigdor then compares our word to one found later on in parshas Korach. In the Korach uprising, we are told that the ring leaders selected prominent men. They called them up to help spearhead a planned rebellion. The Torah refers to those men as kree'ae moed - men called to the meeting. Oddly, that word is written kuf, reish, alef, yud. There is no middle yud even though it is pronounced as if it had a yud. It is almost the opposite of our verse's word. Our word has a yud but is pronounced as if it had a vov. This second word has no yud but is pronounced as if it does have a yud. What is the lesson here? Rabbeinu Avigdor writes that we infer here the opposite lesson. The men who joined and led the rebels were "lacking Ten". From the fact that they defied the Torah leaders, it was apparent that they had not embraced the Torah at Sinai. Part and parcel of accepting the Torah is that we accept those who are truly learned in Torah and who live by the Torah. Those who do not respect Torah leaders do not respect Torah itself. Hence, they are missing their yudishkeit. Good Shabbos from Jerusalem. D Fox