"And God spoke to
Moshe saying; Take the count of the sons of Gershon as well, according
to the house of their fathers according to their families."
~ BaMidbar 4:21-22
Take
the count of the sons of Gershon as well. Just as I commanded you (see
4:2) concerning the sons of Kehos, to determine how many have reached
the category of those able to work (in the sanctuary).
~ Rashi, on BaMidbar 4:2
What is the point of Rashi's comment? I offer a guess.
We
learned earlier (BaMidbar 3:25-38) that when the camp of the children
of Israel were prompted to travel, the mishkan (sanctuary) was to be
deconstructed by the Levites, who were divided into three groups for the
task. The sons of Kehos were to pack up and carry the sacred vessels,
the sons of Merori handled all the beams, sockets, and pillars, and the
sons of Gershon dealt with the curtains and coverings.
One could
see that, in their own estimation, the sons of Gershon might have seen
their appointed task as less prestigious than that of the sons of Kehos -
handling the fabrics is all well and good, yes, but the holy vessels,
that's the big time. As a corrective to this view God instructed that
the children of Gershon be counted, just like the sons of Kehos were.
The message seems to be that the work of the children of Gershon, and
the families themselves, counted just as much.
Something to keep
in mind when you are asked to help out with an apparently mundane task
in the shul or community. These tasks count just as much in the grand
plan.
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