Or HaChaim on Numbers 26:53/אור החיים על במדבר כ״ו:נ״ג

1 לאלה תחלק הארץ בנחלה, "To these the land will be shared out as an inheritance, etc." On the word לאלה our sages in Baba Batra 117 comment as follows: Rabbi Yoshiah holds that the subject of the word are the people who participated in the Exodus. He bases himself on the additional data in verse 55 לשמות מטות אבותם ינחלו, 'they shall inherit according to the names of the tribes of their fathers.' How do I then fulfil the instruction of the Torah which wrote לאלה, i.e. 'to these' i.e. to people present now at this time? The word is meant to exclude people who were not yet 20 years of age at the time they left Egypt." Rabbi Yonathan holds that the land was distributed only to the people who actually set foot in the land, i.e. the men under the leadership of Joshua. He bases himself on the word לאלה. As to the meaning of the words לשמות מטות אבותם ינחלו, Rabbi Yonathan feels that in this instance the Torah applied yardsticks other than the normal ones to the laws of inheritance. Usually the living inherit the dead; in this instance the dead inherited the living. Thus far the statements of these two scholars.

2I have seen a Baraitha in the Sifri which offers a third approach to our verse. The word לאלה is understood to exclude the unworthy members of the Jewish people, the wicked. As proof they cite the sons of the spies and the people who had complained against Moses and G'd on various occasions. In order to bring the approach of the Baraitha into accord with that of Rabbi Yoshiah who holds that the land was distributed to the people who participated in the Exodus, we have to translate the word לאלה as כאלה, i.e. "to people such as these righteous ones who make up the nation as of this day." Just as only the righteous ones who left Egypt share in the inheritance, seeing they and their children died already, so also at this time only Israelites who were righteous would receive their share of the land. It would appear that this exegesis which denies the wicked their share in the Holy Land is not at odds with our own approach (that of Rabbi Yoshiah) that the word was intended to exclude the people who were below the age of 20 at the time of the Exodus. The word לאלה simply excludes anyone who does not meet the standards, be it because he was too young or because he was too wicked.

3I have noted that Rashi explains the word לאלה as reflecting the approach of Rabbi Yonathan i.e. not to those who are below 20 even though they had reached that age before the actual distribution took place. This seems hard to understand. After all, Rabbi Yonathan already exploited the exegetical value of the word ואלה to inform us that the land was distributed according to the present number of Israelites as distinct from the number of Israelites (of comparable age) who participated in the Exodus. By referring to the line לשמות מטות אבותם ינחלו, Rabbi Yonathan had already proved that the number of people present now were not the only criterion in determining who was to get how much. How then can Rabbi Yonathan use the word לאלה to teach us also that youngsters under the age of twenty did not participate in the division of the land?

4I am certainly not prepared to quarrel with Rashi regarding the principle that people under twenty were not included in the lottery for distribution of the land even though Rabbi Yonathan did not say so specifically. It is possible that the word לאלה could supply us with two separate למודים, exegetical insights. However, it does not necessarily have to be so. It is equally possible that the word only excluded the principle that the key to the distribution were the people who had participated in the Exodus. What we have to examine is why Rashi did not follow the accepted way of understanding Rabbi Yonathan's words.

5I have seen a comment by Rabbi Eliyahu Mizrachi who explains the words of Rashi and did not even mention the difficulty there is in Rashi's commentary when we consider the words of the Baraitha. I claim that Rashi was perfectly aware of the thrust of Rabbi Yonathan's interpretation. However, Rashi thought that the words לאלה prove conclusively that the land was to be distributed only to people who were alive at that time and who had reached the age of twenty. It was the latter detail Rashi wanted to tell us as something new. Rashi took for granted that the land was to be distributed only to people who actually would enter the Holy Land.

6במספר שמות, according to the number of names. The Torah means that the number of families which have been enumerated in chapter 26 were to be the basis for the distribution, i.e. 57 families. Each of these 57 families was to be given a tract of land commensurate with the size of the family. This can be reconciled only with the opinion of Rabbi Yonathan. According to Rabbi Yoshiah who holds that the land was distributed basically to the people who left Egypt the land should have been distributed between 63 families instead of between 57 as we have learned from Bamidbar Rabbah 21 that 6 families of those enumerated at the time of the first count no longer appeared in the count. According to Rabbi Yoshiah the tribes of these 6 families would be accorded their share instead. It is, possible however, that even Rabbi Yoshiah would agree that the words "according to the number of families" would refer to the families who participated in the Exodus. [I believe there is a misprint here and it should say that even Rabbi Yonathan agreed that only the words במספר שמות refer to the people who participated in the Exodus taking part in the distribution. Ed.]