Tiferes Tzvi
A Student Torah Publication of YRSRH
Founded in 1984
והנשאם הביאו את אבני השהם ואת אבני המלאים לאפוד ולחשן. לה, כז
And the princes brought the שהם stones and the stones to be set for the אפוד and the breast-plate.
(35, 27)
The word נשאם is spelled in this פסוק without a רש"י. י explains that the נשיאים decided to wait in donating to the משכן until everyone else gave, and then they would give whatever was missing. They are criticized for this, and therefore the תורה spells the word as .נשאם
Rav Hirsch explains what the נשיאים did wrong. They considered themselves on a higher level than the rest of . כלל ישראל That is why they did not respond when משה called upon the people to give, as they considered it beneath their honor. They therefore waited, expecting the people’s donations to not be enough, so that they will have the honor of completing the donations, as befit people of their stature. This was a great mistake, because they held themselves to be higher than everyone else. A נשיא is not supposed to consider himself greater than everybody else. Rather, they should view themselves as part of the whole nation. Since they did not act as a befitting ,נשיא the תורה takes away from their name and spells it as .
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