Bamidbar 10: The Upside Down

The building drama of the first ten chapters has reached its zenith. The people are counted. The camp is organized. The Levites carry the Mishkan. The trumpets fashioned and ready to call out. The cloud lifts from the Mishkan and Moses asks his father-in-law to accompany the people for the homes stretch (he declines). And then the dramatic song:“When the Ark was to set out, Moses would say: Advance, O God ! May Your enemies be scattered, and may Your foes flee before You!וַיְהִי בִּנְסֹעַ הָאָרֹן וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה קוּמָה ה׳ וְיָפֻצוּ אֹיְבֶיךָ וְיָנֻסוּ מְשַׂנְאֶיךָ מִפָּנֶיךָ׃And when it halted, he would say: return, O God, You who are Israel’s myriads of thousands!”וּבְנֻחֹה יֹאמַר שׁוּבָה ה׳ רִבְבוֹת אַלְפֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל׃(verse 35-36). These verses are bracketed by upside down nuns like parentheses. Why do these appear here? The Gemara in Tractate Shabbat 115-116 explains that this section is bracketed off because it should be considered its own book. The source is a verse in Proverbs 9:1 “With wisdom she built her house, she carved its seven pillars.”חָכְמוֹת בָּנְתָה בֵיתָהּ חָצְבָה עַמּוּדֶיהָ שִׁבְעָה׃The Torah only has five books. Where does the 7 come from? The Gemara answers that the seven books are- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers until the brackets, the bracket section, numbers after the brackets and Deuteronomy. Rashi explains that this bracketed section does not belong here but is placed here to separate two punishments. Ramban takes umbrage with Rashi because the first “punishment” seems to be missing. The next verse describes the people complaining, but nothing appears out of sorts in the verse before. He explains that verse 33 “They marched from the mountain of God they traveled for three days”וַיִּסְעוּ מֵהַר ה׳ דֶּרֶךְ שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִיםis really about the people removing themselves from God. This is more of a sin than a punishment, but nevertheless is the reason for the split. This interpretation matches an earlier “three day” removal. In Exodus 15:22: “they marched three days and found no water”וַיֹּלֶךְ מֹשֶׁה אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִיַּם סוּף וַיֵּצְאוּ אֶל־מִדְבַּר שׁוּר וַיֵּלְכוּ שְׁלֹשֶׁת יָמִים בַּמִּדְבָּר וְלֹא מָצְאוּ מָיִם׃and then the people complained to Moshe. The homiletic interpretation there is that water is really Torah. Because the people went three days without it, they suffered. Hereto the people removed themselves from Mt. Sinai for three days and then complained. If water can be interpreted as Torah, Mt. Sinai can as well. But what was the point of bracketing this off but not the Exodus story? Furthermore, verse 34 does not seem to match the sinful behavior “The Ark traveled in front of them on that three days’ journey to seek out a resting place for them.” Why would the Ark move ahead if they were not supposed to move at all? It’s possible that this is bracketed off simply for poetic effect. The only other time this appears in Tanach is in Psalms 107 for poetic reasons. Every other instance of unique lettering in the Torah concerns a poem or song- the Song of the Sea, Moses’s final epic poem, etc. The brackets do contain a mini song by Moses and one that is sung every time the Torah returns to the Ark in Synagogue. Perhaps then the upside down nuns were meant to separate a brief moment in history when everything was going exactly according to plan before everything fell apart in the second half of Bamidbar.