questions on Sh'lach L'cha

[cellio]

The rabbi pointed out an oddity in this week's portion this morning (for which he did not have an answer off the top of his head): at the beginning of Sh'lach L'cha, when the spies are enumerated, we have "from the tribe of Ephrayim, Yehoshua bin Nun" and then, later, "from the tribe of Yosef from Manashe, Gadi ben Susi". Yosef, one of the twelve sons of Yisrael, doesn't get his own tribe; instead, his sons Ephrayim and Manashe are elevated to full tribal status. So why does the torah give the extra lineage in one of these cases but not the other -- and especially skipping the first instance (where you would expect it were there only one)? The rabbi checked Mikrot Gedolot but didn't find anything there.

And is it significant that Yosef's name is attached not to one of the heroes of the story (Yehoshua), but to one of the defeatist spies who caused the forty-year delay on entering the land?

And on a much more minor note, why is Yehoshua bin Nun instead of ben Nun? (That's consistent, not just in this passage.)

Comments

[zevabe.livejournal.com]

I'd guess the vowel change in Yehoshua bin Nun relates to the next word also beginning with a nun. Alternatively, because of the hyphenation to the next word, or the two together. Still just guessing.

Usually Ephraim is called the tribe of Yosef, if either is. Since he was the younger, and thus more blessed son(feel free to explain for those who won't get that), he does take more of a leadership role (eg The group to the west of the Mishkan is called Degel Ephraim rather than Degel Menashe). I recall hearing that in certain places Menashe is compensated for, by attaching Yosef's name to Menashe. But why here specifically? Not terribly sure.

[murmur311.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... That is interesting. I'm going to need to bring that up in Torah study this week. This portion was chock full of fun stuff--I wrote up a bit about it over at jewsbychoice.org, if you are interested.

[murmur311.livejournal.com]

It might help to give you the link: http://jewsbychoice.org/2008/06/17/shlach-lcha-punishment-and-reminders/

[cellio]

Thanks for the link! I enjoyed reading your d'var torah.

I gave a d'var some years back on the wood-gatherer. Everyone talks about the spies, y'know? As you point out, there are other things in this parsha too. :-)

[zevabe.livejournal.com]

The first thing in the parsha tends to get a bump in importance because A) it is first and B) the parsha gets named after it.