Do they even bother to read Parshat Bamidbar in haredi yeshivot and synagogues? If so, do they pay attention to what is being read?

The verse לֹֽא־תְבַשֵּׁ֥ל גְּדִ֖י בַּֽחֲלֵ֥ב אִמּֽוֹ “you shall not cook a kid in its mother’s milk” appears but seven times in the entire Torah, yet it has yielded untold numbers of volumes and responsa which interpret it beyond its literal meaning. In the yeshivah world, these five words are, to this day, the topic of endless discussion, exegesis, and argument with direct impact on our culinary and dietary behavior.

By, contrast the seven-word phrase מִבֶּ֨ן עֶשְׂרִ֤ים שָׁנָה֙ וָמַ֔עְלָה כׇּל־יֹצֵ֥א צָבָ֖א בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל “from the age of twenty years up, all those in Israel who are able to bear arms” as the definitive clarification of who is eligible to be counted in the Israelite census, is routinely ignored. It is simply not a topic of conversation, let alone interpretation.

That there is no discussion or interpretation is understandable. Because there is no ambiguity whatsoever. The Torah is very clearly using this phrase to define who counts and who doesn’t, who receives a parcel of land in Israel and who does not.

וַיְדַבֵּ֨ר יְהֹוָ֧ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֛ה בְּמִדְבַּ֥ר סִינַ֖י בְּאֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵ֑ד בְּאֶחָד֩ לַחֹ֨דֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִ֜י בַּשָּׁנָ֣ה הַשֵּׁנִ֗ית לְצֵאתָ֛ם מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם לֵאמֹֽר׃

On the first day of the second month, in the second year after the exodus from the land of Egypt, God spoke to Moshe in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, saying:

שְׂא֗וּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ֙ כׇּל־עֲדַ֣ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖ם לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֑ם בְּמִסְפַּ֣ר שֵׁמ֔וֹת כׇּל־זָכָ֖ר לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָֽם׃

Take a census of the whole Israelite community by the clans of its ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by head. (Bamidbar/Numbers 1:1-2)

The Torah........

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