[Avodah] Mesei Midbar

[Michael Poppers]

In Avodah Digest V25#295, RGD wrote:
> Did everyone die when they reached 60? 
Or did some die younger and some older, with the net-net being that all 
who were 20-60 at the yetzias mitzraim were dead by the time they were 
ready to enter E"Y.
If the former, only those who had turned (would be turning?) 60 during 
that year should have dug graves;  everyone else would have known they 
still had time. <
RGD is undoubtedly aware of RaShY on 4-14:33 ("lo meis echad meihem pachus 
miben shishim...") vs. on BT Ta'anis 30b ("v'hayah kal echad v'echad 
yotzei v'chofeir lo kever...").  I had learned that the latter was the 
public behavior (i.e. all the men who were of military age at the time of 
the g'zeirah dug a grave each year that they were still alive to do so) 
and that, according to the explanation noted by RaShY al haTorah, it so 
happened that only the ben-shishim men died each year.  Perhaps one could 
say that only the ben-shishim subset dug graves every year, but iqar 
chaseir meiRaShY al BT Ta'anis if he held that way.

A guten Shabbes/Shabbas Shalom and all the best from
Michael Poppers * Elizabeth, NJ, USA
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