[Avodah] What's special about shevet Shimon?

[Zev Sero]

On 23/05/2012 11:23 AM, shalomyitz at comcast.net wrote:
> In Bamidbar, we get the count of all the tribes. The language for all 12 is
> identical: "tolodosam, l'mishpchosam, l'vays avosam b'mispar..." except for
> Shimon: " "tolodosam, l'mishpchosam, l'vays avosam PECUDAYV b'mispar..." (1:22)
>
> What's special about Shimon?

Malbim suggests that while all the other shevatim had grown since the
first count of 600K after yetziat mitzrayim, Shimon's numbers remained
the same, since the incoming cohort of 20-year-olds was exactly matched
by those who died after the egel.

He also comments on each of the other anomalies in the 12 descriptions
in that parsha.


-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon