[Mesorah] Hano'adim al Hashem -- a superfluous He ha'yediah ?

[Dr. B. Rosenberg]

A pasuk in this week's sidra caused headaches to almost all of the
meforshim.

 

(Bamidbar 16,11) Lachen ata vechol adatcha Hano'adim al Hashem - ve'Aharon
ma hu ki talinu alav.

 

Free translation: "Therefore you and your whole crowd, who are gathering
against Hashem - and Aharon, what is he, that you instigate against him?"

 

The first half of the pasuk seems to be missing something (i.e. the verb),
as it does not conclude what about Korach and his crowd, what are they
actually doing?!

 

The Ramban quotes Ibn Ezra with an explanation, that the letter "He" at the
beginning of the word "Ha-no'adim" might be superfluous, so the meaning
would be as if it would say "no'adim" (verb = gather), and not "ha-no'adim"
(with He ha'yediah, adjective = those who gather), meaning that Korach and
his crowd are in fact not gathering against Aharon, but rather agains
Hashem,.

 

I was thinking of a maybe a bit more sophisticated solution. Both the Ibn
Ezra and the Ramban often quote a way of interpreting a word with an
apparently superfluous He ha'yediah, mostly referring to a pasuk in Divre
Hayamim (II - 15,8), ve'hanevua Oded hanavi - interpreting the word
"hanevua", as a substitute of TWO words, the one with He ha'yediah and the
second one with semichus to the next word: ve'hanevua - nevuas Oded Hanavi
(see Radak ibidem). Similarly Ibn Ezra explains (Bereshit 24,67) ha'ohela
Sarah imo, as: ha'ohela - ohel Sarah imo. And also (Bamidbar 34,2) el
ha'aretz Kanaan, as: el ha'aretz - eretz Kanaan. Ramba"n explains (Vayikra
26,42) vezacharti et briti Yaakov, as: et briti - brit Yaakov.

 

I think that maybe here too, we might understand the word hano'adim as
substituting two words: vechol adatcha Hano'adim - no'adim al Hashem;
Therefore you and your whole crowd, gathering with you, do in fact gather
against Hashem.

 

As I have not seen anybody mentioning this explanation, I wonder if it might
be the deeper meaning of the Ibn Ezra's (and the Ramban's) pshat?!

 

Berysz Rosenberg

Zurich (Switzerland)

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