Naso: Which Levite family had it easy?

The jobs of the Levitic families were spelled out in last week’s Torah portion, giving us the jobs of the Kehat family; now, moving into our parsha, we view depictions of the Gershon and Merari families.

The Gershon family had the easiest job; all they really needed to carry were curtains and other fabric-style materials, along with the tools used to hang them up.

The parochet (curtain for the Holy of Holies), the various masakhs (entrance to the courtyard and the Mishkan), and the covers (roof) of the Mishkan all fit into this category.

Compare this to the job of Merari — who carried the beams and all of the copper — and it’s a walk in the park. Even the Kehatites, who perhaps didn’t carry the heaviest items (though the gold is measured by length, and not weight), had to carry the most “important” items, especially the Aron (Ark), all of which carry with them a much deeper sense of responsibility (and expense) than the curtains and the goat-skin roof cover.

Ibn Ezra and Rabbenu Bachaye note that the verse simply says “tapestries, the Communion Tent, the roof, the over-roof of processed skins that is above it, the drape at the Communion Tent entrance, the enclosure’s hangings, the drape at the entrance to the enclosure around the Tabernacle and altar” (4:25-26) leaving out any reference to the red-colored ram skin cover (Shmot 25:5, 26:14)

Rashi notes that the phrase “the roof” refers to the ram-skin cover, but obviously it is not spelled out in the text.

Why would this be left out? Ibn Ezra and Rabbenu Bachaye suggest that the Torah is speaking in a summary-language, perhaps leaving out non-essential (or obvious) details. On the other hand, they suggest, maybe the beautiful red-skinned cover was attached to the goatskin cover.

Were one to walk inside the Mishkan and look up, the beautiful woven cover, a tapestry made of fine and colorful threads, would be visible. Above it – covering its appearance from the outside — was a dark, unbeautiful goatskin cover. Above the goatskins was the red ram-skin cover.