NOTES for Num 9:1-23
Judging by the prescriptions contained in the Book of Numbers, the Yahwism of Moses’ time was very far from the religious formalism that, over time, unfortunately became an almost inseparable part of it. Of course, formalism was never its defining element, otherwise its history might have ended even before Christ’s coming, but it was often highly visible both in Yahwism and in the Judaism that grew out of it.
Such is all religiosity: it inevitably strives for the primacy of form over content, simply because it is, in essence, precisely a form. The content of every religious tradition is not religiosity as such, but the revelation it contains, often hiding it in a religious shell as in a kind of case. In Moses’ time it was not religious formalism that prevailed, but the revelation through which Yahwism became what it was. The prescriptions for celebrating Passover are clear evidence of this. The simplest course would have been merely to forbid those who had not had time to prepare from taking part in the feast. But God’s revelation is unequivocal: everyone may take part in the feast, even if for those who were not ready in time it must be postponed by one day.
Participation in the feast that sanctifies the people is more important than the calendar: if someone is not ready by the appointed time and the delay is not too great, let that person join as soon as he is ready. And if detailed rules of ritual purity were prescribed for the people, at that time they were truly necessary. Death was then all-powerful, and defilement was one of its manifestations, so impurity had to be fled from like fire.
Otherwise it would have been impossible to follow God step by step, as the same Book of Numbers commands: when the cloud of God’s presence moved, the people moved too; when it remained in place, the people stood still and did not set out. They had to see that shining cloud and not lose sight of it, while a defiled person could easily cease to notice it. Then only the wilderness would remain for the people, a wilderness not only without food and water, but without God.