1) Ch. 31, v. 13: "Es Shabsosai tishmoru" My Sabbaths you shall safeguard Why is this repeated so shortly afterwards, in 35:2, "Uva'yom hashvi'i yi'h'yeh lochem kodesh Shabbos Shabbosone?"
2) Ch. 32, v. 2: "Por(a)ku nizmei hazohov asher b'oznei n'sheichem b'neichem uvnoseichem" Remove the golden rings that are in the ears of your wives your sons and your daughters Why was it necessary for Aharon to point out the present location of these gold pieces of jewellery?
3) Ch. 32, v. 16: "Choroos AL haluchos" Etched ONTO the tablets. This is problematic. Etching is INTO.
4) Ch. 33, v. 4: "V'lo shosu ish edyo olov" And they did not PLACE each man his ornaments upon himself This is the simple translation of "shosu." If they did not place their jewellery upon themselves, how do we understand the command Hashem gave Moshe in the next verse to relate to the bnei Yisroel, "horeid ed'y'cho," remove your ornaments, and also "va'yisnatzlu" of the following verse?
5) Ch. 34, v. 26: "Lo s'vasheil g'di bacha'leiv imo" This prohibition has already been given in Shmos 23:19, and again in Dvorim 14:21. The Sforno on 23:19 says that the "Tzabo'oh" people (often mentioned by the Rambam in Moreh N'vuchim) had the custom of cooking a goat in its mother's milk and then pouring this liquid over their fields, in the belief that this would appease their gods and bring a bumper crop. Hashem has therefore commanded us to do otherwise. If we want success in agriculture we should follow the advise of our verse, as elucidated in Yechezkeil 44:30, "V'reishis kol bikurei l'honiach brochoh el bei'secho," we should bring the first-ripened fruit to Hashem's Sanctuary and give Him thanks. This is the connection between the two statements in the verse, which is verbatim, even to the point of the same cantillation, exactly the same in these two places. (This explains why "bossor b'cholov" has the stringencies of a prohibition to create and to even derive benefit from it is also prohibited. The prohibition is based on this being an "avodoh zoroh" based act.)
In a very concise manner, the Sforno says the same on our verse. However, he adds one thing here. He says that they did this to bring success with LIVESTOCK as well. On Dvorim 14:21 he says that they (He says that the Canaanites did this) do this for success with "miknei'hem v'chol kinyonom uvhemtom," not even mentioning their agricultural produce by name. These differences surely deserve our attention.
Important Numbers
