RAV KOOK ON Bamidbar Part 1: Jacob's Signs

Ancestral Signs During their sojourn in the Sinai desert, the Jewish people were instructed to encamp according to tribe: “The Israelites shall encamp with each person near the banner carrying his paternal family’s signs.” (Num. 2:2) What were these ancestral signs? The Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 2:8) explains that this deployment of twelve tribes surrounding the Tabernacle was in fact a 200-year-old family tradition. Once before, the Jewish people had marched through the wilderness, from Egypt to the Land of Israel. This took place when Jacob died in Egypt. Each of Jacob’s twelve sons took his place around the coffin, as they brought their father to burial in Hebron. Before his death, Jacob informed his sons where each one would stand around his coffin. The arrangement that Jacob established was the “paternal family’s signs” that would later determine the position of each tribe around the Tabernacle, as they traveled in the wilderness. Why did the tribes need separate encampments? Would not an integrated camp bring about greater national unity? And why was it Jacob who determined the tribal formations in the wilderness?