Parshas Bamidbar - why did the nations complain that they were not given the Torah?

The passuk says in this week’s sedrah (במדבר א', א')

וַיְדַבֵּר ה' אֶל מֹשֶׁה בְּמִדְבַּר סִינַי בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִי בַּשָּׁנָה הַשֵּׁנִית לְצֵאתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם לֵאמֹר. שְׂאוּ אֶת רֹאשׁ כָּל עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם לְבֵית אֲבֹתָם בְּמִסְפַּר שֵׁמוֹת כָּל זָכָר לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָם.

And Hashem spoke to Moshe in the desert of Sinai in the Ohel Moed on the first of the second month in the second year after they came out of Mitzrayim saying. Count all of the benei yisrael according to their families according to the houses of their fathers according to the number of names, each male by their head count.

The Yalkut Shimoni (סימן תרפ"ד) comments on this passuk

אלה המצות אשר צוה ה' את משה אל בני ישראל בהר סיני, ואחר כך וידבר ה' במדבר סיני שאו את ראש כל עדת בני ישראל, שלא זכו ליטול את התורה אלא בשביל היוחסין שלהן...

בשעה שקבלו ישראל את התורה נתקנאו אומות העולם בהן, מה ראו להתקרב יותר מן האומות? סתם פיהן הקב"ה, אמר להן: הביאו לי ספר יוחסין שלכם, שנאמר: הבו לה' משפחות עמים כשם שבני מביאין.

The passuk says at end of בחוקותי – אלה המצות אשר צוה ה' את משה אל בני ישראל בהר סיני. At the beginning of במדבר the passuk continues, וידבר ה' במדבר סיני שאו את ראש כל עדת בני ישראל. This is because the benei yisrael only merited to receive the Torah because they guarded their lineage.

[And so we find that] when the benei yisrael accepted the Torah the nations of the world were jealous of them, [and they said to Hashem] “Why did these people merit to be closer to Hashem than any other nation?”

Hashem closed their mouths and He said to them, “Bring me the books of your lineage [just as the benei yisrael did], as the passuk says ‘Render to Hashem you families of the peoples’.”

• We know that Hashem asked all the nations of the world if they wanted to accept the Torah and they refused it (ספרי פרשת וזאת הברכה על הפסוק וזרח משעיר למו). If so, how could the nations possibly have complained to Hashem that they did not receive the Torah, seeing as they were the ones who rejected it in the first place?
• Since the complaint of the nations was that the benei yisrael were given the Torah, the Yalkut Shimoni should have said בשעה שנתן ה' את התורה לישראל (at the time Hashem gave the Torah to the benei yisrael), not בשעה שקבלו ישראל את התורה (at the time the benei yisrael accepted the Torah)?

In בחוקותי, the passuk says (26:42 - 46)

וְזָכַרְתִּי אֶת בְּרִיתִי יַעֲקוֹב וְאַף אֶת בְּרִיתִי יִצְחָק וְאַף אֶת בְּרִיתִי אַבְרָהָם אֶזְכֹּר וְהָאָרֶץ אֶזְכֹּר. וְהָאָרֶץ תֵּעָזֵב מֵהֶם וְתִרֶץ אֶת שַׁבְּתֹתֶיהָ בָּהְשַׁמָּה מֵהֶם וְהֵם יִרְצוּ אֶת עֲו‍ֹנָם יַעַן וּבְיַעַן בְּמִשְׁפָּטַי מָאָסוּ וְאֶת חֻקֹּתַי גָּעֲלָה נַפְשָׁם. וְאַף גַּם זֹאת בִּהְיוֹתָם בְּאֶרֶץ אֹיְבֵיהֶם לֹא מְאַסְתִּים וְלֹא גְעַלְתִּים לְכַלֹּתָם לְהָפֵר בְּרִיתִי אִתָּם כִּי אֲנִי ה' אֱלֹקֵיהֶם. וְזָכַרְתִּי לָהֶם בְּרִית רִאשֹׁנִים אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִי אֹתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם לְעֵינֵי הַגּוֹיִם לִהְיֹת לָהֶם לֵאלֹקִים אֲנִי ה'.

And I will remember my covenant with Yaakov and also my covenant with Yitzchak and also my covenant with Avraham I will remember and I will remember the land. And the land will be deserted from them and it will be appeased for its rest, while it is desolate from them, and they will appease their עבירות… Nevertheless, while they are in the land of their enemies, I will not despise them and I will not reject them to destroy them and to uproot my covenant with them for I am Hashem their G-d. And I will remember for them the covenant that I made with the first generation whom I brought out of Mitzrayim before the eyes of the nations to be them a G-d, I am Hashem.

• Why does the Torah initially refer to the ברית אבות and then refer to the ברית that Hashem made with the generation that came out of Mitzrayim?

The Divrei Yoel explains as follows:

The passuk says in Yisro (19:8)

וַיַּעֲנוּ כָל הָעָם יַחְדָּו וַיֹּאמְרוּ כֹּל אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר ה' נַעֲשֶׂה

And all the people answered together and they said, “All that Hashem has spoken we shall do.”

The Mechilta comments on this passuk

ויענו כל העם יחדיו, לא ענו בחנופה ולא קבלו זה מזה, אלא השוו כלם לב אחד ואמרו, כל אשר דבר ה' נעשה.

"And all the people answered together." They did not answer flatteringly, and they did not consult each other, but they were all in one heart and answered, "Whatever Hashem has spoken we shall do."

It would appear that the diyuk of the Mechilta lies in the repetitive words כל and יחדו. In other words, the passuk could have said – ויענו כל העם ויאמרו – “And all the people answered and they said.” In this case it would have been obvious that they answered together. Or the passuk could have said – ויענו העם יחדו ויאמרו – “And the people answered together and they said.” From which we would have understood that it was all the people who answered together, because had only part of the people answered together then the passuk would not have said that the “people” answered together, because some of the people would have answered and some of the people would not have answered.

In other words, the Mechilta means to be מדייק in the passuk, that the reason that the Torah says that the people answered together is because before they answered together, each one had individually concluded that he would be מקבל the Torah.

Subsequently we see that the בני ישראל accepted the Torah at two levels. Each one of the בני ישראל individually agreed to personally be מקבל the Torah. Additionally, all of the בני ישראל together also accepted the Torah as a nation.

Therefore the ברית that Hashem made with the בני ישראל at Har Sinai was also a two-fold ברית. Namely, Hashem made a ברית with the entire בני ישראל, who were מקבל the Torah. As a reward for the בני ישראל being מקבל the Torah, Hashem promised them that they would be the עם סגולה forever. But Hashem also made a ברית with every individual, because every individual was מקבל the Torah as a personal commitment, and not because they were swept along with everyone else.

 As part of this ברית with every individual, Hashem guaranteed the survival of every individual (in addition to the survival of the entirety of the nation), as רבינו גרשום says (עירוכין ל"ב ע"ב, ד"ה כל הקהל כאחד ארבע ריבוא) -דהכי גמירי דלעולם אין ישראל פחותים מששים רבוא – “We have a tradition that there never be less than 600,000 of the בני ישראל.”

That is why the Torah mentions both the ברית אבות and also the ברית with the בני ישראל who came out of Mitzrayim, at the end of the תוכחה in בחוקותי. This is because the ברית אבות guarantees that eventually the בני ישראל as a whole will return to ארץ ישראל, which was promised to the אבות, as the passuk says, וְזָכַרְתִּי אֶת בְּרִיתִי יַעֲקוֹב וכו' וְהָאָרֶץ אֶזְכֹּר. However the ברית that Hashem made with the בני ישראל who came out of Mitzraim guarantees the survival of every single one of the בני ישראל even when they are in galus, when the general form of the בני ישראל living in ארץ ישראל has been lost. Subsequently, this ברית applies even when the בני ישראל are in galus - וְאַף גַּם זֹאת בִּהְיוֹתָם בְּאֶרֶץ אֹיְבֵיהֶם וכו'.

In reference to the Yalkut Shimoni:

• When the Torah was offered to the other nations, they understood that Hashem was offering to make a ברית with their nation as a whole, but they could not understand that Hashem would also make a personal ברית that would guarantee the survival of every individual. Therefore they said - מה ראו להתקרב יותר מן האומות – how come these people (each one), came closer to Hashem, each on an individual basis, than the entirety of the other nations?
  

• Their complaint was not that Hashem gave the Torah to the benei yisrael, but was rather about the individual manner in which each one of the בני ישראל accepted the Torah.
  

• Hashem answered to them – הביאו לי ספר יוחסין שלכם. This means to say, that by guarding their יחוס, the בני ישראל did not only inherit the good מדות and עבודת ה' of the Avos, but also they inherited, each one, the ability to be an אב themselves, and thereby they promulgated 600,000 different ways of serving Hashem to the subsequent דורות.