tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241254853273428596.post8810587754886183899..comments2010-05-27T18:15:11.207-04:00Shtiklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07498936768989355610noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241254853273428596.post-46773137205837664832010-05-27T18:15:11.196-04:002010-05-27T18:15:11.196-04:00I&#39;ve been thinking about this problem for a number of years, and I think I might have finally come up with a solution for the Ramban:<br />A simple explanation to help the Ramban is that there were a disproportionate number of women in the jewish population, which are simply not counted in the census - thus all the math for family size is completely thrown off, since it&#39;s certainly possible that there were a large number of bechoros which constituted a higher proportion than the 30:1 we see for the men. I am not trying to go against chazal with regard to the miraculous family growth in Egypt - just that a family size of 10 under those circumstances is quite miraculous too. In a similar vein, a disproportionate number of levi bechoros would explain why the levi&#39;s family&#39;s seem so large. Now, why would there be such a discrepency? I recently discovered a Nachalas Yaakov in shemos 1-10 (this is one of the mefarshay rashi in that special mefarshay rashi mikraaos gedolos chumash) who talks about how according to Rashi, the Egyptian decree to throw male children into the nile lasted for the remainder of Jewish exlie in Egypt, and not only for a short span of time. Thus, there were many more women than men in the population, and the low number of male levi bechorim exists because they were simply murdered by the Egyptians, and there were many more female levi bechoros, making the family size normal. Due to the miraculous family growth of yisroel, however, there was a much larger population, having more and larger families, which led to an aggregate larger number of bechorim and bechoros. Many of the bechorim were murdered by Egyptians, but some obviously survived. Thus, the very miraculous population growth allowed for more male bechorim to survive in yisroel, more so than the leviim. Therefore, the lack of females in the count skewes our perception of the family size and makeup of the Jews leaving Egypt.<br /><br />-Avraham BogachkovAvraham Bogachkovnoreply@blogger.com