Seder 125: Numbers 28-29---Questions about Some Numbers in these Lists

 The calendrical discussion of sacrifices in Numbers 28-29 repeats some things already revealed in scripture.  For example, the daily burnt offerings described in Numbers 28:3-8 were already announced in Exodus 29:38-42.  

On the other hand, these chapters assume previous revelation and do not feel a need to repeat everything.  For example, there is much in Leviticus 23 that is not repeated in Numbers 28-29.  

When we compare Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28-29, one question that arises involves a possible discrepancy between Numbers 28:27 and Leviticus 23:18, which both deal with Pentecost burnt offerings:  

• Lev 23:18---one bull, two rams, seven lambs;
• Num 28:27---two bulls, one ram, seven lambs.

Commentator Michael Morales says that this is "a discrepancy for which there is no satisfactory answer" (p 340 of his Numbers 20-36 commentary). One traditional answer asserts that these are two different slates of burnt offerings, and that both were to be carried out.  I am not sure, though, whether this was the practice followed at the tabernacle or temple.  

Much of Numbers 29 is taken up with the sacrifices for each day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  The numbers are often seen as symbolic.  Best known is the fact that the total number of bulls used for burnt offerings is 70, a number seen as symbolizing Israel's mission to the nations.

Morales mentions some additional Midrashic teaching about these numbers.  As the feast goes on, the number of bulls offered decreases by one each day.  According to one midrash, "the decrease in bulls relates to the decreased contrast between Israel and the nations, in terms of acknowledging and serving the one true God, as Israel fulfils their mission among them" (p. 345).  

Another tradition looks at the number 98, the total number of lambs in these special offerings.  Morales notes a tradition that the offering of the lambs was intended to guard Israel against 98 curses listed in Deuteronomy 28.