Img. ID: 17676

The text tells the story of the return of the twelve spies sent by Moses to search out the land of Canaan (Num. 13). Rashi’s commentary on Num. 13:23 determine the tasks of each spy: eight of them carried the staff with the cluster of grapes, two others carried pomegranates and figs, but Caleb and Joshua did not carry anything. His commentary, based on one of the interpretations of a midrash (Bab. Talmud, Sota, 34a) did not elaborate on the different possibilities for eight people to carry the cluster instead of two as in the Bible. Our knowledgeable scribe added within the commentary column an explanation, based on an elaboration probably from a tosaphist’s commentary on the Talmud, although the scribe attributes it to Rashi.73 The additional commentary with the accompanying diagram in the right margin explains that the staff with the cluster was resting on two other long rods, one on either side, and four other smaller rods were placed at the ends of the long rods, so that eight men could carry the cluster each at one end of the small rods. The pen-drawn diagram has three bunches of grapes hanging from the staff and three pomegranates and two leaves fastened on top of the main staff. Next to the smaller rods are inscribed the names of six of the tribes (the other two on the right were cropped by a later binder). From right to left and top to bottom, they are: Simeon, Naphtali, Issachar, Judah (in spite of the commentary that says that Caleb, the chief of the tribe of Judah did not carry the staff ), Zebulun, and Dan. Between the text and the commentary columns is a branch with three figs and two bunches of grapes.