Fell on His Face

The term “fell on his face” appears 8 times in the Torah all of which are in P.

Gen 17:3,
וַיִּפֹּל אַבְרָם, עַל-פָּנָיו
Gen 17:17
וַיִּפֹּל אַבְרָהָם עַל-פָּנָיו, וַיִּצְחָק
Lev 9:24
וַיַּרְא כָּל-הָעָם וַיָּרֹנּוּ, וַיִּפְּלוּ עַל-פְּנֵיהֶם.
Nu 14:5,
וַיִּפֹּל מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן, עַל-פְּנֵיהֶם, לִפְנֵי, כָּל-קְהַל עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
Nu 16:4,
וַיִּשְׁמַע מֹשֶׁה, וַיִּפֹּל עַל-פָּנָיו.
Nu 16:22,
וַיִּפְּלוּ עַל-פְּנֵיהֶם, וַיֹּאמְרוּ, אֵל, אֱלֹהֵי הָרוּחֹת לְכָל-בָּשָׂר: הָאִישׁ אֶחָד יֶחֱטָא, וְעַל כָּל-הָעֵדָה תִּקְצֹף
Nu 17:10,
הֵרֹמּוּ, מִתּוֹךְ הָעֵדָה הַזֹּאת, וַאֲכַלֶּה אֹתָם, כְּרָגַע; וַיִּפְּלוּ, עַל-פְּנֵיהֶם
Nu 20:6
וַיָּבֹא מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן מִפְּנֵי הַקָּהָל, אֶל-פֶּתַח אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, וַיִּפְּלוּ, עַל-פְּנֵיהֶם; וַיֵּרָא כְבוֹד-יְהוָה, אֲלֵיהֶם

Possible counter arguments.
1. This could be chance. Even if we assume these occurrences are independent from one another, the chances that this would happen by chance are only slightly less than 1%. Since there are more than 100 words in the Torah, we should expect to see some phrases cluster as such purely by chance.

2. These words are clearly not independent as they tend to cluster in chapters (Gen 17, Nu 16). If we view those as single occurrences the probability of chance shoots up to 3%. Though I don’t think that’s totally accurate either as the more frequently P uses it in the same chapter the more surprising is its absence from the JED chapters.

3. Perhaps these chapters were assigned to P solely on the basis of this word (the problem with that is that it’s not true).


I’m experimenting with the idea of showing all the p’sukim I quote in the post so people don’t have to look them up. What do people think of the new look?

Purim Sameach.