This week, we begin the reading of the book of be-midbar/Numbers. This week's "A word of Torah" is influenced by a teaching of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z"l. Michael (michaelstrassfeld.com)
A word of Torah:
This week we begin the book of be-midbar/in the desert. Following the moment that the Israelites receive the Torah on Mount Sinai. the Torah text is filled with the details of the building of the mishkan/sanctuary, the priestly garments, the sacrificial cult, various laws, and living lives of holiness. Now the journey to the promised land is about to resume. First, there is a census of all the people. It is the reason the book is known in English as Numbers. It is also the third census within the space of a year.
Why? The Bible commentator, Rashi, suggests that it is a mark of God’s affection for Israel that God counts them repeatedly. Yet, elsewhere in the Bible, counting the people is seen negatively. A census by King David results in the death of 70,000 people by plague.
Rashi is correct that counting things can be a mark of their importance and even their specialness. Yet, there is a danger in a focus on the totality of numbers. What can be lost is the worth of the individual. Only the large number matters. It can suggest that one individual can be easily replaced by another person.
God said: s’eu et rosh/ take a census (Num. 1:2). The Hebrew literally means “lift the head.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks suggested in his commentary on this Torah portion that the language is deliberate. There are more straightforward Hebrew words to describe counting, such as lispor which is used in the counting of the Omer. “To lift the head” suggests that we do not want to diminish the importance or uniqueness of each individual even as we count the whole. The rabbis taught that to save one life is to save a world. Each of us is of infinite worth even as we acknowledge the importance of community and peoplehood. The challenge is to do both—see the power and potential of community without sacrificing the individuality of each person who is created in the image of God. Each and every person is needed if the journey ahead is to be successful.
The Talmud (Berakhot 58a) has a blessing to be recited when you see a huge crowd of Jews. It can be understood to celebrate the individuality of human beings. Blessed is the wise one of secrets, (God) for just as people’s opinions vary one from the other, so are each of their faces unique – (barukh hacham ha-razim she-ein da’atam domeh zeh la-zeh, ve-ain partzufeihem domim zeh la-zeh). Perhaps God’s unusual name here, the wise one of secrets, acknowledges that not only are people different but that we should be in awe of the complexity that makes up any individual.
