This week’s portion, Bamidbar, the first in Sefer Bamidbar, begins with a census that inspired the designation of this 4th book of Torah as “Numbers.” “Bamidbar” literally means “in the wilderness,” which is a much more apt description of the bulk of the text, recounting the Israelite’s continued journey to The Promised Land. The census assessed the available fighting force amongst the Israelites, able-bodied men over 20 who would empower our people to take possession of the land from Canaanite armies.
We Jews have mixed feelings about the act of counting. In some ways, it is seen as a usurpation of God’s prerogative, to know something intimately about the nature of a group. That uneasiness grew into a fearful caution that our enemies might use that knowledge to our detriment, as the Nazis so effectively did in the industrial annihilation of our people. Yet there is also another sense of “counting” that is affirmed in our tradition: The notion that each individual “counts,” for no other reason save that they are human, that they are a child of God, deserving of the dignity, care and respect that their existence compels.
Rabbi Daniel Weiner
