Our parasha this week, Ki Tisa, presents a different way of counting. When taking a census of the population people are counted by the half-shekel coin they pay. Instead of counting the heads of people, people were counted indirectly through the coins they paid. Much later, the Israelite king, Saul, employed a similar technique. King David counted people directly and as a result, bad things befell them.
Rabbi Bachya ben Asher, a 13th century Spaniard explains in his commentary on the verse that the danger in counting individuals is that each person is then judged on their own merits before God. Whereas when counting people in a community ensures the merits of the community raise up each individual person.
Judaism constantly reminds us of the importance to be in community with others. In these strange days of “social isolation,” let us dedicate ourselves to building community in new ways.
And while I mention this ancient census, I want to remind us all of the U.S. Census is about to take place and I want to encourage everyone to fill out the Census when it comes to you. It has huge political and financial ramifications for our state. For more information and to help Get Out the Count, see this link.
– Rabbi Avi Fine