This week we start reading the 4th book of the Torah. Both it and the parsha (the weekly Torah portion) are called B’meedbar which means, “In the wilderness,” in Hebrew. (The book is called Numbers in English).
The beginning of this book coincides with our moving away from Mt. Sinai and into a 39 year sojourn in the wilderness.
What?
Yes, you are correct. It took us 40 years from the time we left Egypt until we entered the Promised Land. However, the first verse of this book makes it clear that we left Egypt just over a year ago.
A quick summary of our parsha goes like this: HaShem (god) commands a census. We also learn the order that the people travelled, as well as how they encamped. This is followed by a listing of the Levite families together with their responsibilities. We have a brief interlude to learn about redeeming the first born males, and we end with detailed responsibilities of the Kahat family of Levi and a warning to the priests to keep them safe.
At first glance, the parsha seems like an accountants dream… and a boring nightmare of numbers and repetition to us.
However, a closer look reveals some amazing teachings within this parsha.
One concept is the idea of equality. First, when the census is taken, people are not numbered. Rather, each person’s name is counted exactly once. From this we can see that not only is nobody better than anyone else (the wealthy and powerful count the same as the poor and weak), but each individual is important AS AN INDIVIDUAL. We know this because we are acknowledging each unique, individual name.
I hear a few of you grumble that this is not very equal because only the men are counted. Are the women and children not important enough to be included?
My answer to that is that the Levites are not counted either!
The Levites are chosen by haShem to work in the mischan (tabernacle), the very place that god resides. And yet they are not counted.
What does this mean? What can we learn from this?
What I get from this is that the purpose of the census is to count a certain group of people who have a specific task to do. The non-Levite males over 20 have a task and god wants to know how many there are. That’s it. It does not make anyone better or worse, more or less important.
The proof of this is that a second census is done when talking about the responsibilities of the Levites. At that time they are counted. Does that make them suddenly better or the rest of the people, including those counted before, less important?
Of course not.
As to a count of the women and children, was it needed? Did it happen? I don’t know. There could have been one, even though the Torah does not record it. There are many things not written in the Torah. This is why we have an oral tradition, to answer the questions left by the intentional omissions in the written Torah.
Getting back to the point: one of the big lessons I see this week is that we are all equally important, which is what a census tells us, along with a counting of our names.
And a second point is the census here is not a population census; it is a census of people for a particular role. As such, being part or not being part of the census does not enhance or diminish the importance of a person.
To take this one step further, a person should not take being included or excluded personally. This is true within the Torah, and also in real life. We are all an important and necessary part of creation. As our tradition asks us to say and believe:
If not for me, the world would never have been created.
If you care to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.
About the Author
Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.