Numbers 1-4:20 - Who Counts?
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen
The fourth book of the Torah, Bamidbar, literally means “desert.” It covers the main events of the forty-year period of wandering through Sinai and the Arava into what is Jordan today, before reaching the East Bank of the River Jordan.
It is another example of a word with multiple meanings. It has the same root DaBeR to speak, also can be DaVaR an object. The Aseret HaDevarim, known as Ten commandments, can mean ten words, statements, or things, ideas carved in stone.
On the face of it a desert is empty. It is a silent zone of physical emptiness. But an expert, whether a scientist or a Bedouin, will be able to see amazing stories and worlds in the rocks and sands. Biologists discover the creatures and organisms that eke out a secret life in what appears to be barren lifelessness. Even silent objects can “speak” to one. The desert is a place of such silence that one can almost hear it. There is none of the constant noises and hums and rumbles and sirens that assail our ears and consciousness all the time in cities.
Perhaps this is why the greatest of spiritual minds (of all religions) are inspired in the desert. You need silence to be able to open your mind to God (just as you need people to be sensitive to humanity). The Israelites were taken out of metropolitan Egypt and into the empty silent desert to be more receptive to a Divine message.
So much for the general name of the book that covers the forty years of living in the desert.
This week it describes the census that Moses was commanded by God to take of male Israelites of fighting age. You will notice that the census was not 100% accurate because each tribe number ended with a zero. I am not a mathematician, but I would say that’s highly unlikely. Clearly the numbers were rounded up. Perhaps that’s why the non-Jews called this book Numbers!
One other oddity. The names of the tribal leaders were either names linked to El (God), family or animals. A symbolic cross section of attitudes and values and you will find similar variations later on in the Book of Numbers with the names of the spies.
All this was intended to prepare the children of Israel for the invasion of Canaan. That was why it focused on fighting men and not women, children or the elderly. Its function was to give the Israelites, barely a year out of slavery, a sense of confidence in their military capacity. And unlike in our days all males were expected to serve. And yet we know it was a disaster. Not only because of 40 years wait but because of the constant factionalism, rebellions and disagreements that hampered progress. It took a later generation before they succeeded.
What do these issues tell us? Names reflect our different values, priorities and identities, spiritual, family, and nature. The tribes are like different political parties today and census of fighters was then and is today the core of our self-defense and survival. We were divided then on all these counts . That division impeded our progress and threatened our survival. It took years to recover but we did.
And so, it is today. We are divided and fractious in every area of our people. Different names reflect different identities and values. Our strength almost failed us. We relied on bean counters and politicians who have all let us down. And yet we will come back. Not without cost, but we have, and we will. I only hope it will not take forty years to repair the damage of morale, security and confidence that are suffering.
Look at us, barely 15 million Jews holding billions of our enemies at bay! We have always been few in number. As the saying goes “God does not count His followers, he weighs them.” Quality over quantity. The thousands who turned up to march for Israel last week in New York and London show that we still have a voice.
Shabbat Shalom
Jeremy
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Jeremy Rosen was born in Manchester, England, the eldest son of Rabbi Kopul Rosen and Bella Rosen. Rosen's thinking was strongly influenced by his father, who rejected fundamentalist and obscurantist approaches in favour of being open to the best the secular world has to offer while remaining committed to religious life. He was first educated at Carmel College, the school his father had founded based on this philosophical orientation. At his father's direction, Rosen also studied at Be'er Yaakov Yeshiva in Israel (1957–1958 and 1960). He then went on to Merkaz Harav Kook (1961), and Mir Yeshiva (1965–1968) in Jerusalem, where he received semicha from Rabbi Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz in addition to Rabbi Dovid Povarsky of Ponevezh and Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Shapiro of Yeshivat Be'er Ya'akov. In between Rosen attended Cambridge University (1962–1965), graduating with a degree in Moral Sciences.