Parshat Bamidbar

2000

Numbers 1-4:20

Stand up and Be Counted

Bamidbar begins a new book of the Torah. At this point a year has passed since the Israelites found freedom. Now God asks Moses to take a census of the people. The way in which the census is taken can teach us about how to relate to the people in our lives: our family members, our coworkers, even our employees.

Numbers 1:1-1:4
On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting saying, "Take a census of the whole Israelite community by the clans of its ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by head. You and Aaron shall record them by their groups from the age of twenty years up, all those in Israel who are able to bear arms. Associated with you shall be a man from each tribe, each one the head of his ancestral house."

Your Numbers Navigator
1. What is the purpose of the census?
2. Who is counted in the census?
3. Rabbinic commentators have said that this is the fourth time the Israelites have held a census. Why are the people counted so many times?

Ramban (Nachmanides) suggests that there was a psychological purpose to this census, especially in the way in which the people were counted. In his commentary on Numbers 1:45, Ramban says that Moses explained to the census takers, "Do not ask the head of each family for the number of people in the family. Rather invite each person to pass before me. Take down that person's name, and let each one feel honored to be part of the census."

Your Ramban Navigator
1. What lessons can we learn from this census?
2. What does the method of census taking teach us about pride and self-worth?
3. What can the census teach us about our role as family members? Our responsibilities to our work? Our role in our community?

A Word
According to rabbinic commentary, the way in which the census is taken, head by head, instills a feeling of self-worth and pride in each individual person. Moses could have instructed the heads of each family to report their number to him. Instead Moses counted each of the 603,550 Israelite men. This method certainly does not seem to be the most effective means of counting. And yet we can see that it was an important way for Moses to connect with each individual in a personal way.

Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr., in their book, In Search of Excellence, wrote, "Treat people as adults. Treat them as partners; treat them with dignity; treat them with respect. Treat not capital spending and automation as the primary source of productivity gains. These are the fundamental lessons from excellent companies..." In other words, "If you want productivity and the financial reward that goes with it, you must treat your workers as your most important asset." (A Torah Commentary For Our Times, p. 13, edited by Harvey J. Fields)

Not only is this sound business advice, it is a very Jewish way to treat other people. So when we are involved in other people's lives, let's make sure our actions count.

Prepared by Rabbi Andrea Lerner, Midwest Director of Hillel's Joseph Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Learning and Campus Rabbi, Hillel at the University of Wisconsin.