‘Did You Prepare?’ Parashat Bemidbar 5786 |
If you think that the first verse in the Book of Bemidbar sounds eerily familiar, you have a good memory. The Book of Bemidbar begins with a preface [Bemidbar 1:1]: “On the first day of the second month, in the second year after the exodus from the Land of Egypt, G-d spoke to Moshe in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, saying”. The Book of Vayikra begins with a very similar preface [Vayikra 1:1]: “[G-d] called to Moshe and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying”. While the verse in Bemidbar provides additional data regarding the date, both verses set the stage for a message from the Divine.
Nevertheless, once the stage is set, the messages diverge. In the Book of Vayikra, G-d plunges into the laws of sacrifices, timeless commandments pertaining to the holiest rituals in Jewish Law. But in the Book of Bemidbar, G-d commands Moshe to perform a census. To count the people. A prosaic, clerical task with absolutely no halachic ramifications. Even the final tally was irrelevant – it would change the moment after the census was completed. The Jewish People are counted no less than four times in their desert sojourn and each time with a different number. One could assert that the date in the preface to the census is a caveat for the final result, as if to say “This result is correct as of 7:00 AM, the second day of Iyar, the year 2449”. More than three thousand years ago. What is the message for the generations?
Rashi[1], in one of his more famous explanations, teaches that G-d counted the Jewish People repeatedly because they are dear to him, similar to the way in which a miser counts his money. This parallels nicely with the laws of sacrifices, which begin with the words [Vayikra 1:2]: “When a man from among you offers (yak’riv) a sacrifice to G-d; from animals, from cattle or from the flock you shall offer (tak’rivu) your sacrifice.” The Hebrew verb KRV means “close”. Indeed, the Seforno[2] makes this connection explicitly, that the purpose of a sacrifice is to draw near (lehit’karev) to G-d. Leveraging this explanation, the Books of........