The Book of Numbers begins, unsurprisingly, by counting. At the opening of Bamidbar (lit. In the wilderness), God tells Moses to take a census of the Israelites: tribe by tribe, household by household, name by name. It is easy to read the moment as administrative. A nation in the wilderness needs order. It needs to know who belongs where.

But the Torah is rarely interested in bureaucracy for its own sake. The census is not merely about numbers. It is about identity. The question beneath the counting is not simply, How many men are there? It is, Who are you? Where do you belong? Who stands beside you? That question may be more urgent now than ever.

We live in a time when men are counted constantly but known less and less. Men are measured by income, productivity, titles, family obligations, and expectations. But being counted is not the same thing as being seen. A man can be surrounded by people and still be alone. He can belong to a........

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