Hello and welcome to another episode of Covenant and Conversation with me, Rabbi Sachs.

In each new episode, we'll explore a Jewish idea from the Hebrew Bible based on the Torah reading of the week.

Leading a nation of individuals.

Bermibba begins with the census of the Israelites, which is why the book is known in English as numbers. What is the

significance of this act of counting? And why here at the beginning of the book? Besides which,

there have already been two previous censuses of the people, and this is the third within the

space of a single year. Surely one would have been sufficient and does counting have anything to do with leadership?

The place to begin is to note what appears to be a contradiction.

On the one hand, Rashi says that the acts of counting in the terror are gestures of love on the part of God.

This is what Rashi says because they, the children of Israel, are dear to him.

God counts them often.

He counted them when they were about to leave Egypt.

He counted them after the golden calf to establish how many were left.

And now that he was about to cause his presence to rest on them with the

inauguration of the sanctuary, he counted them again. So we learn that when God initiates a

census of the Israelites is to show that he loves them. But when centuries later, King David

counted the people, there was divine anger and 70,000 people died. How can this be if counting

is an expression of love? The terror is explicit in saying that taking a census of the nation

is fraught with risk. Then God said to Moses, when you take a census of the Israelites to count them,

each must give to God a ransom for his life

at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them. The answer to this

apparent contradiction lies in the phrase the Torah uses to describe the act of counting. Soot-etet-Rosh, literally, lift the head.

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