As Well To Count The Angels Dancing On A Pin ( John Barlow & Bob Weir - "Weather Report Suite Part II: Let It Grow")

This week, the President of the United States had visited Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Vatican. His trip will conclude by attending a meeting with NATO and the G7 in Brussels. His visit to Israel was marked by a historical first. It was the first time that a sitting President ever went to the Kotel (The Western Wall). Yes, President Trump wore a Kippah, slipped a note into one of the many crevices in the Kotel, and he met with the Kotel Rabbi. Actually it was quite a powerful image. At a later point during his time in Israel, he visited the Holocaust Museum known as Yad VaShem.  Yad Vashem not only is Holocaust Museum. It not only offers an explanation of how the systematic destruction of six million Jews and occurred, not only does the museum display artifacts from what the Nazis collected, shoes, glasses etc.; the museum also bears witness. Yad Vashem has managed to make an accounting of 4.5 million of the 6 million. In a sense, Yad Vashem has gone through the painstaking process, and continues to go through the painstaking process of taking a census.

This Shabbat we begin the fourth book of the Torah, Sefer Bemidbar, by reading the first Parsha, Bemidbar. Literally meaning “In the Wilderness”, this fourth book of the Torah resumes the narrative format with B'nai Yisroel preparing to leave the foot of Mount Sinai. For the past year, B'nai Yisroel has essentially camped out at Har Sinai and listened to Moshe and Aharon teach all the laws concerning Tamei/Tahor –Purity and Impurity, Kodesh and Chol – the Holy and the Mundane, as well as the laws for Korbonot, sacrificial offerings. Prior to B'nai Yisroel’s embarking on the remainder of its journey a census is required. In fact, Parsha Bemidbar consists of three types of census. The first census counts all men over the age of twenty that come from all the tribes except for the Levites. The second census focuses only upon the Levites. Since this tribes’ sole function is to operate and manage the Mishkan, ascertaining the number of workers in the Mishkan suggests the importance of the Mishkan to the everyday life of the B'nai Yisroel. The third census focuses upon the organizational placement of each tribe around the Mishkan while traveling.

The Census that God commands Moshe at the beginning of this fourth book of the Torah is very different than the last census taken. Until now there had been one Census taken while B’nai Yisroel was at Sinai, engaged in the construction of the Mishkan. All the way back in Parsha Ki Tissa, in Sefer Shmot (the Book of Exodus) God had commanded Moshe to count everyone by levying a half shekel tax. In fact we are commanded not to count by pointing and counting but rather we would count the number of ½ Shekel collected and that number would then tell us the total number of men twenty years and older. (Ex 30:11-14) Now God commands Moshe S’u Et Rosh Kol Adat Bnai Yisroel L’Mishpechotam L’Veit Avotam Mispar Sheimot  Kol Zachar L’Gulgulotam; Miben Esrim Shana Va’Malah Kol Yotzei Tzavah B’Yisroel Tifkedu Otam….- Take a census of the entire assembly of the Children of Israel according to  their families, according to their father’s household, by number of the names and every male according to their head count; from  twenty years of age an up everyone who goes out to the legion in Israel, you shall count them (Num. 1:2-3)…. Abravanel, the 15^th century Portuguese commentator points out the apparent contradiction in the two types of census:  the first being found in the Sefer Shmot, and the second in Parsha Bemidbar. “Surely this (Bemidbar) is just the opposite of what the Torah had commanded on an earlier occasion (Sefer Shmot Parsha Ki Tissa).” There in Ki Tissah, they poll (a tax) was taken.  “How could the Almighty have commanded them here to number them by their polls?” Abravanel notes the word “Tifekedu Otam” – you shall “account for them” (according to Rashi and “accounting” is a Poll or a levied tax).  Ramban, the 12^th century Spanish commentator and philosopher points out that Tifkedu is an expression of visitation, remembrance and providence. 

              So when the President went through the museum he not only saw a memorial to a vast number of people, he not only saw the how and why such an evil was perpetrated, but he also had a chance to see individuals, names,  with their own lives, their own path and their own destiny cut short by the Shoah. He had an opportunity to express a sense of visitation. He had an opportunity to express remembrance. He had an opportunity to express providence.   Indeed Yad Vashem embodies Ramban’s understanding of PaKaD - accounting. The institution visits the victims and it allows us to visit. The institution serves as a national memory and allows us to remember. The institution is a testament to providence, that is to say, that despite such evil, the holiest, most divine aspects of the human spirit are expressed in the fact that such a museum and other museums like it have been created. Such an accounting, such an experience is more than “amazing”. Hopefully, such an accounting, such an experience is awe inspiring, emotionally powerful and reminds us not only of the evil that has been and can be perpetrated but what is required to eliminate evil and allow goodness to flourish.

Peace,

Rav Yitz