Rabbi Stephen Weiss
Parshat Bamidbar 2014
The central theme of parshat Bamidbar is the census taken in the wilderness. God commands Moses to count all males age 20 and above except for those from the tribe of Levi. The Levites receive their own special census which is used to determine the number available to help with the sacred task of transporting the Mishkan (Taberbacle) through the wilderness. The males of the other tribes are counted in order to determine the number who can serve as warriors to defend the people against attackers in the wilderness and lead the conquest of the Promised Land.
As moderns, we cannot help but also note that women are not counted in either census, a reflection of the patriarchal society that existed in Biblical times in which women for the most part (with some notable exceptions) did not have a public role in communal life.
As Conservative Jews, we hold that the Torah contains the word and will of the living God, but we also recognize that it is a text written down by human beings over an extended period of time, and that the text contains certain corruptions that reflect human weakness and bias. Such corruptions, which we hold do not reflect the word of God, are inevitable. After all, how is it possible for a finite vessel (a human being) to receive the infinite light of God? We do not have Gods infinite capacity for understanding, compassion and judgment.
One of our tasks as Jews is to be able to see the Torah as sacred and draw out God’s lessons from its text while separating out those parts that are tinted by the human lens. The genocide of the seven nations, the notion that a Canaanite slave serves his master forever, and the law that a rebellious son should be stoned are a few examples of such corrupted teachings.
Surely God wants us to take respect for our parents seriously but would never command us to kill out child for disobeying. God promised us the land of Israel as a sacred inheritance but surely did not intend we should literally wipe out its inhabitants. (This latter example is especially painful and difficult for any Jew to grapple with after we have been the target of such an attempt in the Holocaust).
Taking a critical approach to Bible and recognizing it as a historical text influenced by the time in which it was written frees us from such dilemmas. At the same time, the Conservative view that those historical writings were in fact human attempts to record divinely inspired messages allows us to see God’s voice in the overwhelming majority of the text that has served as a beacon of light and guidance shaping Jewish values, belief and history for thousands of years. It preserves the belief in Revelation and the authority of Torah as the source of our daily behavior and ethics.
Our ages throughout the centuries have pointed to other reasons for the census in the wilderness. Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban), the medieval Spanish Jewish mystic who settled in Israel, wrote “When you count the total number of people, be careful not to forget the uniqueness of each individual.” Too often, in the rush of everyday pressures, we tend to ignore or diminish the inner soul that every human being possesses.
Also, he notes, the census reminds the Israelites that despite all the difficulties encountered on the road to freedom, their numbers remain strong. So it has been throughout the ages. Despite repeated periods where we have faced persecution and oppression, an even the modern challenge of assimilation, we are still here. Dr, Jonathan Sarna, renown professor of Jewish history (who is in our prayers for healing), often reminds us that in the 1960s, Look Magazine had an issue with the cover story: The Vanishing Jew. Look Magazine is now gone. We are still here.
The Hassidic master Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev notes that the total counted in the primary census is 600,000 (actually it is slightly more), and points out that the Torah is comprised of 600,000 letters (also not exactly so, but it works as an approximate equivalent).
In his commentary, Kedushat Levi, he writes:”The souls of Israel are the body of the Torah, because the community of Israel make up the six hundred thousand letters in the Torah. We find that Israel is the Torah, for the soul of each person in Israel is like a letter in the Torah. We find that when Moshe took an accounting, he was studying the Torah [which is embodied in the community itself]: that is the real meaning of God’s command.”
What a beautiful notion! The soul of every Jew is a letter of the Torah. As Rabbi Rachel Barenblat writes: “When we look out at our assembled community, we can read the Torah which is embodied in who we are. In us, Torah takes living form.” Each and every one of us is unique and precious to God, and within each of our souls we can find implanted God’s love and guidance. That means that when we look into the eyes of another, when you hear their voice, when you feel their touch, in that moment we experience the magic and the mystery of Revelation.
As we approach this Shavuot celebrating the giving of the Torah, may we learn to see the Torah that is in all of us, and to love the Torah that is in each of us.