Bamidbar

The sicha for parshas Bamidbar is in Vol. VIII of Likkutei Sichos.

Parshas Bamidbar is read in most years on the Shabbos before Shavuos, Shavuos being the time of Matan Torah, the Giving of the Torah. Every parsha is related to the time in which it is read and has a unique significance to that time, and since the day of Matan Torah is also called the wedding between G-d and the Jews, and just as before a wedding, the chosson is called up to the Torah as a preparation for the wedding, so the parsha that is read before the wedding is the preparation for the wedding, the same is true in the relationship between G-d and the Jews. When G-d commands us to count the Jews in this week’s parsha, it must be related in some unique way and must also serve as a preparation for the wedding of the Matan Torah.

Rashi says at the beginning of the parsha. Why were Jews counted? Rashi says because Jews are so precious to G-d, He counts them “kol shaa” “every hour” constantly. G-d had the Jews counted on the first day of Nissan when the Mishkan was put up, and a month later, on the 1^st of Iyar.

So we need to understand:

1) The purpose of counting that which is precious, is because you want to know how many there are as each one of them is important. But when it comes to G-d, G-d knows how many Jews there are, so what need is there in actually counting, in telling Moshe and Aharon to count the Jews?

2) The counting of the Jews came in connection with the putting up of the Mishkan, as Rashi says, before G-d came to dwell within them, in the Mishkan, He first wanted to count them. So the Mishkan was put up on the first day of Nissan, and yet the counting was delayed for a month, until the first day of Iyar. So if there is a relationship between the Mishkan and the counting, why 3) Why in this counting done through Moshe and Aharon? In the first counting when they came out of Egypt, it doesn’t say who should count, all it says is that they should all be counted. In the second counting after the sin of the golden calf, it says that Moshe should count, only here are we told that the counting had to be done by Moshe and Aharon.

This can be clarified by explaining the counting according to its spiritual inner meaning. When something is counted, the affect is that every digit becomes equal to all other digits. Therefore when Jews are counted, the greatest of the great counts as one, and the lowest of the low also counts as one. It is the great equalizer. From this we understand that the fact that G-d finds Jews precious, is expressed through the counting, in that G-d counts and numbers every Jew as equal with all others, without distinction nor discrimination based on the individual virtues or talents of the people. Every Jew is of equal significance, of equal preciousness to G-d.

What does this mean? It means that there is that in the Jew, that essence of the Jew that is equal in all Jews and that is what G-d finds most precious. And by counting, the effect of the counting is that it brings that essence and that core of the Jew which makes him equal to all other Jews, to even the greatest Jew, it brings that core and essence of his Jewishness to the surface.

That is the purpose of the counting, not to find out how many Jews there are, meaning to say, not to find out how precious Jews are, but to reveal how precious Jews are, as Rashi says concerning an earlier counting, in a previous parsha, that the counting was not because Jews are precious but in order to make known their preciousness, but to reveal that part of the Jew which is precious to G-d, that makes all Jews equal.

With this we will be able to explain what Rashi means that G-d counts the Jews “every hour”. From the coming out of Egypt until the building of the Mishkan, a year later, Jews were counted three times. That is not exactly “every hour”. From then, there is thirty-eight years until they were counted again in the fortieth year after coming out of Egypt. And very seldom did it happen afterwards that Jews were counted at all.

The Midrash says that in all of history until today, Jews have been counted nine times, and that we will be counted the tenth time with the coming of Moshiach. So if in all of history we have only been counted nine times, what does Rashi mean that Jews are so precious that G-d counts them “every hour”? 

Now we might say that the expression “every hour” Rashi means to say not that G-d counts them every hour but every special occasion, whenever Jews go up on a higher level, do something to move G-d to express His devotion  to the  Jewish people and how precious the Jewish people are to G-d. So “every hour” means not all the time but at every occasion.

But according to what we were saying before, that the counting is in order to reveal the core and essence of one’s Jewishness, we can explain it on a deeper level that by saying “every hour” Rashi means to tell us that when this essence, when this core of Jewishness is revealed in the person through the counting, then the affect of it is, that this core of your Jewishness affects you, changes you, and is active within you “every hour” all the time.

When a Jew is forced, G-d forbid, to bow to an idol, or do any other sin that the yetzer hara forces a Jew to do, a Jew could think to himself, since tshuva helps for all sins, and through a proper tshuva the sin becomes erased, retroactively as if it had never happened, so what would be so terrible if for a moment I worshipped the idol or committed the sin and got separated from G-d? I always have the opportunity to do tshuva and thereby take away the damage caused by the sin and remove it even retroactively and come back to a closeness to G-d.

But what we see in Jewish history is that Jews by their very nature are ready to give up their lives rather than be separated from G-d even for a moment, even temporarily, in spite of the fact that they can quickly fix the damage and become once again close to G-d. The reason is because the G-dliness in their neshama is revealed within them, and the G-dliness of their soul is higher than time and is not affected by time. A moment’s separation from G-d or an eternity of separation is all exactly the same. Time has no effect on the neshama.

That is why if the separation from G-d lasts even for a moment it is as bad as an eternity, and the thought that it is only for a moment doesn’t change or affect the neshama. The neshama won’t allow the Jew to bow to the idol even for a moment. That is what Rashi means that G-d counts them every hour. The counting, which means revealing the core of the neshama in Jew, protects the Jew every hour, protects him from separating himself from G-d, every hour, any amount of time, even for a moment, because to the neshama time is irrelevant. It is the essence of what is happening that is relevant, and what is happening is being separated from G-d, and the neshama can’t tolerate that, so it won’t allow a Jew to separate from G-d “every hour” any amount of time.

With this we will also understand the difference between the three countings that Rashi mentions, the first when they came out of Egypt and the second, when they made the golden calf, before the putting up of the Mishkan and the third time, on the first day of Iyar after putting up the Mishkan. In reviewing the core of G-dliness in the person, this essence of the neshama in the person, there are three possibilities:
1) even as the core of Jewishness and the neshama are revealed in the person, to such a degree that it moves him to sacrifice his life literally rather than separate from G-d, even at such times internally, personally, the person’s mind and heart hasn’t changed at all, he remains the same as he was before. As the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya, the lowest of the low who can sacrifice himself to sanctify G-d’s name rather than bow to the idol, is still called the lowest of the low. Because even though he is ready to sacrifice his life rather than bow to the idol, at the same time it is also possible that he could violate others mitzvahs which are not avodah zarah, as it happened with the Jews coming out of Mitzraim when they made the golden calf. So although the essence of their neshama was revealed in that they left Egypt without questioning nor doubting G-d, yet a short while later they made the golden calf. So it hadn’t changed them internally.

2) that the core of Yiddishkeit that is revealed in the person, affects his thinking and feeling as well: his intelligence agrees and it makes sense to the person that to have mesiras nefesh, and sacrifice one’s life for G-d. But at the same time, it is noticeable that this awareness is not coming from the logic or from the seichel, the intelligence of the person, but that his intelligence is being affected by his neshama.

3) that the core of his neshama permeates so deeply, so thoroughly that the neshama becomes the entire personality, in that the intelligence and the emotions and everything else becomes similar to the neshama itself and everything becomes the core of Yiddishkeit.

That is the difference between the three countings. By coming out of Egypt, the Jewish neshama was revealed and it expressed itself in a pure, unadulterated  emunah, as  was shown by the fact that the Jews followed G-d into a desert – a land where nothing grows, without asking what are we going to eat. But that was the effect of the neshama as it cancelled and overwhelmed their thinking and their feelings. But internally they hadn’t really changed.

Then there was the counting before the building of the Mishkan when through the making of the Mishkan, G-d was going to dwell in them, “b’shochanti b’socham” in the person, internalized in the person. This required another counting because here the revealing of the neshama had to be a more personal and a more integrated one. So this preciousness that was revealed at the coming of Egypt now had to take a second step and settle deeper into the people. The neshama was now going to be revealed to a greater degree, and that was that it should affect the internal processes of the people, so that G-d can dwell in them, not just around them.

And then after the building of the Mishkan, when Jews already had the avodah of the Mishkan, and they had become themselves a mishkan, a dwelling place for G-d, then there was the third counting, that this preciousness of the Jew, which means the core of the Jewish neshama, should be revealed to such a degree that it becomes the person – he become his neshama.

That is why the counting after the building of the Mishkan had to wait until the first day of Iyar, until the second month. It also explains why Aharon had to count along with Moshe.

The difference between Nissan, the month we came out of Egypt and built the Mishkan, and Iyar, the month of counting of the omer, is that Nissan is a time when G-dliness comes from above

downwards. Iyar is a time when we raise ourselves from below upwards towards G-dliness. That is also the difference between Moshe and Aharon. Moshe brought G-dliness from above downwards, and Aharon was the one who raised the Jews up to the level of G-dliness. And since the third counting after the construction of the Mishkan was in order to reveal the core of the neshama into the personality of the people, not only from above downwards, but also from below upwards, that the person should rise to become his neshama, that is why it had to happen through Moshe and Aharon. And it had to happen in the second month, in the month where the world rises to G-dliness in addition to G-dliness coming down to the world.

And that is the connection with the parsha Bamidbar and its beginning where it says “count the heads of the people” the numbers of the people and the word used for counting “sehu” is also related to the word “nesuyan” marriage, which is the day of Matan Torah. At Matan Torah that is when the two directions – the heavens coming down and the earth going up- happened, when G-d came down to Har Sinai, and Moshe went up to Har Sinai. There was a G-dliness coming from above downwards, and there was a G-dliness happening from below upwards.

So in preparation to this connection, to this oneness, coming from both directions, the preparation for bringing G-dliness down to the Jewish people and bringing the Jewish people up to G-dliness, we read in the Torah about the counting that happened not in the month of Nissan, but in the month of Iyar, the second month, a month in which the world rises towards G-d through the Sefiras HaOmer. And it happens through Moshe and Aharon – Moshe bringing G-d down to the people and Aharon bringing the people up to G-d.

This is the proper preparation for the oneness, the intimacy of Matan Torah through which there is the total union of G-d, Israel and Torah becoming all one.

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