Bamidbar 5773: Be Vivacious

A Journey

Bamidbar is the story of a transformational journey. It is the story of the small, G-d-fearing family that had immigrated to Egypt where they were later enslaved. After being freed they became fused into a mighty nation as they traversed the treacherous Sinai desert.

The story however, is not as it might sound, one about the evolutionof a group of primitive slaves into an organized national body. Rather the story tells about the devolution of an impressive group of mighty individuals long before they became a nation. At the time they arrived in Egypt and again at Mount Sinai about to start their journey through the desert, each of them were men and women of towering stature. This band of individuals later, through the story of the Book, became an organized institution, a nation, comprising people who had lost much of the individuality that had earlier made them great. Bamidbar is a disruption of the evolution of Israel, not a linear progression. This idea is expressed in Midrash Rabba (3:5): "the Book of Bamidbar separates the people who emerged from Egypt from those who entered Israel."

Individual and community: who is primary? Is it the citizen or the state; the individual or his community? When should individuals sacrifice their identities on the altars of social expectations and norms? Whose mission is it to serve whom? For the Torah the answer is not an or; it is an and. The individual and the state have equal primacy, they serve each other and neither need sacrifice their identity in their service of the other. The same applies to any organization: a business, an educational institution, or a religious community. The institution is built to serve the interests of the individuals who comprise it, but the individual should never erode his or her individual identity for the sake of the whole.

Individual identity and institutional integrity

When individual identity and institutional integrity are well-balanced people, and their communities are excitingly youthful and vivacious, but this is not always easy to achieve. The Jewish People achieved this synthesis at Sinai a fact that is recognized at the opening of the Book of Bamidbar. Notice how the instruction to count them is articulated in the opening verses: "Count (the phrase 'uplift the head' is used for the word 'count,' to connote dignity in the process) all of the community of Israel by their families, according to the tribal affiliations of their fathers, by the number of individual names - each male by the individual (shekel) contribution he makes."

This reference to family and tribe, says the Shem Mishemuel[1](Bamidbar 5671) connotes national affiliation and community, whereas the reference to names and "gulgellotam" (literally: 'their skulls') connotes individuality. Furthermore, the mention of names loops back to the opening sentences of the Book of Shemot (which means 'names') that list each member of Ya'acov's family by name because, says the Midrash (Shemot Rabba 1:3), like the stars of the heaven, each was a significant and powerfully influential individual[2].

This wording starkly contrasts with the way the instruction to count them is worded towards the end of the Book of Bamidbar (26:2). In this instance they are instructed to count the people leveit avottam (according to the tribal affiliations of their fathers) with no mention of their names or individuality. The Seforno[3] (1:2) highlights the contrast "Each one of that generation was recognized by his name indicating his personal uniqueness. This was not the case with those who entered Israel." These two events of national census, one after Sinai and one before entering the Land, illustrate the decline of Jewish individuality as the People journeyed to its nationhood. These two "countings" are thematically central to the Book and the differences between them explain why Bamidbar is also calledChumash Happekudim ( Sotah 36) or in the English Bible, The Book of Numbers.

Torah and Avodah

The theme of successfully synthesizing individuality with community parallels another existential tension, the tension between Torah andAvodah. Torah is the innovative study and application of Divine reason, values and wisdom. Avodah is the practice of the mitzvotespecially in the Beit Hamikdash and in Tefilla (prayer). Torah thrives on individuality and diversity of opinion. Avodah is a standardized practice for all people, in all circumstances and in all places. Torah and Avodah respectively provide us with platforms to express both our individuality and our community.

Counting brings together the idea of the individual versus the whole. By counting (people or things) we emphasize that each occupies a specific place and role, a number, in the larger whole, the totality of the numbers. In this way, by respectfully counting people we honor their individuality as well as their position in the greater institutional structure. If each were unimportant in and of themselves, we would use different measures than counting. If things or people are not individually significant we might measure things by their weight or volume and people by the million or by the total GDP they deliver to the economy. Counting is only applied to things or individuals of importance, halachically termed devarim she'beminyan - things one normally counts.

In the Desert - in the Tabernacle

The Zohar in its opening to the Book observes the use of two terms in the first sentence: The Desert of Sinai and the Tabernacle. These two terms connote a synthesis in the act of counting. Counting blends the community-based idea of disciplined, consistent, and compliant service with the creative idea of individuality applied to innovative Torah learning. These two ideas always need to be linked: Torah, as individualistically as it may be studied, must yield halachik outcome that is consistent. Avoda as important as it is, is allocated to specific times and should not subsume a person's need and desire to express himself or herself creatively in the study of Torah.[4]

Nationhood ­- The ultimate Institution

This exquisite balance of individual and community that the Jewish People accomplished when they were governed by the ideas and laws of the Torah rather than by the structures of men, was lost as they approached their nationhood in the Land of Israel. We see them increasingly thinking in mass movements rather than in individual philosophies. The Korach movement and the pressure on Moshe to send spies ahead of them are two examples of such mass movements. The result was a higher level of organizational and social readiness for statehood, but a loss of the prized individuality that has always made us so hard to govern and lead but so exciting in our innovativeness. Our study of Torah nourishes our creativity and our avoda informs our discipline. When we have both creativity and discipline, when we are individuals as well as citizens and community members, we are vivacious; we are great. However, we are ever mindful of how a growing importance attached to institutionalization over individuality can erode the core of our spiritual beings, that which makes us each unique like the stars of the skies.

This, I believe is partly why we mourn during the period of Sefira. Rabbi Akiva first had 24,000 students. He could only have taught and led them by managing an efficient educational institution, perhaps the first modern Yeshiva. But the scholars in that institution lost their respect for each other's individuality. While in Temple service this might not have been fatal, in a Torah institution it was. We have no remnant of any of the Torah that was studied and taught in that massive school.

These insights provide me with a tool I often use myself when I feel my individuality is being assaulted. It happens to me in airports, on planes, in traffic, at government offices, when watching the news and at many other times too. I take my head into the world of Torah, I reflect on what I have been learning and as I do so I try to innovate. When we are creatively immersed in Torah we are protected from the erosion of our inner souls. We find freshness in the insights we learn and newness in our own insights. We sustain and nourish our spiritual identities so desperate for private space in which to grow. The ideas in this very essay are the results of some of these exercises. I hope you can try it too and will find spiritual, intellectual and emotional vivaciousness in the process.