Counting as an Expression of Love

Five minutes left in the exam, and the proctor calls out, "Finish up, people." Everyone starts writing conclusions, one guy keeps writing. The proctor calls out, "Time's up. All papers in." Everyone who hasn't finished brings up their papers. One guy just keeps writing. The proctor sees him, and says, "I said 'Time's up.' Get your paper in now, or I'll have to disqualify your exam." The guy keeps writing. The proctor gathers all the exams into a big pile, looks at the guy writing, and says, "That's it, then. Your exam is disqualified."

The guy seems unfazed, finishes, checks the paper and carries it to the front. The proctor shakes his head and says, "Sorry. I told you I won't accept your exam." The guy looks indignant, stares at the proctor, and says: "Do you realize who I am?" The proctor looks surprised, then annoyed, and says, "I don't know, and I don't care. For me, you are just another number, another nudnik trying to get somewhere in life. Now you get out of here.”

 The guy says, "I didn't think you knew who I am or care who I am," stuffs his paper into the middle of the huge stack of exams and runs out of the room.

Statistics and numbers, don’t always tell the truth.

Jews have an aversion to counting people. Walk into a synagogue on a Wednesday waiting for a Mincha minyan and you will experience how Jews use ten-word verses to verify that they have a minyan of ten men. Why not just count straight?

The Torah states in Exodus: "When you take the count of the children of Israel to determine their numbers, each man shall give an atonement pledge for his soul to G-d when you count them. Thus, there will be no plague among them when you count them. This is what they should give, a half-shekel…”

There is a strange and tragic episode recorded in the book of Shmuel. King David sent his commander Yoav to go from city to city and count every Jew living in the Land. Yoav argues against it, but David overrules his general and commands him to count his people:

And Yoav presented the sum. And Israel consisted of eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men...

King David said to the Lord: I have sinned greatly in what I have done; and now, 'O Lord, put aside please, the iniquity of your servant, for I was very foolish!

Subsequently, a plague broke out and many died.

The obvious question is: What’s wrong with counting people directly? Why would counting people directly cause a plague? What’s the big deal?
Equally perplexing is that our portion, Bamidbar, commences the book known as “Numbers”—so called because of the two major censuses in the book, where G-d commanded Moses to count His people in the desert. Indeed, according to the Midrash, G-d had the Jews counted nine times!

Indeed, this entire book of the Bible is called “Numbers!” Most of this week’s portion is made up of numbers.

Rashi is telling us, that counting people is an expression of love. This makes sense: People count money, vacation days, carats of gold, and calories. Counting people too is a sign of love. I cherish them, so I count each of them.

This leaves us with a strange conclusion: Counting is both bad and good. We are forbidden to count Jews unless they contribute the half-shekel and we count the coins instead of the people. Yet G-d commands Moses in Bamidbar to count the people, as a sign of love!

Is counting bad or good?

Counting embodies a paradox. It can be both elevating and degrading.

On one hand, we count a group of items or objects because every single item is valuable.

Yet, paradoxically, counting people can strip them of their basic dignity. Instead of being a person, a soul, you become a mere number. Nothing dehumanizes more than a number; something the Germans understood very well. In the process of counting, Harry and Timmy no longer remain Harry and Timmy; they now become two nondescript generic people.

In prison, inmates are identified as numbers. #11, #16. This is part of the psychological agony: You are not a person; you are a number.

So, are numbers elevating or degrading?

Depends, of course, on who is doing the counting.

When a census is taken, the count will include scholars and boors, philanthropists and misers, saints, and criminals. Yet each counts for no more and no less than one. The count reflects only the one quality they all share equally: that each is one number, one person.

Ah! But here is the catch. How do you look at that “number”—at that equalizing factor? How do you look at that common denominator in a collection of individuals?

But if you view the soul of a human as a spark of G-d’s fire then the very bare, naked and raw being of man is infinitely valuable. Whatever we accomplish in life and all the distinct honors we amass in our life are bonuses to our glowing and sacred essence.

Now, we can understand an enigmatic statement in the Talmud (Yoma 22b):

It is written: ‘Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea,’ and it is also written: ‘Which cannot be numbered? This is no contradiction… Here it speaks of [counting done] by human beings, there of counting by G-d.

What is the difference between G-d counting and human counting? When a human leader counts the people there is a danger that in his mind they all become “numbers

In the film "Judgment at Nuremberg," American judge Dan Haywood sentences Ernst Janning, an important legal figure in Germany even before the rise of Hitler, to life in prison for condemning an innocent Jewish doctor to death in 1935. Janing pleads to Haywood that he was unaware of the magnitude of the Nazi horror and that he would have never assisted Hitler had he known what the monster was scheming.

"Those people, those millions of people," Janing begged for his freedom, "I never knew it would come to that. You must believe it."

To which Judge Haywood replied: "It came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death you knew to be innocent."

The moment a single life loses its absolute value, a thousand lives, even a million lives, are ultimately not of value; they are merely more choking numbers.

The teacher was always so involved in the text he was teaching that he never looked up at his students. He would call on a student for translation and explanation, and – without realizing it -- he often chose the same student day after day.

Out of respect, the students wouldn't point this out to him.

After being called on four days in a row, a student named Goldberg asked advice from his friends.

The next day when the rabbi said "Goldberg, translate and explain," Goldberg replied, "Goldberg is absent today."

"All right," said the rabbi. "You translate and explain.

Not so when G-d counts people. When G-d counts people it is an elevating experience. It brings out the value of EVERY INDIVIDUAL no matter where in society he may stand. Every single person constitutes one number because, in his or her essence, there is a value that cannot be measured. Nine Moses’ cannot make a minyan. Ten simple Jews make a minyan. Every single person has something of infinite value that makes him or her equal to the greatest of the greatest and the holiest of the holy.

The first thing all dictators do is turn their subjects into numbers. Then, the gates are open to abuse and violation of human rights. The Germans, years before 1939, brilliantly led a propaganda campaign, stripping Jews of their human value. Now the path was clear for extermination.

This is a lovely and painful book published some time ago, “The Number on My Grandfather's Arm.” It is a conversation between a young girl and her grandfather. For the first time, the young girl notices a number on her grandfather's arm. She asks him what the number means. The girl's mother urges the grandfather to explain the number to the girl. The grandfather explains his experiences during the Holocaust in Poland. Both begin to cry.

The seven-year-old girl writes:

“I put my hand on Grandpa's and told him, ‘You shouldn't be ashamed to let people see your number. You didn't do anything wrong. It's the Nazis who should be ashamed.’” (p. 22)

It is well known that on Sunday mornings the Lubavitcher Rebbe used to distribute dollars to be given to charity. Thousands of Jews would line up each Sunday for the chance to receive a dollar and a blessing from the Rebbe. On one occasion, an older lady who had been waiting a long time blurted out to the Rebbe that she marveled at how he could stand for so many hours on his feet dispensing the dollars, as she was exhausted from her wait! (The Rebbe began giving dollars at the age of 84!)

Replied the Rebbe, "When you are counting diamonds, you don't get tired."

This is why the Midrash tells us that G-d said that if even one Jew was not present at Mt. Sinai, He would not give the Torah not even to Moses, Aaron, and millions of others.

And we thereby send a message to our children: Your dignity is limitless; your preciousness is grand; your very being is G-dly. Your contribution to our entire people and history is indispensable. This is what every young boy and girl and every ten agers in our generation must know: Your life is a piece of Divine art. Treat it that way!

Chodesh Tov and Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky