PARASHAT NASO -June 7, 2008 (4 Sivan 5768)

HOW DO WE COUNT?

By Scott Taryle

In a scene in the Monty Python film, Life of Brian, a crowd of thousands of followers of the reluctant messiah Brian declare, in perfect unison, "Yes, we are all individuals!" One man in the crowd turns aside and whispers, "I'm not." This humorous bit of irony (albeit from a satire of the Christian Bible), brings to mind an important theme and source of tension in Judaism, the importance of the individual in relation to the community in Jewish worship.

The Book of Numbers earns its English name well in its first two parashot, BaMidbar and Naso. Each is teeming with numbers and statistics. Yet within all that data is a subtle message regarding our role as individuals and members of the Jewish community.

The beginning of Naso is a continuation of a theme begun in last-week's parasha, BaMidbar. God commands Moses to conduct a census of all men age 30 to 50 in each of the three families of the tribe of Levi (i.e. the descendants of the three sons of Levi): Kohath, Gershon, and Merari. The census is connected to the assignment of various functions to be performed in by each Levite family in transporting, maintaining and setting up the Mishkan and its holy objects. The census results (at least as reported) reveal something curious. The totals for men in the described age group in each of the Levite families happen to be "round" numbers ending in zero. Of the descendants of Kohath, there were 2,750; of the descendants of Gershon, 2,630; and of Merari, 3,200; and of all three combined, a sum of 8,580. Can it be mere coincidence that the numbers from each Levite family happen to be multiples of ten? Assuming these are accurate figures, the odds of such a random occurrence would be one in one-thousand!

The census of the Levites in Naso follows a similar census in parashat BaMidbar of all men age 20 and older capable of military service in each of the other tribes of Israel. Surprisingly, the figures for each tribe in that census bear an even more "rounded" appearance, each coming out to an exact multiple of 100. For example, military-age men from the tribe of Reuven number 46,500; from Shimon, 59,700; and from Yehuda, 74,600. The one exception is Gad: 45,650, which is nevertheless a "round" multiple of 50. Such numbers lead one to ponder whether the census figures in Naso and BaMidbar were indeed accurate head counts of every individual male in each tribe and age/group. Is it possible that the numbers were instead merely "ballpark" figures, rounded off to the nearest ten? If so, how do we reconcile that with the exactitude we usually attribute to the written Torah?

One possible explanation lies in the traditional prohibition or aversion to counting Jews. As Hosea eloquently states in the haftarah for BaMidbar, "Yet, the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered." (Hosea, Ch. 2, v.1.) In a prior census in parashat Ki-Tissa, the Israelites were counted indirectly through the collection of a half-shekel from each individual. Even today, census-taking in the State of Israel remains controversial, and it is traditional to recite a ten-word sentence rather than actual numbers when counting Jews for a minyan. Perhaps in Naso, the reporting of rounded figures rather than exact, per capita numbers (assuming that is the case) may have been intended as another way to avoid the direct counting of individuals. In other words, rather than counting the Levites as individuals, the census takers counted them as groups of ten.

Whether intended or not, the reporting of census figures in tens suggests something significant about our role as individual members of the Jewish community. The purpose of the census of the Levites in Naso was to apportion the labor of carrying and setting up the holy objects and materials of the Mishkan, which was central to our communal worship of God during our sojourn in the Sinai wilderness. For that purpose, an exact head count of individuals may not have been necessary. More important was a general assessment of the families, tribes, communities needed to ensure the continuity of worship in the Mishkan, which could safely be measured in tens.

Ten happens to be the minimum number of Jewish adults required for a minyan, essential to Jewish communal worship today after the destruction of the Mishkan's successors, the two Temples. Although individual prayer and worship may be meritworthy and sincere, the Jewish ideal is worship as a minyan, a kahal, a community. According to traditional sources, individual prayers are heard only when accompanied by "kavanah" (directedness, sincerity of purpose), but God hears the communal prayers of a minyan with or without kavanah. "Hence a person must join himself with the community, and should not pray by himself so long as he is able to pray with the community." (Maimonides, Hilkhot Tefillah 8.1.) The counting of the three Levite families in multiples of ten may thus be a reminder of the greater importance of communities, minyanim, in the worship of God.

Nevertheless, the individual is not meaningless or unimportant in Jewish worship. Just as every person is created in the image of God, and yet unique, each Jewish soul is significant, not merely one in a conglomeration of numbers, rounded off to the nearest ten, fifty or one hundred. Interestingly, among the various censuses conducted in BaMidbar and Naso, there is one whose result is not reported as a round "zero" figure, the counting of first born males from all tribes of Israel combined (i.e. excluding Levi), a total of 22,273! In contrast to the seemingly rounded figures in the other counts, the number 22,273 rings with precision. Why? The purpose of that census was to determine the number of firstborn who must be redeemed by the kohenim. (The entire tribe of Levi was to be consecrated to service in the Mishkan in place of the first born of all Israel. To ensure that this was an "even trade," it was therefore necessary to calculate the total number of first born in excess of the total of Levites, which worked out to 273. Those 273 were then redeemed at five shekels a piece, collected by Aharon.) This suggests that notwithstanding the preference for communal worship, for purposes of consecration to God's service, and redemption, we are viewed as individuals, who each matter and must be counted precisely.

The interplay between our roles as individual Jews and as members of the community is dramatically illustrated by the Birkat haKohenim, the Priestly Blessing, a moving and eloquent highlight of parashat Naso. God, through Moses, commands Aharon and his sons, "In this way you shall bless the children of Israel; you shall say unto them: 'The Lord Bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.'" In the Hebrew text, " you" is stated in the singular rather than the plural throughout this blessing. Although the Kohenim are to administer this blessing to the entire community assembled outside the Miskhan, the blessing is therefore bestowed upon each Jew as an individual.

As individuals, and as members of the greater community, our prayers and worship matters. We count.