Sermons & Stories

Shabbat Shalom!

The book of Numbers begins with God telling Moses to conduct a census of

כָּל־עֲדַ֣ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל

The whole community of Israel.

This is curious for two reasons… The first is that God continues to instruct Moses to count only the men ages twenty and up. It’s because the Israelites are about to enter the Land of Israel and they need to know how big their army is, but if you don’t include women, children, people with disabilities, or others who might not be fighting in the military – that’s hardly kol adat b’nei Yisrael – the whole community of Israel.

The other reason this is curious is because the way Torah has been interpreted, we’re not supposed to take a census. It’s ok to count half shekels that people contribute (Exodus 30) or lambs that stand in place of soldiers (BT Yoma 22b). But when when King David actually counted people, 70,000 Israelites died of a plague (II Samuel 24 and I Chronicles 21).

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks argues that the reason for this teaching is that counting devalues the individual. Unfortunately, we know what that looks like. When we take a census in America, the focus tends to be about how much in Federal dollars will we get or how much power in Congress will we have. There’s very little about the actual people who make up those numbers – their needs, their dreams, their stories.

When large numbers of people die – during wars, during the pandemic, during other tragic events – the news media often tries to share stories and help us see the people behind the numbers, but it can be too much to take in. Even though it can be overwhelming, Judaism teaches that keeping the focus on individuals brings holiness to our lives. We remember that we are more than numbers. We remember that those numbers are people. We remember that each one is a life that is worth the entire world.

We remember with our Yizkor service on Monday morning. And it’s not just about remembering – it’s also about celebrating. For tonight we have the honor of celebrating two individuals who have chosen to join the Jewish people! We’ll get to hear a bit of their stories in just a moment.

Shabbat Shalom!