From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 4:02 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Bamidbar, 5767





                                                  I Love To Count             

                By Rabbi Joshua (numerically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman



  Parshas Bamidbar is always read on the Shabbos before Shavuos. According to one opinion in Tosafos in Megillah, this is in order to make a separation between the reading of the section of tochecha, or rebuke, in Bechukosai, and the holiday of Shavuos. Other opinions, however, seem to indicate that there is an intrinsic connection between parshas Bamidbar and Shavuos. Moreover, the Zohar tells us that, in general, the blessings of each week depend on the Torah reading of the preceding Shabbos. What, then, is the connection between parshas Bamidbar and the holiday of Shavuos ? While many answers have been given, connecting various parts of the parsha with the different themes of Shavuos, I would like to focus on the very beginning of the parsha, which relates God's command to Moshe to count the people. What, then, does counting have to do with Shavuos ?


  In connection with the receiving of the Torah, the midrash tells us that when God said," I am the Lord your God," he was speaking to each person individually. Each person, according to this midrash, has his own, personal relationship with God. There are other midrashim and Talmudic passages which indicate that each person has his own portion in Torah, a certain part of Torah that is revealed to him and that he must teach to the Jewish people. According to Rav Yosef Dov HaLevi Soloveitchik, this is the meaning of the Talmudic passage in Niddah 30, that an angel teaches the entire Torah to the fetus in its mother's womb. The commentary Megaleh Amukos sees a hint to this teaching in the word Yisroel, whose letters he understands to indicate ' yeish shishim ribo osios beTorah,' or, there are six hundred thousand letters in the Torah. In order for the Jewish people to fully understand the Torah, they must be willing to learn from each other, because each Jew has some part of Torah within him that only he can teach. The Ramban, in his commentary to parshas Bamidbar, says that the reason each person is numbered is in order to give him importance, by showing him that he is worthy of being singled out. This is a message that has general significance, teaching us that we, too, need to show an appreciation for the importance of each Jew we encounter. In terms of receiving the Torah, however, this recognition of importance takes on added significance, because,in order to fully receive the Torah, we must recognize the need to learn from every person, as we are taught in Pirkei Avos.


  Perhaps another aspect of the importance of counting can be seen in the fact that we end the process of Sefiras ha-Omer, or counting forty-nine days from the date of the bringing of the Omer-offering, in the week between reading Bamidbar and the holiday of Shavuos. Counting each day drives home the significance of each day,and the need to try to grow daily in some way. The book of Bamidbar is actually permeated by the idea of the importance of each day, as it describes the wanderings of the Jewish people in the wilderness, which were typified by the verse in parshas Beha’aloscha, “According to the word of God they would encamp, and according to the word of God they would journey” (Bamidbar 9:23). This verse follows a description of the travel itinerary of the nation while in the wilderness, by which they may stay in one location for a day, and in another location for a month, a year, or even longer. Everything depended upon God’s instructions to them. Thus, the entire concept of planning their journey in a certain sequence did not exist, since the people were dependent on God's directives in determining their schedule. We have suggested, in the past (see Netvort to Bamidbar, 5765, available at Torahheights.com), that the reason the book of Bamidbar begins out of chronological sequence is to indicate that the people's sense of time during their years in the wilderness was subject to God's decisions of when to call on them to travel. Because they were constantly subject to God's decision in this regard, each day took on added significance, as the schedule of events could not be taken for granted. In this way, perhaps, they were better able to fulfill the directive to view the Torah, which embodies God's will, as being given anew every day. By going through the process of Sefiras HaOmer, we are, in a small way, able to experience, in a small way, what the generation that left Egypt experienced through its constant subjection to God's will in respect to their very place of abode each day.


  These aspects of the significance of counting for receiving the Torah that we have suggested also have relevance to  parshas Bamidbar itself. Ramban, in his introduction to his commentary to Bamidbar, writes that the order of the various tribal encampments around the mishkan that is described in the parsha constitutes a reconstruction of the scene that occurred around Mt. Sinai when the Torah was given. This comment is a brief review of his more detailed comments in the beginning of parshas Terumah, to the effect that the encampment mishkan served to perpetuate the experience that the people had at Mt.Sinai during the revelation, when God's holy presence dwelled among them. Therefore, just as each tribe was assigned a certain place to stand in proximity to the mountain, so, too, when the nation encamped around the mishkan, each tribe was assigned its appropriate place. Thus, parshas Bamidbar, according to the Ramban, is a description of the way in which the experience of receiving the Torah was perpetuated throughout the nation's sojourn in the wilderness. Moreover,  the midrash, as cited by Rashi, teaches us that the people were being readied for their entry into Eretz Yisroel. Had they not sinned when they reacted to the evil report of the spies, they would have entered the land at that time. As the Ramban has taught us, the main place for the fulfillment of the Torah is in Eretz Yisroel. Rav Kook writes that the Torah's charge for us to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation entails demonstrating holiness, as taught in the torah, within the setting of a nation, which must deal with all aspects of life, including the political, economic and social aspects necessary for the proper running of a nation. Thus, in parshas Bamidbar, the people, besides arranging themselves around the mishkan in order to perpetuate the Sinaitic experience,were also  being readied for the fulfillment of the Torah in its widest sense. In this context, the messages for Shavuos that we have mentioned as being implied in the process of counting applied equally, if not more, to the people in the wilderness whose encampment is  described in our parsha. 


  A joyous Shavuos to all from all of us at Netvort.



  Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

  To subscribe to Netvort, send a message with subject line subscribe, to Netvort@aol.com. To unsubscribe, send message with subject line unsubscribe, to the same address.


**************************************
See what's free at http://www.aol.com.