Know Your Place

By Rabbi Joshua (astronomicallt known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

The book of Bamidbar begins with a census of the Jewish nation, each one by his name, his family and his tribe, while in the wilderness. What was the purpose of this census? Rash cites a midrash which says that God loved the Jewish nation, and therefore had them counted. The midrash likens this to God's counting of the stars and His assignation of names to them, as it says in Tehillim, ( 147:4 )“He determines the number of the stars, He gives to all of them their names.” Is there any connection, other than God's love for the stars and for the Jewish people, between these two contings? We do find other images of counting, that could have been uused to give over this message of God's love.. Why was the specific example of counting the stars used?

Rav Aharon Kotler, in his Mihnas Rabbi Aharon,notes that counting the nation by names, familes and tribes was a way of assigning each person his particular role among the Jewish nation. By doing so, peace among the peoe was maintained, because each person knew his role, and did not encroach on anybody else's function. He cites a passage in the Talmud Arachin ( 11a), which says that a Levi assigned to be a gatekeeper coined not, on pain of the death penalty, do the job of a Levi who was supposed to sing in the Temple. He also cites a Midrash Rabbah, which says that each star is positioned in a certain place for a purpose, and if nay star would be in a different position than it is, the universe could be destroyed. If the sun would be closer to the earth than it is, it would be burned up, and if it was future away, it would freeze up. In a similar way, if people do not maintain their assigned place, there will be no peace, and chaos will reign. although Rav Aharon zt'l does not mention the image, in this regard, of God counting Yisroel just as he counts and names the stars, I believe that this is the message being conveyed by the comparison brought by Rashi.

The importance of this message at this point in the nation's history is that they were about to enter Eretz Yisroel. Had they not sinned by accepting the evil report of the spies, they would have entered the land in a manner of days. because they sinned, they had to spend forty years in the wilderness, until a new generation arose which was then able to enter the land in a proper fashion. As we have noted in our last two messages, Eretz Yisroel is the place that unites the Jewish people, as elaborated upon by the Maharal of Prague, and as earlier expressed by the Zohar in parshas Emor, where, commenting on the verse in the book of Shmuel which is included in the mincha prayer of Shabbos- ' who is like Your people Yisroel, one nation in the land'- that it is only in Eretz Yisroel that the Jewish people is truly one. To maintain this unity, each person must know what his role within the nation is, ISO that all segments of the people live together in peace.