Parshat Bamidbar
Although we commonly identify the books of the Torah with their opening word(s), i.e., “Bereishit,” “Shemot,” “Vayikra,” etc., Chazal referred to each book through its individual content: “Sefer HaYetzira,” “Sefer HaGeulah,” “Torat Kohanim,” etc. These titles were translated into Greek by “Targum Hashiv’im,” otherwise known as “the Septuagint” and eventually adopted by other nations: “Genesis,” “Exodus,” Leviticus, etc. This week, we open Sefer Bamidbar—which Chazal called, “Sefer Pekudim” or “Numeri” in Greek—as much of the book focuses upon the theme of numbers or counting. It is interesting to note, however, that the common name of Bamidbar (or, as generally (although incorrectly) pronounced, “Bamidbar”) is a fitting description for the book as well, for the sefer reviews the events that took place in the desert (“Midbar”) from year no. 2 through year no. 40.
In the very opening of our haftarah, the Navi Hoshea shares the divine message that, in the future, the population of Bnei Yisrael would number as the grains of sand in the sea—a promise that provides us with the clear connection of the prophet’s message to the parsha’s census. However, it is the contrast to the Torah’s counting that sends a more optimistic message than that which is read in our Torah reading. In the Torah, we are given the precise number of Israelites who traveled through the desert, while the haftarah guarantees that the nation’s population would be innumerable (“asher lo yimad v’lo yisafer”)! This also explains why it is Moshe who is to count the nation in our parsha while in Sefer Hoshea, it is God Himself Who sets the number as being beyond human ability to count.
Interestingly, when we proceed to study the Navi’s entire message we uncover yet another connection to our parsha—one that focuses not on the “pekudim” (counting) but on the “midbar.” Rav Yissachar Yaakovson turns our attention to the 17th pasuk in the haftarah, a comforting verse that followed those of censure and condemnation, in which Hashem promises, “Hineh anochi m’phateha—I will lure Israel,” “Veholachtiha hamidbar—I will lead her into the desert,” and “Vedibarti al liba—where I will speak comfortingly to her.” Here we are reminded that the midbar is the pathway out of the galut and into the Geula—just as it was in the time of Moshe Rabbeinu.
In studying Sefer Bamidbar, we often remember the desert as the place of Israel’s sins—those of the egel hazahav (golden calf), of the meraglim (spies), of the grumbling, of the complaints and of the demands to return to Egypt. Hoshea opens our eyes to the realization that Hashem “lures” us into the midbar to become a place of repair and repentance and for a time of returning to God.
The haftarah teaches us to regard the years of desert wandering as the era when we constructed Mishkan and learned to worship God properly, when we received His Torah and taught us His mitzvot and when we were able to develop a loving relationship with our Heavenly Father.
It should be no wonder, therefore, that the Navi Yirmiyahu praises Israel by telling us how God remembers with deep love the years when His children followed Him through the wilderness. For He, too, regards those years with affection for they were years when He was able to develop a loving relationship with His chosen nation.
Ultimately, yet, it is certainly true that Sefer Pekudim is filled with many “countings” but it is also important to remember that those desert years themselves really did count—both for us and for God!
Rabbi Neil Winkler is the rabbi emeritus of the Young Israel of Fort Lee, and now lives in Israel.
