Parashat B’midbar: Intimacy with God
Welcome to the Book of Numbers! We are now “in the wilderness,” making our way towards the Promised Land. Our Torah portion, Parashat B’midbar (Numbers 1:1-4:20), begins with a major census of the Israelite community. We are given a time and a place:
On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, saying: Take a census of the whole Israelite community by the clans of its ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by head. You and Aaron shall record them by their groups, from the age of twenty years up, all those in Israel who are able to bear arms. (verses 1-3)
We might ask, why does God command Moses to count the Israelites? What does it matter how many adult men we have? Rashi gives a surprising answer:
וידבר… במדבר סיני … באחד לחדש וגו׳ AND [THE LORD] SPOKE [UNTO MOSES] IN THE DESERT OF SINAI … ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE [SECOND] MONTH … [TAKE YE THE SUM OF ALL THE CONGREGATION] etc. — Because they were dear to him, He counts them every now and then: when they went forth from Egypt He counted them (Exodus 12:37), when many of them fell in consequence of their having worshipped the golden calf He counted them to ascertain the number of those left (cf. Rashi Exodus 30:16); when he was about to make His Shechinah dwell amongst them (i. e. when He commanded them to make a Tabernacle), He again took their census; for on the first day of Nisan the Tabernacle was erected (Exodus 40:2) and shortly afterwards, on the first day of Iyar, He counted them.
God counts us because we are dear to God. God seems to genuinely care about us, at least from Rashi’s point of view.
This sense of caring goes even deeper in the corresponding Haftarah portion (Hosea 2:1-22), on which I would like to spend a majority of our session this coming Shabbat. In chapter 1 of Hosea, God commands Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer. She is unfaithful, and thus their marriage becomes a metaphor for the relationship between God and Israel. Some may be uncomfortable thinking of us as married to God, but the imagery is quite common in our texts and commentaries. Many of our Shabbat rituals likewise reflect this imagery.
How is Israel like an adulterous wife? Or like a prostitute? Does this metaphor still hold today? Does the marriage-to-God metaphor move you?
I look forward to reading this fascinating text with you this weekend! Shabbat Shalom.
