FOR B’MIDBAR
COUNTING TO A RAISE
As the days are rapidly heating up, we were compelled to pay attention to our air conditioning problems before it would have become too hot to stand. We called in a repair service earlier this week, and a couple of men showed up at our house to fix the broken unit.
Upon completion, one of the fellows entered the house with the invoice. He looked at me and said: “Are you Jewish, by any chance?”
I could not resist it. I said, with a smile, “what could possibly make you think I am Jewish?... And, by the way, yes, I am Jewish.”
The fellow’s face lit up. He said was from a town in northern Georgia, called Winder, and he had never met a Jew in his life.
He then said, in his southern twang, “It’s a real blessing to meet you, sir. You are the people of the L-ord, right? Isn’t that what the Bible says”?
I responded that he was correct. The Bible states exactly that, in several places and in several ways. At the same time, I shared with him how every single person on this earth is placed here by the same L-ord. If not, no one would be here.
I continued: While the Jewish people are, as the Bible says, the people of G-d, it puts them in a position of wonderful potential and great responsibility. The Jewish people will always have that status regardless of what becomes of any individual. At the same time, nothing is automatic. It takes focus, work, and adherence to what the L-ord desires, as dictated in that very Bible, in order to take proper advantage of their status. In other words, any human being abiding by the directions set by the Almighty can be a person of the L-ord.
The fellow then pointed to the cover on my head, my Yarmulke. He asked about the purpose of this piece of cloth on top of the head. I explained how this piece of cloth is the precise point of the above. It acts as a constant reminder that a Divine entity is always above every single person. This reminder, over the top of the man, helps with the obedience and faithfulness of the person. [Women are exempted from this reminder. According to Jewish tradition, women are innately more connected to the Divine. This “reminder” would, in fact, be degrading.]
The aforementioned helps explain a curious usage employed by the Torah in several places, but most prominently in this week’s Torah portion, “B’midbar.” The portion is dominated by counting people. The Torah records the census of the families of the tribes, and then the exclusive counting of the tribe of Levi.
In Hebrew, the concept of counting can be expressed in several ways. In all instances of counting the people, however, the Torah employs the term “lifting of the head,” in addition to the other expressions of counting. (B’midbar (Numbers) 1:2.)
The emphasis on “lifting the head” in connection with counting is very telling. The head of the body is just that. It is the nerve center, which controls the entire body. The head is also the site in which many of the functioning organs operate: thinking, seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and so forth. It is also the central location from which a person, through speech, reveals what he or she is thinking.
The Almighty designed the head, where the most critical elements of the person are situated, to be in control of the body.
All beings have heads, from beasts, animals, birds, and fish to the lowly insects. There is, however, a critical difference in the design of human beings in comparison to the other creatures. By designing humans to walk erect on two feet, the human being’s head is always on top of the body. All the other beings have heads which either hang or face downwards, or are on par with the rest of the body.
The head of a human being is always on top. Even when lying down, human beings tend to use a pillow. Jewish law directs a person to use anything, even the thinnest of paddings, so that the head remain raised from the rest of the body. All this is to emphasize and to accentuate the natural leadership of a human’s head over the rest of the body. This means that a human should recognize the importance of intelligence, which is exclusive to humans, and always seek ways to enhance and expand the intellect.
The Divine instruction to count the Jewish people was obviously not for a prosaic census purpose. The Almighty knows all these numbers. Instead, the counting was to demonstrate how every individual does, indeed, “count.”
At the same time, the instruction included the term “raising the head.” The people were being taught that it is not merely about feeling good due to being “counted” automatically. This was, rather, to encourage everyone to pay attention to the “head” by “raising” and utilizing all one has in the physical “head,” including, and especially, the intelligence.
Human beings should never be resting on their laurels. Just as the varied pats of the head continue to function, as they sit “on top” of the person, so should the intelligence continue to be developed, whenever and wherever possible. At the same time, one must remember that, as high as a person’s head is “raised,” there is always an Entity that is higher than that head.
The above also applies in the case of meeting one who had never met a Jew in his life. Our meeting could have been a routine discussion. Instead, the instruction from this week’s portion is to raise up the head, as well as raising up the head of another. One must always utilize the opportunity to inspire others, especially after a person has encountered his very first Jew…
SUMMARY: Being counted is just half the job. The goal is to be raised up.