By Bernie Gropper

Shabbat Shalom. What a week to give a D’var Torah. There is so much happening here in Canada, in the U.S. and in Israel; we just completed the holiday of Purim, which is technically still going strong – albeit only within walled cities; and this week’s Parasha of Ki Tisa is chock full of action.

This parasha is most easily explained by reference to a number of vivid scenes those of us old enough to have watched it ad nauseum, can recall from the movie “The Ten Commandments”. Specifically:

·  The design and construction of the Sanctuary in great detail;

·  Moses receiving the two tablets inscribed by the finger of G-d with the 10 Commandments;

·  The creation of the golden calf as a reaction to Moses not returning from the mountain in a timely manner;

·  Moses hurling the tablets in anger at the blasphemous Israelites celebrating and honouring the Golden Calf as a deity; and

·  Moses negotiating with G-d for mercy on the Israelites, with G-d agreeing to reinscribe the tablets, and Moses reappearing after 40 days with his face radiating with the light of G-d.

But for me what piqued my interest in the parsha are the first few lines in which G-d commands Moses to take a census of the Israelite men. I have a fascination with statistics, numbers, charts, graphs and data; so I love the thought of delving into a good census. Indeed, as a youngster my favourite reading material was the “World Almanac and Book of Facts” – an annual compendium of statistics and information. So my expectation when reading about a census is that it will reveal a plethora of factual information as to the demographics and the proclivities of the Israelites – their numbers, ages, health, family sizes, possessions, etc. But the language regarding the taking of this census is not what a modern pollster would expect.

The parasha begins with the following words:

“When you take a census of the Children of Israel according to their numbers, every man shall give Hashem an atonement for his soul when counting them, so that there will not be a plague among them when counting them. This shall they give – everyone who passes through the census – a half shekel as a portion to Hashem. Everyone who passes through the census, from twenty years of age and up shall give the portion to Hashem. The wealthy shall not increase, and the destitute shall not decrease from half a shekel.”

And the actual wording for “When you take a census” is “Ki Tisa et Harosh Bnei Yisrael” – i.e. when you count, you “lift the heads” of the Children of Israel.

We learn in this context that counting Jews is not about a physical determination of numbers, but a means to literally elevate each individual as part of the collective. It is a means to demonstrate that each individual Jew is not merely a statistic, but an individual with unique attributes and values.

We are taught in the Torah that each human being is created in the image of G-d – “B’tselem Elohim”. So we are not more powerful as a Nation simply because we are greater in numbers, but we are stronger because of who we are, what we value and what we have to offer to the World. We are commanded to be counted, not to so as to measure our quantitative impact, but to embrace our qualitative strength as a community.

In other words, it is not enough that we are counted, we each need to count. And that is why as a pre-requisite to be counted as part of the community of Israel, the parsha commands that each member of the community of Israel is required to donate a half shekel to the community. A half shekel is by all measures a small amount - a token if you will – but it signifies that as a member of the tribe, we must each contribute, rich or poor. Hence the half shekel regardless of one’s stature. The lesson is not that one should always give according to his or her means, but that there is a “price of admission” which we must all bear equally.

In Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ commentary on this part of the parsha he notes that the danger in counting Jews is that “if Jews had ever believed, even for a moment, that there is strength in numbers, the Jewish people would long ago have given way to despair.” In his words, we determine the strength of the Jewish people by asking them “to give, and then to count their contributions. Numerically we Jews are small, but in terms of our contributions to civilization and humankind, we are vast.”

I gave some thought to Rabbi Sacks’ proposition. According to demographers, the “core” Jewish population of the World is now approximately 16 million people. The World population is now about 8.2 billion. So we represent less than 0.2% of the World population. About half of that 16 million live in Israel, so Israel (including its Arab and other citizens) represents a little over 0.1% of the World’s population. In statistics, when one determines to what decimal place to use in calculations, we call the difference between a more exact number and the number rounded to the determined number of decimal places a “rounding error”. So in determining the Jewish population of the World in terms of whole numbers, Jews are statistically insignificant – truly a rounding error.

By means of comparison there are more people in any one of Karachi, Pakistan, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Chongquing, China, Lagos, Nigeria, Kinshasa, Congo or Bengaluru, India then there are Jews in the entire world. Yet how many of us are familiar with anyone who lives in, or anything that regularly happens in any of those places. I do not illustrate those places to denigrate them, but to illustrate how much our people and our Nation State of Israel contributes to the world despite of our small numbers. One need only to read a list of Nobel Prize winners, watch an Award show, attend a session of the UN or read the daily papers to see what an outsized impact we have on the World. And if anyone has travelled to some exotic locale in Asia, Africa or South America only to hear a fellow group of travelers speaking Hebrew, one can appreciate that we are indeed ubiquitous.

We may not amount to much when we are counted, but we count in what matters, and we are taught in the Torah that we will continue to count when we adhere to the values and teachings of our tradition.

It is too easy to look around at the World and say “how are we so insignificant in numbers, yet so vilified; so hated, and subject to so much scrutiny ?” And to then play the victim card and hope that somehow the world wakes up and abandons this fascination with us. But we need to resist that temptation. That is not who we are as a people. We are the inheritors of the wisdom of the Torah and the values of our ancestors. We have much to offer the World, so as in the parasha, we each need to lift our heads to be counted so that we can continue to count, to be an Or L’goyim – a light unto the Nations, and to continue to play an oversized role in making this world a little better.

We never will be a people of great numbers, but we can if we continue to act in accordance with our teachings and our ancestors, forever be a great people.

Shabbat Shalom.