This summer, I am completing a 400-hour unit of clinical pastoral education, or spiritual care, as the Chesed Intern at Beth Tzedec. In this role, I have the privilege of offering my presence to members of our community. We spend our visits together getting to know each other, and I listen to the stories, often full of both struggles and triumphs, of the unique lives of each person. At the end of our visits, I notice that both of our souls feel a little lighter.

In the opening words of the Book of Numbers, Parshat Bemidbar takes a whopping forty-six verses of Torah to identify 603, 550 individuals among the tribes. The one-by-one counting of people in these first few parshiot of the Book of Numbers teaches us that individuals—their names, their stories, their souls—matter. 

A Chasidic Rabbi, Reb Simcha Bunem, is known for having carried two notes in either of his pockets. In one pocket, the note read, “For my sake the world was created”. In the other pocket, the note read “I am but dust and ashes”. Reb Simcha Bunem understood what Parshat Bemidbar teaches us: that we matter, that our stories deserve to be heard, and that we must share our stories in order to count ourselves as part of a bigger whole.

I am learning from my visits with members of this community that each of us is irreplicable and irreplaceable. Each of us matters, each of us counts. Each of us has something unique, special, and holy to contribute. I am grateful to those members of our community who have welcomed my visits and who have shared their lives with me, and I welcome more opportunities to offer a listening ear.

With blessings for a Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Lara