Today we will share a bitachon thought related to Parashat Bamidbar, as well as to the upcoming holiday of Shavuot, which is this week.
In Bamidbar it says to count the Jewish people. Rashi says that due to the endearment of the Jewish people, God counts them at all times. When a person has an item that’s dear to him, like a stamp collection, he's always looking through it. There’s a concept explained in the Sefarim, of a Halacha called Davar She’b’Minyan/something that's counted.
For example, if something unkosher falls into a pot of kosher 60 times the amount of the unkosher, the unkosher part is batel/ nullified. Some things are sold in bulk, but certain things, Ike eggs are sold by the number. They are sold as a dozen, not by the pound. Something that is b’minyan, counted, is not batel.
And so too with God, since God wants to turn the Jewish people into something special, so He counts us constantly.
Furthermore, our rabbis tell us the word Yisrael ישראל is an acronym for:
Yesh There are יש
Shishim Riboi ששים רבוי 600,000
Otiyot letters אותיות
L’Torah לתורה
There are 600,000 letters in the Torah, and every letter is separate. They can’t be touching, corresponding to each Jew who has his own individual mission. This should give a person an sense of importance, to realize we all have a mission and purpose in this world. The Malbim explains in Tehilim that it says “God counts the stars, every star has a name,” just like the Jewish people. It says to the number, their names. Every star has a name means that every star is doing something.
From down here on earth, a star seems like a very small entity, but we know how large stars are. Stars are bigger than the sun. Each one has a mission and each one does something that impacts the world below. That's why the sefarim say that the Jewish people are compared to stars. When you look at a star from afar, you don't see anything, but when you get closer, you see it's a whole world. So too, with the Jewish people.
That's why when we count the Jewish people, we say Se’u Et Rosh/ lift them up. So that they should realize the importance of every single Jew.
Rav Moshe Feinstein says, that's why we always read Parashat Bamidbar before the holiday of Shavuot. Because people sometimes feel like, “What's the difference? Whether I learn or I don't, I'm not going to become great anyway.”
So we want to lift every individual up, to show his importance, and show that his learning and his service to God make a difference. It says that we needed each of the 600,000 people in order for the Torah to be given. That was the necessary amount for the Torah. Every person was necessary. So too today. Every person is necessary for the larger picture.
The Sefer Bamidbar is called the Humash HaPekudim/ the Humash of the counting.
But Pakid means officer, showing that everyone is an officer.
Everyone is recognized by God. Rav Wolbe says the the entire Bamidbar has this theme. For example, the Nazir is one man that decides to abstain from wine and cutting his hair and he gets to the level of a Kohen Gadol. The Sotah is one lady who deviates, and God makes a miracle in order to have her removed from the Jewish people, because one person committing a sin has an impact on the whole people.
One Nazir has an impact to the whole people.
The Torah is about individuals, about Yechidim. And that's what we want to reiterate as we get to the holiday of Shavuot.
Have a Shabbat Shalom.