We have just commenced the fourth of the five Books of the Torah. This book is entitled BaMidbar which means “in the desert”, and the first Torah portion has the same name. The portion begins with a census being taken of the Jewish people.
This counting seems superfluous as there was a census taken after the sin of the Golden Calf.
Why does one count something repeatedly?
When we love that something very much, we have a tendency to count it again and again to make sure all is still there.
Think of a miser counting his gold coins.
Or, in a more relatable example, think of the mom in Disney, counting heads over and over to make sure not one child is missing.
Both examples of love instigating counting.
When Gd counts us it is to give the message that each one of us counts.
This may seem counterintuitive.
We know the Nazis had an obsession with counting their Jews. They tortured the Jewish inmates by repetitively counting them in the most inhumane of circumstances. They also assigned numbers to their prisoners. The philosophy of these barbarians was to dehumanize each Jew, stripping identity and replacing it with a number.
Gd’s counting is the polar opposite. It is a loving counting which embraces and supports the identity of each person.
Gd is saying to each of us that we matter. Without our presence in the world there is a hole in the tapestry of Creation.
That is because each of us has a role to play.
The Book of BaMidbar, is also called the Book of Numbers. In Hebrew, Sefer Pekidim.
The word Pekidim is very similar to the word Tafkid which means job or mission.
Our job is to focus and find our job.
In her recent book which has topped the New York Times best seller list, Rachel Goldberg Polin shares much poignant wisdom. Her book, “When We See You Again” is required reading in my opinion.
Rachel shares a teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, the father of Chasidism, who was asked
“Why does a soul come to the world?” Why are we here? What’s the point?
He answered that a soul comes to this earth to do one act of kindness. One moment.
This does not mean that the rest of life is meaningless, there have to be continual acts of kindness, growth and improvement. But it means there really is an intricate plan for you to do one thing, one day for one person. And what if we’ve accomplished that deed at a young age, why are we still here? Perhaps because someone needs to do their kindness to ME and it hasn’t happened yet.
Because we are all part of this synergy of interwovenness.
Taken from an interview of Rachel Goldberg Polin @unpackingisraelihistory
We as a Jewish people function at our highest level when we experience that “interwovenness”. We only received the Torah when we were so unified that we were “like one heart with one soul”.
But in that unity we never want to lose sight of the one.
We do not set out to lose our identity, to just become a number, rather we want to retain our individuality while maintaining a deep connection to each other.

This was expressed during the Splitting of the Sea when we left Egypt. Despite the movie showing one huge opening created by the splitting of the sea, our Sages teach us that there were actually 12 separate tunnels, 12 lanes, through which each of the Tribes traveled.
We are not supposed to be cookie cutter creations. We each have our unique talents and strengths and as long as we can celebrate and love each other, we can respectfully disagree with one another.
This also supports the custom that a synagogue, which is called a Beit Knesset, a House of Gathering, is built with 12 windows. This again focuses on the unique job of the individual. Before we begin our prayer we glance at those windows to remember that we have a job to do in the midst of our congregation.
Mr. Stephen Savitsky, a businessman and community leader has made it his recent life’s mission to be an “observant Jew”. This means he tries to be observant of situations where he may be of assistance and perhaps fulfill his unique life’s mission. This has led him to facilitate many extraordinary things as he has his eyes open to the possibility of being helpful in the most unusual circumstances. He shared one such story when he had returned home from a grueling, work related trip , only to have his business associate, Greg, call him to let him know they had a critical and unexpected meeting to attend in Columbus, Ohio. Despite his exhaustion, Steve complied and wondered to himself if a situation that he could assuage might present itself in this unscheduled trip. As they arrived at the ticket counter to check in, Steve noticed a young woman, lugging an oversized garment bag, weeping uncontrollably. He asked her if he could help. It turned out that Mary McGuire was on her way to her wedding but the airline was not allowing her to bring her wedding gown on board. She explained her dilemma to “the Rabbi”, (while not a Rabbi, Steve was wearing a Kippa).
Steve headed to the ticket counter and inquired if he and his colleague and Mary could all be seated in the front row and they would buckle the wedding dress on to their laps. Apparently this was acceptable by FAA standards and Greg was happy to help Steve with the wedding dress dilemma. After boarding, the pilot commended Rabbi Steve (he wasn’t a Rabbi) and Rabbi Greg (he wasn’t even Jewish) for their kindness and ingenuity toward helping the bride in distress.
When they all disembarked, six separate individuals approached Steve, identified themselves as Jews and told him they were so proud to be a Jew that day.
When our vision is honed to truly see the people before us we can always make a difference.
And, making a difference is the reason we were created.
One at a time, while still part of a greater whole.
(And if you get lucky you might even get ordained, even if it’s only by an airline!).
Shabbat Shalom and so much love!!