Parashat Pinhas
A Count Of Love
The census that
occurs immediately after the plague for the sin with Midian reassures the
Children of Israel that they are still God’s partners in the covenant.
By Rabbi Reuven Spolter
The following article is reprinted with permission from
the Orthodox Union.
After outlining the reward that Pinhas was to receive for
his zealotry, God commands Moshe to attack and punish the nation of Midyan for
enticing the Jewish people to sin and for causing the plague that nearly
consumed them. Yet, immediately following this command, the Torah abruptly
changes direction, stopping in mid-sentence to begin a new count of the people.
Several questions arise from this strange turn in the text.
Why does the Torah end the story of the strife with Midyan so abruptly? What is
the function of the new census? And why is it connected to (and then
disconnected from) the story of Pinhas?
The answer to these questions lies in the curious language
Moshe and Elazar utilize when initiating God’s command to count every male
above age 20. Moshe and Elazar say, “Take the sum of the people from 20 years
old and upward, as the Lord commanded Moshe and children of Israel who went
forth from the Land of Egypt.” (26:4) After the miraculous excitement of the
Exodus and the glorious revelation at Sinai, the nation of Israel suffered
setbacks of ever-increasing magnitude, culminating in the punishment following
the sin of the meraglim (spies), when God banished every
male over age 20 from entering the Promised Land.
After 40 long years of wandering in the desert, the people
were understandably full of doubt. Would God retain His relationship with them
or instead move on? Would He maintain the closeness that began at Sinai or
would He view the descendants of the original Am Hanivchar (chosen people) with disdain?
By counting the people anew, God aims to allay their fears
and refresh their spirit by adding a sense of newness and distinction to their
mission. He wishes to give them the same purity of spirit that was present in
the Jewish nation after they had left Egypt. Therefore, God counts the nation
again. The purpose of this count serves not as a census or military count so
much as a reestablishment of their old identity as the Am Hameyuchad that would forever keep and guard God’s covenant.
The unique nature of the count becomes more apparent when we
scrutinize the text of the counting itself. As opposed to the count taken at
the beginning of B'midbar, which
focused on a military structure, here the count focuses on history,
concentrating on the roots and families of each particular tribe and their
connection to the original children of Israel. While their parents needed no
family history in the earlier counting, their children, an entirely new nation,
required reassurance that they indeed also constituted Klal Yisrael (congregation
of Israel).
It is precisely for this reasonthat the Torah connects and then disconnects this counting from
the plague at Shittim. After enduring the punishment of wandering in the desert
for so many years, the Jews seem to immediately revert to their sinful ways
when they engage the women of Midyan. Had they broken the camel’s back? Had
their sin pushed them over the edge, causing God to abandon them for eternity?
God immediately answers their doubts by counting them once
again, “as a shepherd counts his flock.” By cherishing each member of Klal Yisrael, God reestablishes a
covenant with them and ensures that they would forever be the Am Hanivchar, God’s chosen people.
Rabbi Reuven Spolter is rabbi of Agudas Achim
Congregation in West Hartford, Connecticut.
