Rav Chatzkel Levenstein, zt”l, once noted a strange fact in the census ofKlal Yisrael, which demographically does not make any sense. Shevet Don had an adult male population of 62,700. They were the largest tribe. Shevet Binyomin, on the other hand, had a population of 35,000. When we look back to Parshas Vayigash and see the number of grandchildren Yaakov had from each of his sons, Binyamin had ten sons and Don had a single son. Not only did Don have only one son, but he was disabled.
Chushim ben Don, Chazal say, was deaf. If we were to have taken bets regarding who would be the bigger tribe upon the Exodus from Egypt 210 years later, any sound statistical prediction would of course predict that Binyomin would be the larger of the two shevatim.
And yet, at the end of the day, Don had 62,700 adult male descendants in this census and Binyomin had 35,000. Rav Chatzkel derived the following lesson from this: A person like Don, who knows he has only one child, and a handicapped one at that, turns to the Ribono shel Olam and asks: “How am I going to survive? How am I going to see future generations?” In such a situation, a person goes to the Being who controls everything and pours his heart out. A person with ten sons will be confident and say “Let’s do the math!” My grandchildren and great grandchildren will increase exponentially! Such a person does not daven as much. When someone feels confident, he feels that he can rely “on the data”. There are times, however, that the “data” does not yield the projected result.
That is the lesson of this census anomaly. The lesson is that we never know!
A Story from the Chofetz Chaim
There is a similar story mentioned by the Chofetz Chaim:
In Galicia, the custom was that on Motzai Shabbos (right before Ma’ariv), they would recite Tehillim. A fellow from outside of the city came into shul then and saw that the people were saying Tehillim. He noticed one fellow in particular, in the corner of the shul, pouring his heart out. As he recited his Tehillim, he was crying and banging on the wall. He was literally in a different world! The visitor was so inspired by this scene that he also started saying Tehillim with great inspiration and intensity. After Ma’ariv, he went over to this fellow in the corner and said to him, “I saw you saying Tehillim. It was very inspiring to me. You were crying your eyes out. Do you have a problem?”
The fellow in the corner responded, “Yes. I have a problem. I have a daughter who is not married. The whole week, I am on the road doing business and I am not at home (as was common in many parts of Europe). When I am on the road, my daughter’s situation is “out of sight, out of mind.” But when I come home for Shabbos and I see how broken my daughter is, it really hurts me. That is why I pour my heart out, because I don’t know how I can make a shidduch for her. I have no money!” I don’t have any idea how I can make it happen, so automatically I turn to the Ribono shel Olam!”
The visitor said, “Do you know what? I also have no money. But I have a son. Listen – you have no money and I have no money. Let’s make a shidduch between our children.” And so it was. The daughter of the fellow in the corner married the visitor’s son.
That shidduch produced four sons. One of them was Rav Aryeh Leib HaKohen Heller (author of the Ketzos HaChoshen, the Avnei Miluim, and the Shev Shmaytza). The second son was Rav Yehuda Heller Kahana (author of the Kuntres HaSefeikos). The third son was Rav Mordechai Heller, who was a Rav in Chodorov. The fourth son was Rav Chaim HaKohen Heller. So, from this poor shidduch came, among others, the Ketzos HaChoshen.
People do not study the Talmudic masechtos in Seder Nezikin without the Ketzos, and people do not learn Seder Nashim without the Avnei Miluim and people do not learn Yoreh Deah without the Shev Shmaytza. Likewise, people do not learn Seder Nezikin without the Kuntres HaSefeikos.
This goes to prove the old maxim: We never know!
