Had Yisrael lacked even one more person, they would not have received the Torah. His explanation is that the letters of the Torah correspond to the six hundred thousand souls of Yisrael. Thus, it was necessary for there to be exactly six hundred thousand in full. Therefore, the Gemara states (Shabbat 105b):
One who is standing over the deceased at the time of the departure of the soul is obligated to tear his garment. To what is this similar? To a Torah scroll that was burned.
The meaning here is that when a Jewish soul departs from this world, it is as if a letter in the Torah scroll is missing. If so, the count of Bnei Yisrael is six hundred thousand, and thus the Tur writes that we are obligated to count Bnei Yisrael before Shavuot, which corresponds to the six hundred thousand souls of Bnei Yisrael, matching the six hundred thousand letters of the Torah.
If this is the case, we can approach a first yesod: In the count of souls, there is no difference between one Jew and another. That is, when the Gemara tells us that one must tear their garment for a Jew who has passed to their eternal home, it does not specify that this Jew must be a Rosh Yeshiva or a Torah scholar or the like. It could even be the simplest Jew among the nation – if their soul has departed, it has the status of a Torah scroll that has been burned!
In the count of the six hundred thousand root souls of Yisrael, not even one soul could be missing – not even the soul of Datan or Aviram. Had Datan and Aviram said, “Wait, today isn’t convenient for us to receive the Torah. We need to go on vacation; see you next week!” there’d have been no Matan Torah that day!
Rabbotai, what difference does it make to us if there are six hundred thousand present, or one less, or one more? The Mishna in the Yerushalmi (Terumot 8:11-12) states:
If one was passing from place to place with loaves of terumah in his hand and a Gentile said to him: “Give me one of these and I will make it unclean; for if not, I will defile them all,” let him defile them all, and not give him deliberately one to defile, the words of Rabbi Eliezer. But Rabbi Joshua says: he should place one of them on a rock. Similarly, if gentiles say to women, “Give us one of you that we may defile her, and if not, we will defile you all”, then let them all be defiled rather than hand over to them one soul from Israel.
Based on the principle that one does not hand over a soul for another soul, the question arises: Is it logical that everyone should be killed for the sake of one?
Imagine the seventy heads of the Sanhedrin are sitting inside a shul. There is one Jew there, aged exactly 119 years, eleven months, and twenty days; and he is not very cognizant of what is happening around him. Non-Jews arrive and demand: “Give us one head so we can prove to the king that we killed someone!” Sitting there are seventy Sanhedrin members all filled with the wine of Torah! Why not give them the man in the wheelchair? How much time does he have left to live anyway?
Chazal in the Yerushalmi tell us: Never! Under no circumstance can one person be handed over! Why? Because every Jew is equal before Hakadosh Baruch Hu! It does not matter if they are the head of the Sanhedrin or a simple Jew; in count and numbers, all are equal!
Let’s now take another scenario: You have a shul with nine world-class Torah geniuses, like Moshe Rabbeinu. Can they say Kaddish? Can they take out a Torah and read it with brachot? Can they say Kedushah? No, they cannot. They need ten! In contrast, across the street, there is a shul with ten wagon drivers; and there they can sanctify the name of Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the world just as His name is sanctified in the heavens above! If they add one wagon driver to the shul of the Rabbeim, they’ll be able to say Kedushah and take out a Torah – because when it comes to counting, all are equal!
Rabbotai, if in numbers all are equal, then where does the distinction begin? It begins with names!
