This week’s Torah portion of Bamidbar is specifically relevant to the festival of Shavuot. This connection is found in the opening words of the portion, where G-d commands, “Count the number of all the congregation of the Children of Israel.”
Rashi comments on the command: “Because they [the Children of Israel] are dear to Him, He counts them all the time: when they went forth from Egypt He counted them; when they fell because of [the sin of] the Golden Calf, He counted them; when He was about to make His Presence dwell among them (i.e., in the Tabernacle) He counted them.”
When things are counted, they are all equal; the greatest and least great are each counted once. And since the census was a token of G-d’s love, it must have been a gesture to the equal part of every Jew: His essence, his Jewish soul. The point was to bring the soul of each Jew into prominence.
Rashi writes that G-d counts His people all the time; and yet, as Rashi himself points out, they were counted only three times in the first year, and very rarely following that. But, if the point of the counting was to reveal the essence of each Jewish soul, then this revelation has a depth which places it beyond the erosion of time--it is operative, literally, all the time.
The differences between the three countings which Rashi mentions were evolutionary stages in a process of revelation. First, the Jewish soul was awakened by the love of G-d; second, it began influencing the external lives of the Israelites; and third, it suffused all their actions.
The first census was on the Israelites’ departure from Egypt, and it aroused their spirit of self-sacrifice to the extent that they followed G-d into a barren wilderness. But it left their emotions untouched.
The second was prior to building the Tabernacle. It reached their intellect and emotions, because they were preparing for the work that was to bring G-d’s Presence into their midst. But still the impetus came from outside; from G-d rather than inside.
But with the third census came the actual service of the Tabernacle, when the Israelites--by their own actions--brought G-d into their midst. Then all their actions were a testimony to the union of the Jewish soul with G-d.
Now, the connection between Bamidbar and Shavuot becomes clear. When the Torah was given, Israel and G-d were united in such a way that G-d sent down His revelation from above; and the Children of Israel were themselves elevated. And we read, in preparation for our annual re-creation of the event, the portion which tells us of the third census when the two modes of revelation are brought together.
From Torah Studies by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Adapted from the works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
