The children of Israel were fruitful and swarmed and increased and became very, very strong, and the land became filled with them.
Shemos 1:7
The Torah expresses the manner in which the family grew into a great multitude. Being that this boundless growth is included in Parshas Shemos, it conveys the idea that this limitlessness too is part and parcel with the concept of counting.
Parshas Pekudei
This idea can be similarly observed in Parshas Pekudei. Numbering the specific objects in the Mishkan is expressive of the finiteness of the Mishkan. However, conversely, the Shechina that rested in the Mishkan resided there in a manner that transcended all limitation. The infinite manner in which it permeated the Tabernacle, was to such an extent that Moshe was unable to enter its domain, due to the intensity of the G-dly revelation present there.
How can the themes of counting and of transcending all limitation be expressed in the same breath?
The fusion of both
The general explanation of how to reconcile this seeming paradox is as follows: Although the ultimate goal is to come to a state of being which is beyond limitation, i.e. the era of redemption, the intent of redemption, however, is not to do away with all limitations, but that the infinite should permeate the finite, and that there should be a fusion of the two.
It is specifically within the limited that there can be revealed the essence of G-dliness. When the infinite is revealed in the finite, it demonstrates that just as G-d is not limited by the finite, he is not limited to only being revealed in the infinite as well.
This objective was also the essential purpose of the Mishkan’s function. The Mishkan, while being a place of unlimited G-dly revelation, was a structure composed of vessels built with exact requirement and measure. In the finite was expressed the infinite.
The reason why the Mishkan was a place that had expressed the infinite in the finite was because this was in line with G-d’s wish of having “a dwelling place in this mundane world.” The Almighty wished for the merging of the unlimited expression of G-dliness with the confines of the physical world, since this is His supernal intent for the creation of the universe—that this mundane world become a dwelling place to host His infinite Presence.
