The Weekly Sedra – Parshas Bamidbar

The Rebbe says:

1. This week we begin a new Book in the “Five Books of Moses” called Chumash Bamidbar or as it is referred to as “The Book of Numbers”.

The first portion in Chumash Bamidbar is called Bamidbar, and we read this Torah portion every year on the Shabbos before the festival of Shavous (which is the anniversary of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai).

2. The simple reason why we read Parshas (the portion of) Bamidbar before Shavous is to make a separation between the curses which we read in the previous week’s Torah portion of Bechukosai and the giving of the Torah (Shavous). However since everything in Torah is perfectly exact (indeed our Sages learn out numerous Laws from one letter in the Torah), we must say that there is a reason why the portion of Bamidbar was specifically chosen to be the portion which we read before the festival of Shavous and not any other portion.

Let us find out how Parshas (the portion of) Bamidbar prepares us for the giving of the Torah (Shavous):

3. The Rebbe now lays the groundwork for the explanation:

The bulk of Parshas Bamidbar talks about counting the Jewish people, and this is actually why the Book of Bamidbar is referred to as “The Book of Numbers” (see Rashi on Tractate Yoma, Page 68, Side 2). Now if the main idea of Parshas Bamidbar is counting the Jewish people, and Parshas Bamidbar is a preparation for the giving of the Torah, we clearly see that counting the Jewish people is somehow a preparation for the giving of the Torah. How is counting the Jewish people a preparation for the giving of the Torah?

4. The Rebbe brings a proof that counting is a preparation for the giving of the Torah:

We clearly see that the idea of counting is a preparation for the giving of the Torah from Sefiras Ha’omer/the counting of the Omer (counting the 49 days between Passover and the giving of the Torah).

5. The Rebbe now analyzes the idea of counting the Jewish people:

Question: Hashem obviously knew the exact amount of the Jewish people, so why did Hashem command that the Jewish people be counted?

Answer: Jewish Law tells us that “something which is counted is never nullified or lost” (see Shulchan Aruch Yoreh De’ah Chapter 110, Law 1). This means that since certain things which are special to you and therefore you count each one, they are never nullified or lost.

[Translators addition:
Let’s take food as an example: If for example some non-Kosher rice fall into a huge pot of Kosher food, the non-Kosher rice is nullified to the amount of Kosher food and the whole pot is Kosher. This is because you obviously do not count grains of rice. However if for example a non-Kosher piece of steak fell into a Kosher pot, no matter how massive the Kosher pot may be, the non-Kosher steak is not nullified to the Kosher food and therefore the whole pot is not Kosher. This is because you do count each piece of steak].

So the reason why the Jewish people were counted, says the Holy Shelah (Rabbi Yishaya Halevi Howrowitz), is because Hashem wanted the Jewish people to last forever and never be nullified to all the nations around them, like it says “the Jewish people are like one sheep between 70 wolves” (see the Midrash Esther Rabbah, Chapter 10, 11).

6. The Rebbe now questions this explanation of the Shelah:

Question: The meaning of the Law “Something which is counted is not nullified” is that since this thing is very special, so-much-so that you even count each one, it cannot be nullified. So we see that the counting only shows us that the thing on its own was special, not that the counting makes it a special thing.

If so, why were the Jewish people counted? The Jewish people on their own (without being counted) are a special thing (a special nation) so they would not have been nullified to the other nations of the world even if they would not have been counted!?

7. The Rebbe now explains why the Jewish people needed to be counted:

It is true that if the Jewish people were not counted they would not have been nullified and lost to the nations of the world (because the Jewish people on their own are a special thing), however the Jewish people would not have been able to change the physical world into a Holy place which is proper for Hashem to dwell in.

To explain: If the Jewish people were not counted, their greatness would have stayed hidden in the spiritual worlds and their great strength would not have been able to come down into the physical world to affect it. However once the Jewish people were solidified in this physical world as a special nation they are able to affect the physical world. How did the Jewish people become a special nation even in the physical world? By being counted (because it is a physical action which shows the specialty of something).

8. The Rebbe now answers the original question of how the portion of Bamidbar is a preparation for the giving of the Torah (and therefore we read it every year right before Shavous):

The great accomplishment of the giving of the Torah is that Hashem then broke the decree of the spiritual and physical worlds being two separate things. Before the giving of the Torah the physical world could not be permeated with Spirituality and Holiness, even the Mitzvos which our forefathers did could not turn the physical object into a Holy thing. But when Hashem gave the Torah and He came down onto Mount Sinai, He gave us the possibility to permeate physicality with Torah and Holiness and make a dwelling place for Him.

And this is why Parshas Bamidbar is the preparation for the giving of the Torah: Parshas Bamidbar is all about counting the Jewish people in order to make them a special nation which can even affect the physical world and this is a preparation for the giving of the Torah which is the start of the Jewish peoples mission to change the coarse physicality into a Holy dwelling place for Hashem.

[Note: The Rebbe went on to explain why we also needed the counting of the Sefira as a preparation for the giving of the Torah…].

Translated and adapted by Rabbi Shalom Goldberg. Taken from Likutei Sichos Chelek Daled.