In the beginning of Parsha Ki Tisa, Hashem tells Moshe to collect half a shekel from every man that is 20 years or older and that would be the way that Moshe would count them instead of the conventional way that would cause a plague upon the Jews, as said by Hashem. We see this in a few other places later on, for example, King Shaul wanted to count his soldiers so in order to do so he asked each one of them to bring a kid goat and when he counted them that way everything was fine. However, when King David wanted to count his people he did it the conventional way and once he finished counting, a plague struck and many Jews died.

There is a verse that states “And the number of children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which shall neither be measured nor counted.” I’m reading this wondering, what’s the problem with counting Jews besides the fact that G-d said not to. Just like everything else we learn, we can never fully understand G-d’s reason for His commandments, but looking deeper into this, I found a few explanations. The first explanation I found was from the Talmud. It says that blessings are not found “in something that has been weighed, nor in something that has been measured, nor in something that has been counted, only in something that is hidden from the eyes.” Rav Issac explains that this means that the eye has no power-we have no power or control over what happens to us. What we see is physically what’s in front of us, therefore we ignore the presence of a higher power. With this, Hannah Sragovicz helped me understand how it ties in with why we shouldn’t count Jews. When you count something, you are setting it up with a value of what you see, the external, and the superficial. There is a bracha you say when you see 600,000 Jews in the same room and the translation is “Blessed is Hashem, knower of secrets.” By saying this you acknowledge that every person is his own world and that each person’s potential is infinite and it is impossible for you to understand the full extent of their potential. By counting Jews “what the eye sees” is nothing compared to what’s actually there. We ourselves should never underestimate our own value and potential for blessings.

The second explanation I found was from Rabbi Bachya Ben Asher. He says that we do not count separate individuals in order to avoid singling them out which can bring judgment upon them. Instead we count as a community and although there may be judgment within, the good deeds that are done by us as a whole outweigh the judgment(s) and are therefore found worthy of Hashem’s mercy.

There are so many times we single people out in ways that may not necessarily be counting, and by doing so, we are creating more judgment within the community. Instead, we should see the potential and value in everyone, and push them to strive to be better. Each person is a bottomless pit of awesomeness that cannot be counted or measured. Have a great week!