{"id":46272,"date":"2018-12-23T18:31:12","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T16:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=46272"},"modified":"2022-07-17T15:28:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T12:28:07","slug":"the-deeper-meaning-of-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-deeper-meaning-of-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Deeper Meaning of Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":50634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[689,788,789],"acf":{"old_id":"46272","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34004,"related_cahpter":"118","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Indicating both continuity and rupture, the book yields an implicit narrative of catastrophe.","content":"<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The book begins with a census of the people. With ceremonious precision, the masses are tallied and choreographed for the march into the Land of Israel. Entry into the Land is imminent; the people the people are arrayed for battle. At the beginning of the book, this is the immediate future of the narrative.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The name of the book, therefore\u2014in English (Numbers), in Latin <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Numeri), <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in Greek <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Arithmoi)\u2014<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">conveys <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">just this memory of a moment of preparation for the fulfillment of God&#8217;s grand narrative. The people are counted twice, once in chapter 1, and once toward the the end, in chapter 26. These two moments are thirty-eight years apart; and both, ironically, are in preparation for the imminent wars of conquest of the Land of Israel. Between these two moments, a whole generation dies. What separates the two moments of counting is a total shift in population. The double census lends the Hebrew name a sinister cast. A book that begins in optimism shifts its meanings as the original generation is condemned to die in the wilderness for their sins. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The double census intimates a great failure: an entire generation, with all its expectations, with the presence of God it its midst, has vanished into the sands. The book of Numbers is a narrative of great sadness, in which the <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">midbar<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the wilderness, swallows up all of the aspirations of a generation&#8211;people who experienced the Exodus, the Revelation at Sinai, and the creation of a sanctuary for God. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a collective, of course, the people of Israel continues. It is constituted by the young (under twenty) of the previous generation and by the new generation. In terms of sheer numbers, there has been no loss. Strikingly, however, there is no mention of births. In a sense, the apparent continuity only serves to emphasize the terror that is encompassed in this narrative. The living presence of <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">numbers<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is transformed in the second census into the record of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">absences<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The tale of numbers, therefore, indicates both continuity and rupture, yielding an implicit narrative of catastrophe. In this sense, the book is well named Numbers, as though to indicate the tragic irony of altered expectations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>image: Valentin Drull\/shutterstock<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":46345,"id":46345,"title":"shutterstock_228394381","filename":"shutterstock_228394381.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_228394381.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-deeper-meaning-of-numbers\/shutterstock_228394381\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"shutterstock_228394381","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":46272,"date":"2018-12-25 03:56:52","modified":"2018-12-25 03:57:08","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":4167,"height":4157,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_228394381-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_228394381-300x300.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_228394381-768x766.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":766,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_228394381-1024x1022.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":1022,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_228394381.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1532,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_228394381.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":2043,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_228394381-1200x1197.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":1197,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/shutterstock_228394381-421x420.jpg","home_baner-width":421,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The 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