{"id":48710,"date":"2019-02-04T17:54:49","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T15:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=48710"},"modified":"2022-08-29T10:31:16","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T07:31:16","slug":"presence-and-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/presence-and-absence\/","title":{"rendered":"Presence And Absence"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Telling and counting are, of course, related; indeed, both involve relating, recounting, tallying, attending to loss and gain. Whenever God commands a count of His people, says Rashi, this becomes an expression of His love. After historical crises, like the Exodus and sin of the Golden Calf, He counts in order to find out how many have survived; and when He comes to dwell among them, He likewise numbers them. God’s love, it seems, is at its keenest in two opposite situations\u2014in celebration and after catastrophe. <\/span><\/p>\n

Counting punctuates both presence and absence. It is a way of paying attention\u2014for Rashi, loving attention\u2014to the individual within society. It is striking that the word pakad<\/em>, which is used some twenty times to refer to the act of registering in the census, generates a larger field of meaning that includes paying attention, appointing, visiting, seeking, desiring, being interested, as well as depositing, committing, entrusting. At the same time, pakad<\/em> refers to absence; it attends to a loss. For example, after the battle against the Midianites at the end of the book, the pekudim<\/em>\u2014those appointed to make the count of the survivors\u2014report to Moses: “Your servants have made a check of the warriors in our charge, and not one of us is missing [nifkad<\/em>]” (Num. 31:49). The paradoxical meanings of pakad<\/em> play off one another. This is Rashi’s reading: <\/span><\/p>\n

Lo nifkad<\/em>: no one is missing, as in Aramaic translation\u2014lo shaga<\/em>, which also means “not missing.” So we find (I Sam. 20:18): “if your seat is empty [yipaked<\/em>]” \u2014which means, if its usual occupant is missing. <\/span><\/p>\n

A space has been left empty and the one who pays attention notices a gap. Rashi cites the story of Saul and David, where David’s absence is remarked by Saul. To count, then, is to tally, to tell, to recount those who are present and\/or those who are absent, so that taking a head count may have its sinister as well as its gratifying significance. In celebrating what is present, one may encounter or even generate absence. Those who are counted in the first census are precisely those who are doomed to die in the wilderness. On the words “Take a census of the whole Israelite community” (lit., “lift up the heads …”), the midrash comments: <\/span><\/p>\n

Why does it say this at the beginning of the book? Why precisely this expression, se’u et rosh<\/em>\u2014”Lift up the heads” (Num. 1:2) Like a man who tells the executioner, “Take off his head”\u2014that is, kill him, God speaks in ambiguous language: If they are worthy, let them rise higher\u2014as we see [as Joseph told the butler], “Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position.” But if they are unworthy, they will all die, as we see in the same story, “Pharaoh will lift your head from off you and hang you upon the gallows” (Gen. 40:13,19). <\/span><\/p>\n

This expression for counting lends itself to a double meaning: promotion or death. The proof texts point to the most striking example of this ambiguity, in the story of the butler and the baker, Joseph’s prison companions, whose opposite fates are both indicated by this expression.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":61285,"id":61285,"title":"2sam24-census","filename":"2sam24-census.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/2sam24-census.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-census-can-be-a-controversial-thing-then-and-now\/2sam24-census\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam24-census","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":61284,"date":"2019-08-18 10:47:46","modified":"2022-08-29 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