{"id":56973,"date":"2019-06-06T09:45:43","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T06:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=56973"},"modified":"2022-07-20T22:36:39","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T19:36:39","slug":"bemidbar-interpreting-the-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/bemidbar-interpreting-the-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Bemidbar: Interpreting The Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[789,477],"acf":{"old_id":"56973","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36663,"related_cahpter":"1047","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"We need to recount the tale, not just count the tally","content":"<p>A census can enable us to number particular things.\u00a0 Yet the numbers themselves can\u2019t tell the full story.\u00a0 As Avivah Zornberg reminds us in <em>Bewilderments: Reflections on the Book of Numbers, <\/em>\u201cAs in English, the Hebrew words for counting and recounting are related: <em>li-spor <\/em>and <em>le-sapper <\/em>have the same root.\u201d\u00a0 We must tell a story alongside any counting so that the numbers themselves do not remain incomplete.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So the census itself needs to be interpreted, needs a story told about it in order for us to understand both what it is about and why it is significant, as this is not the first census of the Israelites.\u00a0There has been a census prior to this in Exodus 30: 11- 16 when all those of military age are asked to bring a half- shekel to contribute, as well as a subsequent census in Numbers 26:1-65 that tells us \u201camong these there was not one of those counted by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai\u201d (Numbers 26:64).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What the numbers in the census taken at the beginning of the book tell us is less important than the fact that none of those counted at the opening of Numbers survive to its end.\u00a0An entire generation dies during these wilderness years; the 603,550 men recorded in this first census differ from the 601,730 men in Numbers 26 (math by Jacob Milgrom in his JPS Commentary on Numbers) as all the earlier generation have passed away.<\/p>\n<p>Yet although there are rebellions, and complaints and lack of food and water and dissatisfaction in the course of the thirty-six chapters of the book of Numbers, it is also the book that marks the transition into the Promised Land.\u00a0Encounter with the wilderness makes the transition possible. Numbers of the people do not tell the entirety of their story.<\/p>\n<p>The purpose of the book of Numbers is to chronicle both the struggles and the growth that enables the Israelites to continue on their journey, to move towards the land and society they wish to create.\u00a0Despite the tragedy of death in the wilderness, the Israelites are able to adapt and to follow God\u2019s laws, with lapses. Another way to see the book of Numbers is as a period of post-traumatic growth which has been defined by Melissa Glaser in the book <em>Healing a Community<\/em> as \u201cthe belief that you can also achieve personal growth, encounter new opportunities, develop closer relationships, gain a stronger appreciation for life, and deepen your spiritual core in the wake of tragedy.\u201d\u00a0 These things, not numbers, tell us the most important story from the portion of Bemidbar and the book as a whole.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":105146,"id":105146,"title":"-628ea104a7fca--628ea104a7fcdex30-count 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