It has been a while, but I am back and hope to be posting a little more regularly.
Below is my recent Shabbat sermon. I had been thinking about counting and community, and community member Howard Blas told me about Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month (JDAM). The light bulb turned on, and the result is the sermon below.
Atone For Your
Souls
Ki Tisa 5774 – February 15, 2014
Rabbi Elie Weinstock
There is a prohibition against counting
Jews.
The Talmud (Yoma 22b) quotes Rabbi
Yitzchak who teaches that one may not count Jews for any purpose – even for a
mitzvah. It is based on the verse in Hoshea (2:1):
וְהָיָה
מִסְפַּר בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל כְּחוֹל הַיָּם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יִמַּד וְלֹא יִסָּפֵר
Not counting Jews is most relevant
when counting Jews for a minyan. To do so, we are instructed to count body
parts or to say “not-one” or to use a pasuk with 10 words. When the State of
Israel conducted its first census, various halakhic opinions were expressed as
to its permissibility. (Those allowing it noted the goal of the census is not to
count specific people, rather to gain necessary information.)
As far as issurim go, this prohibition does not seem
anchored in the legal realm. It is more of a spiritual concept. Rashi reinforces
this reasoning by noting:
שהמנין
שולט בו עין הרע והדבר בא עליהם, כמו שמצינו בימי דוד:
We’re
worried about the ayin ha-ra. And we have proof that counting Jews leads to
calamity. It Shmuel II, chapter 24, King David counts Jews, and a plague leads
to the death of 70,000 people. What is the ayin ha-ra and why should it dictate
our behavior?
I would like to suggest that there is something wrong when we
count Jews. This is the ayin ha-ra to which Rashi refers. It need not be a
spiritual danger, rather there is a negative influence or perspective which
accompanies counting Jews. There are times when numbers are needed, but counting
people can lead to a negative result, an ayin ha-ra. It is this concern that
the Torah addresses in the opening verses of parshat Ki Tisa.
יב)
כִּי תִשָּׂא אֶת רֹאשׁ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לִפְקֻדֵיהֶם וְנָתְנוּ אִישׁ כֹּפֶר
נַפְשׁוֹ לַיקֹוָק בִּפְקֹד אֹתָם וְלֹא יִהְיֶה בָהֶם נֶגֶף בִּפְקֹד אֹתָם:
(טו) הֶעָשִׁיר לֹא יַרְבֶּה וְהַדַּל לֹא
יַמְעִיט מִמַּחֲצִית הַשָּׁקֶל לָתֵת אֶת תְּרוּמַת יְקֹוָק לְכַפֵּר עַל נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם:
(טז)
וְלָקַחְתָּ אֶת כֶּסֶף הַכִּפֻּרִים מֵאֵת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְנָתַתָּ
אֹתוֹ עַל עֲבֹדַת אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד וְהָיָה לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לְזִכָּרוֹן לִפְנֵי
יְקֹוָק לְכַפֵּר עַל נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם:
Why is there such an emphasis on kaparah?
The simple explanation is to atone for and avoid the sin of counting Jews. But
why the repeated mention of and noticeable emphasis on kaparah? The term
kaparah is usually associated with atonement as on Yom Kippur. Kaparah involves
a correction. Repenting for our sins leads to kaparah. At the same time,
kaparah can also mean redemption (c.f. Ba’al Ha-Turim), to change course or to
look beyond what is right in front of us. The kaparah achieved by the
half-shekel method of counting helps us avoid pitfalls inherent in counting. It
guides us towards a proper appreciation of what it means to count and be
counted and how we look at the totality of the Jewish people. We need to be
concerned with how individuals view their role as part of the community, who we
include in counting the community, and the strength and challenges of a broad community.
Achieving these outcomes when counting Jews provides 3 kaparot, 3 important
lessons on how we view our individual roles and the concept of community.
There is the kaparah for the
individual who must realize the need to become part of the whole. At times, the
individual may not want to ally her/himself with the community. Some may feel
that their individual talent or viewpoint does not fit into the whole. Rabbi
Samson Raphael Hirsch teaches that the half-shekel contribution reminds the
individual - as talented as s/he is – does not really “count” without
contributing to the whole. When we count Jews with the half-shekel coin instead
of counting each person individually, we create a framework that posits a value
in everyone seeing themselves as part of the whole. The capacity for community
is far greater than the sum of its individuals and each person must recognize
their true value as being part of the whole – whether they like it or not. This
is an important kaparah, correction in the individual’s perspective.
There is the kaparah for the
community to recognize the value of each individual. When we look to create
community, there are people who are easily overlooked. It is like the game of
kick-ball in school. Someone is bound to be chosen last. That hurts – and needs
to be addressed. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late Lubavitcher Rebbe,
teaches:
People differ in their intellect, character, and
talents, in the quantity of their material resources and the timbre of the
spiritual sensitivities. But all are equal in the very basis of their bond with
God.
He-ashir lo yarbeh v’ha-dal lo yam’it. Each individual
contributes equally to strees the importance that everyone counts.
February is Jewish
Disability Awareness Month (JDAM). It is an initiative bringing together federations,
synagogues, and other Jewish organizations to raise awareness and support
efforts to foster inclusion of people with disabilities and their families in
Jewish communities worldwide. How
many people have heard about it? I had never heard of the initiative until a
community parent and educator, Howard Blas, told me about it. Like so many
important issues, it is something we implicitly endorse but easily and
innocently ignore. JDAM was created to put the need to include everyone on our
radar screens, and we need these reminders. There are people who are easily
overlooked. Think of the people you don’t see often. Think of people who are
unfamiliar. They count. The half-shekel method of counting so as to include
everyone is a kaparah – a mandate to make sure not to leave anyone out of the
community.
The kaparah of the half-shekel directs
the individual to associate with the greater community, and it reminds the
community to include each and every individual within the count. There is also
a kaparah for the community to recognize that it is strong enough to include
the disparate individuals and ideas contained within it.
Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim Lunschitz, the
Keli Yakar, writes that we assign numbers and count things of value. If it
doesn’t matter, we don’t count it. Ki kol mispar moreh al ha-ma’alah ha-peratit
she-yesih l’kol ish va-ish. While we don’t count individuals, we can’t just
ignore the fact that our collective contains many unique talents, perspectives,
and voices. We know this is true. When you have two individual Jews, there are,
at least, three opinions. We can’t let differences prevent us from maintaining
as broad a community as possible.
The
Jewish people are an amalgam. In fact, the Hebrew word for congregation,
Tzibur, is homiletically interpreted as the acronym for Tzadikim, Beinonim
and Reshaim (righteous, average and wicked). In the 19th
century, there were some religious leaders who raised the idea of separating
from the sinners in order to create exclusively Torah-observant communities.
Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin (known as the Netziv) sharply criticized this
idea. He wrote: (Meshiv Davar I:64):
The author suggests that the only way to remain vigilant is to
separate (from those who are bad influences) the same way Abraham separated
from Lot. With all due respect for the author, this suggestion is a sharp sword
in the heart of the Jewish people and its continued existence.
The Jewish people must remain a nation of all
Jews. Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook, the first Chief Rabbi in Israel and a disciple
of the Netziv, writes similarly (Kovetz Yesod Mishpat):
[T]o decide that sinners are not part of Klal
Yisrael, and that the nation includes only the good and righteous – this is the
path of heresy…it is a wrong opinion that is forbidden to enter Am Yisrael…
I fear
the issue of separation and fragmentation is back with a vengeance. You know
the issues, and you have heard many of them discussed from the KJ pulpit, in
the Jewish press, and in our community. In Modern Orthodoxy, there are
differences of opinion concerning Open Orthodoxy, Partnership Minyanim, women
wearing tefillin, conversion, and the role of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. More
broadly in the Jewish community, there are voices who wish how to give up the
fight against intermarriage or to circle the wagons and ignore those who seem
to be leaving the community at an alarming rate. There are disagreements about
what it means to support Israel. Recently, a number of Jewish leaders
(including New York City rabbis) said those who support AIPAC are right-wing
fanatics. It may be tempting to draw the lines of community to encompass only
“the righteous” or like-minded people, but we cannot. If when we count, the
community matters more than the individual, those who are “outside the pale” of
tradition or communal consensus should be written off.
This
mindset requires a kaparah, and we cannot let our focus on the collective cause
us to ignore the individual voices that are out there even if they differ from
what we feel is correct. It is not easy to do. Ultimately, we are a strong
nation because of our diversity and disparate personalities.
The
half-shekel method of counting is a mitzvah, and it is a kaparah. It helps us
properly understand the responsibility of the individual to be part of the
community. It reminds the community to include those who are easily left out of
the count, and it calls for a definition of community that is strong enough to
include those who may differ.
We don’t
count Jews, but each and every Jew – individually and as part of a broad Jewish
community - counts.
