Weekly D'var

PARSHAT BAMIDBAR
Dr. Irwin Benuck

Numbers

אוַיְדַבֵּ֨ר יְהוָֹ֧ה אֶל־משֶׁ֛ה בְּמִדְבַּ֥ר סִינַ֖י בְּאֹ֣הֶל

מוֹעֵ֑ד בְּאֶחָד֩ לַחֹ֨דֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִ֜י בַּשָּׁנָ֣ה הַשֵּׁנִ֗ית

לְצֵאתָ֛ם מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם לֵאמֹֽר

Hashem spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai in the Ohal Moad, on the first of the second month, in the second year after the Exodus from the Land of Egypt saying.  It goes on from there that Moses is to take a census.  I have always wondered why the English name of this Partia is not Wilderness but Numbers.  When we look at the 5 books of Moses, is Baresheit not the word for beginning or Genesis?  And Shamot is Exodus?  Actually no. Shamot means names and is not translated into the English word Exodus and refers to the names of the children of Israel who were coming to Egypt with Jacob.  We find in this sedra of Bamidbar the word Lsatom which is the Hebrew word for Exodus.  Let’s try one more, Vayikra which means “Hashem called,” and has nothing to do with the English naming of the third book of Moses, Leviticus which literally mean “of the Levites.”  The last of the five books, Devarim translates to words, not the English name of the book, Deuteronomy, which refers to Mishneh Torah or second law.  So, except for Bereishis, the English translations of the four other books are not the same as the Hebrew and reflects more of the description of the Sedra and not from the Hebrew which comes from a word in the first verse of the beginning Sedras.

So, getting back to Bamidbar, numbers play a big role as instead of a head count, each person gives a half shekel and all the tribes except the Levites were counted totaling 603,555.  The Levites were not counted because of their service to Hashem and to the sanctuary as they were not supposed to fight or own land and therefore did not receive a land inheritance.  Their inheritance was the service to Hashem.  Today’s Haftorah is also about numbers but in the abstract.  It begins with the promise that the Children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can neither be measured nor counted.

So today we Jews number somewhere between 15,000,000 to 16,000,000 or 0.2 percent of the world’s population.  This is still less than the 16,600,000 number of Jews estimated in 1939.  If the Holocaust did not take place, using a Human Population Calculator, the estimated with a growth rate at 1.2 percent would be today over 42 million or now about 0.5 percent of the world’s population.  Still pretty small.  However, if there was no antisemitism, pogroms, holocausts, mass destruction of Jews and forced conversion, that number would probably approximate the sands of the seas perhaps somewhere between a half a billion to a billion Jews.  This would be a formidable number.  So, why at around 15.5 million, are we the world’s scape goats and so despised in spite of the contributions Jews have made to the world?

It is well known and undisputed that this small fraction of people made disproportion contributions to religion, humanities, the arts, and the sciences.  Whether it is monotheism, unlike the many gods Dorene and I saw recently in Egypt, philosophy and the great works of Jewish philosophers such as Maimonides, Rabbi Akiva, and Martin Buber, excel in arts and music with the likes of Chagall, Gershwin, Copeland, and Dylan, and too many to count in science and medicine including Einstein, Salk, and Chain.  In fact, around 22% or 217 of all Nobel prizes have been awarded to Jews including 40% in economics, 30% in medicine, 25% in physics, 20% in chemistry, and 15% in literature representing a population of 0.2 percent.  This contrast with the Muslims which constitutes 23 percent of the world’s population winning 12 Nobel prizes but only four in chemistry and the rest are Peace Prizes or in literature.  Israeli’s have won 13 Nobel Prizes which include 4 in economics, 4 in chemistry, 1 literature, and 4 in peace.  Israel has more Nobel prizes per capita than Germany, US, and France and more laureates in real numbers than India, China, and Spain.

          So why are 0.2 percent so hated?  It is well known that the left views us as capitalist, the right views us as communists and the one thing they have in common is antisemitism and their belief of the so-called Jewish influence in the world.  When it was advantageous to be white, we were Jewish.  Now that it is a disadvantageous to be white, guess what, Jews are white.  A while back Dorene and I were in Berlin and visited Humbolt University of Berlin where in 1933 a pogrom against the Jews was instigated by the right-winged German Student Union, supported by the new Nazi party, resulting in the book burning of 25,000 books, many by Jewish authors and other so-called degenerates like Helen Keller and Ernest Hemingway.  In a matter of a few months, 250 Jewish professors were removed as well as the entire Jewish student body.  Our left-winged progressive American universities did not have to rewrite the playbook on how to intimate, harass, and force Jewish students into confinement after October 7^th.  They took it right from the German Student Union who have had the cooperation of the administration just like in 1933.  Up until now and only because of threats and action to stop their public grants, the leadership in many educational institutions did nothing to protect Jewish students and faculty who are there to be educated and to teach, not to be indoctrinated or brain washed.  When these poison ivy university presidents were asked whether calls for violence against Jews violated their universities’ code of conduct, they equivocated with a response stating that it is context specific and related to whether speech turns into conduct.  We know too well of the recent murders of the two young Israeli staff workers, with such a bright future, who were gunned down by one of those monsters where words so easily turned into conduct.  Two of the three presidents who testified that day before congress were fired. Furthermore, Columbia has gone through several interim presidents and looks by observing the current president, will go through more.

5% is another number we Jews should know.  In 1922 Harvard formally engaged in a study called “The Jewish Problem” kind of what the Nazi’s did in 1942 calling it the “Final Solution.”  A quota system was developed limiting classes to be no more than 5% Jewish.  Other universities followed suit including my medical school Northwestern as well as the undergraduate college.  During the late 60s and early 1970s the quota system was finally declared illegal and Jews flooded elite schools and medical schools.  However, for a number of reasons, the number of Jewish students attending Northwestern and other medical schools is closer to 5% today compared to the approximate 25% who were in my class.

While the number 613 is a comforting number, the number 603 is truly upsetting as that is the number of days since October 7, 2023 when over 1200 innocent Jews were slaughtered and at least 250 innocents were taken hostage.  Let us pray that those remaining are returned before 613 days pass.

We are on day 48 of another counting, the Omer, the number of days between leaving Egypt, starting on the second night of Passover, and coming to Har Sinai (Shavuoth).  The total number of days is 50.  Fifty is a good number for Jews because it is also the Yovel or the Jubilee year.  We count seven shmitahs which is 49 and the 50^th is the Jubilee as was read and described in last week’ service. During the Jubilee year, in biblical times, some servants were released from servitude, some debts were forgiven, and a return to your own property was allowed.  Next month Dorene and I will be celebrating our 50^th anniversary year.  I know at Elm St. that might not be a rare event but for us it is and having our children and grandchildren with us and living nearby.  So, it says you can return to your own land and for Dorene that means Atlanta where I dragged her away from promising early in our marriage that we will return. She has never believed me since.  I have been blessed having Dorene as we made this journey together and continue, and her endearing support for me, our kids, and our grandchildren.  Toda Rabbah, Shabbot Shalom, and Am Yisrael Chai.