World Mizrachi Movement - World Mizrachi Weekly Parsha -

It is interesting to note that the count of the Jewish people in the desert that appears in this week's parsha is a count of each of the tribes of Israel individually - with the entire population of the Jewish people divided into four separate groupings, and the kohanim and Levites forming another separate grouping completely. Why all of this particularism? Why is the Torah not contented to give a single population figure for the entire Jewish nation?

I believe that the underlying message here is the reinforcement of the Torah's view of the Jewish people and in fact of all of humankind, as many different individuals and never as a monolithic whole. In fact, this is the origin of the Torah's opinion that one should never count people individually in a direct and personal fashion. No two people are alike.and no two people are bound to hold exactly like opinions.

There are groupings and tribes that make up the Jewish people today and throghout all of Jewish history.This realization should make for a more tolerant and less bitterly divisive Jewish society. The Torah is therefore determined to treat the count of the Jewish people as a count of individuals instead of as a count of a large group or whole nation. It wishes us to realize that the Jewish people really are made up of so many different components and differing individuals and personalities and the Torah demands of us a maturity to deal with this omnipresent situation of the human condition.

Another point that strikes me about this week's parsha is the relative smallness of today's Jewish population relative to the total count that appears in this week's parsha. The numbers that appear in the parsha indicate a total poulation of about three million people - old, young, men and women. Three millennia later the Jewish people worldwide appear to constitute approximately fifteen million people. Natural growth alone over such a long period of time should provide us with a much more numerous Jewish people. Yet the Torah itself predicted that the Jewish people would always be the smallest in numbers of all peoples.

Exile, pogroms, assimilation, conversions and the Holocaust have all taken a depressing toll on our numbers. Yet in spite of our lack of numbers we have never lost our influence and effect on world society and civilization. The Torah teaches us that numbers are necessary - there can be no Judaism without live Jews - but numbers are not everything. It is noted that the Torah already indicated in the desert that population growth is problematic with the Jewish people.

During the forty years in the desert the Jewish population did not increase. The count at the end of the forty years eerily remained similar to the count in this week's parsha. Individuals matter greatly. That is only one of the many contributions of the Jewish people to the human story.

Yom Yerushalayim

HaRav Chagai Goldschmidt

Efrat Organziation, Jerusalem

“Yom Yerushalayim” is almost upon us and Chag HaShavuot is just a week away. In tractate Bikurim (chapter 3), the Mishna describes the bringing and offering of the first fruit to the Temple: “How are the first fruit offered? All the villages in a region would gather in the city where the region's leader resided; there, the people would sleep in the streets and they would not enter the houses. Early next morning the region's leader would say: "Arise and let us go up to Zion, unto the L-rd our G-d" (Yermiyahu 31, 5). The people living close to Jerusalem would bring fresh figs and grapes whilst the people living further away from Jerusalem would bring dried figs and raisins. The bull would walk in front of the people with its horns covered in gold and a crown made from olive branches on its head. A flute player would be walking at the head of the procession until they were close to Jerusalem..." (Mishnayot 2 – 3).

Why did the flute player stop playing on his flute as the people drew near to Jerusalem? HaRav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook z”l explains as follows in Ma’amarei HaRa’ayah (part 1, page 184): The Mishna, in tractate Baba Metzia (6:1), says as follows: “And the flautist is for a bride or for the deceased” - on the one hand the flute is used for bringing joy and cheer to a bride and groom whilst on the other hand it is used for mourning the deceased. Rav Kook explains that true and complete joy and happiness is a state of happiness, in which the feeling that there could be a time of grief and sadness is not lacking. Being aware of the difficult situation in which one may find oneself causes a person to acknowledge his miracle and for his joy and happiness to be more sincere.

There are three primary forces in the nation: The work which is in the body's strength – which is symbolised by the bull (the symbol of labour) who walks in front of the bearers of the first fruit; wealth, which is expressed by the bull's golden covered horns; and intelligence, which comes with the wealth and diligence – symbolised by the crown made from olive branches resting on the bull's head. These forces may be used for either good or bad. When these forces are used for evil or bad they are capable of bringing a holocaust over the nation as the work is capable of causing people to become immersed in themselves and to become very materialistic over the pleasures in life without understanding the essence of it all.

However, since the Law of G-d, which comes out from Jerusalem instructs the people on how to raise their work, the nation is capable of reaching its destination, which is beyond this state of existence. “Therefore, the talented flute player who walks up ahead of the people brings both joy and grief with its strong, joyful and happy sound until they are close to Jerusalem: “For there the L-rd commanded the blessing, even life for ever” (Tehillim 133,:3). This concept of the effect of the holiness of the Almighty in Jerusalem guiding a person in how to combine his materialistic work and to raise it to a state of holiness is also expressed in the city’s name.

An explanation to the meaning of the name Jerusalem appears in Bereishit Raba (chapter 56:16): “And he called Avraham, and Avraham named it 'Yireh' [it shall be seen or feared], as it says: “And Avraham called the name of that place Ad-nai Yireh” (Bereshit 22:14). Shem named it Shalem [complete, faithful], as it says: “And Malchi Tzedek, king of Shalem” (Bereshit 14:18). The Almighty said: ”If I name it Yireh as Avraham named it then Shem, a righteous man will complain, and if I name it Shalem then Avraham, a righteous man will complain, thus I will name it Yerushalayim as both of them named it: Yireh Shalem – Yerushalayim”.

Avraham, who was a G-d fearing person, and who was prepared to hand over his entire future to the L-rd for the sake of the Almighty – namely, his son, Yitzchak with the episode of the “Akeidah”, named the place after the fear or reverence, the absolute self denial in a person's life towards the L-rd. Malchi Tzedek [King of Tzedek], on the other hand, - “Tzedek”, which is the Hebrew word meaning righteous, who put a true and sincere righteous feeling into daily affairs, in matters between a person and his neighbour, named the place “Shalem”, after this attribute. Therefore, explain our Sages of blessed memory, the appropriate name for the city is a combination of these two actions, the raising of our every day affairs so that they are performed and achieved according to the Torah, thus uplifting them to a G-d fearing level – this is the appropriate name for the city, the dwelling place of the L-rd's throne in the world – Jerusalem. From here, the light of the entire world shines (Bereishit Raba, chapter 59) - “Jerusalem is the light of the world” - the way in which the world is managed, the combination of holy matters with secular affairs.

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