This week’s portion, Ba’Midbar (literally, in the desert)
opens the penultimate book of the Pentateuch. It begins with an interestingly
accurate time stamp – God speaks to Moses on the first day, of the second
month, of the second year from the day they left Egypt – in other words, one
year and one month, to the day, after the famous Exodus.
And what concerns God on that day? The exact number – or
“Numbers” as the book is entitled in English – of the People of Israel. In other words, God orders a census. And
that brings me to a point I began talking about last week – that very little
had changed between then and now.
The Census – Then & Now
Two years ago, in 2010 – much like during any other “decade”
year – the federal government has held a census of the People of the United
States, in accordance with federal law.
To me, this latest census is strikingly similar to the first census ever
taken – the one we read about this week in our Portion. Allow me to demonstrate.
i.
The term “People”; their exact number
God orders Moshe to count the number of “people” of the
Children of Israel. What does the term “people” encompass? Does it entail all
people, men and women, adult and children, slaves and slaves owners? Not quite.
The original biblical text refers to the term “people” as including only males
(as opposed to males and females); over 20 years of age (as opposed to people
of all ages); and who could bear arms (see Numbers 1:3). The original
American Constitution’s notion of “person” was equally exclusive: In the period
close to ratification, the constitutional term of “persons” was interpret to
include only males (and not females); only “free” persons (as opposed to
slaves); and mostly property and land owners (which excluded minors as well).
The number of those “people,” according to the biblical
census, was precisely 603,550 (see Numbers 2:32). This number is strikingly similar to the
approximated number of people who left Egypt, according to the text, just a
year earlier: “approximately 600,000 men, notwithstanding children.” (Exodus
12:37).
While this number is not similar in any way to the 310
million or so Americans living in the U.S. today, it certainly is identical to
the number of people who conducted the census in America in that year;
see, for example, a not from the Census’ Director: “A Note to my 600,000 New
Colleagues.” (available at http://blogs.census.gov/2010census/
).
ii.
The Census’ Method
Today, just like the first biblical Census, the actual
method of counting is based upon divisions. The entire group is divided into
sections, or districts; those districts are divided further into lots; and
those – into families. Each person conducting the count adds up to the grand
total, which is received after accumulating a large group of data (in the U.S.,
a data gathered by 600,000 counters). The biblical text dedicates nearly an
entire chapter – 46 verses, to be exact – to the accumulated data that led to
the grand total; from which we may deduce the great importance accorded by the
text to the census’ method (see Numbers 1:1-46). Indeed, it seems that
the very method by which the census is conducted today is not very different,
if at all, from the one used by the original biblical census. This is probably
one of the very few things that we do today precisely the way they were
conducted thousands of years ago (and with the same amount of success, I may
add).
iii.
The reason for conducting a census
Why a census? Today, we are all aware of the “formal”
reasons – a proper allocation of federal grants and budget in a manner that is
proportional (or number-dependent) to the amount of people in each state.
Indeed, the census determines, to a large extent, the amount of dollars each
state would receive to fund its education, police, infrastructure, and, in
fact, almost anything that receives federal support. In addition, there are
several other reasons why the census is important today (see “Why [The
Census] Is Important?” http://2010.census.gov/2010census/why/index.php
).
Yet part of the reason so many people try to evade the
census’ pollsters (and part of the reason the federal government had to recruit
600,000 strong to do the job) is that they fear additional knowledge would
provide the government with additional power – too much power, perhaps – than
needed in order to govern over its citizens. There’s a strong sense among some
of the citizens that governmental knowledge equals governmental power, and
absolutely accurate knowledge may lead to absolutely directed power. I would
not like to dwell into this weak version of conspiracy theory, (“weak,” counter
intuitively, because it does have some factual basis), but I would love to
leave it to you to draw the proper analogy with the ancient ultimate pollster
entity – and the reason why He was interested in the exact number.
The Prophecy: Hypothetical, Not Actual
From the census – a scientific, data-oriented, fact-based,
empirical experiment – we move this week into the world of moral philosophy –
the untested, hypothetical, purposively inaccurate realm of biblical prophecy.
This week’s Haphtarah – Hoshe’a 2:1 – begins with a
statement that is quite contradictory to the subject-matter of this week’s
portion: “And the number of the People of Israel has been like the sand of the
sea, which cannot be measured or counted . . . [but God told them:] You are the
children of the living God.” I will not dwell here on the heavier conundrum
posed by the text – why would God have to wait until the Jewish People reached
that nearly infinite number in order to break the good news to them (that they
are the children of a living God), but instead concentrate on a much more
mundane question: Why does the actual
portion text take so much pains to reach an accurate number, while the
Haftara’s “prophecy version” insists on a number that is neither countable nor
measurable?
The answer to this seemingly trivial question is actually
quite profound, and stands at the heart of truly understanding the notion of
Jewish prophecy. And this true understanding can be summarized in the wonderful
phrase – appearing originally in the Tosaphot (Yevamot 50, 71) and invoked
countless times by Leibowitz – that “the prophet engage in prophecy only for the
matters that are ought to happen.” In other words, prophecy is not intended
to describe the situation “as is” (descriptive), but rather intended to encourage
certain desirable patterns of behavior (prescriptive). It tells us, in other
words, in which direction we should go, not in which direction we are
actually going.
Indeed, for thousands of years many of the prophecies
written into the text did not come true – in fact, many have proved wrong over
the years. But rather than seeing that as evidence of incompetence on the side
of the prophets, those unsubstantiated prophecies should only serve as evidence
of our own incompetence – of our own inability to live up to the prophets’
ideals. Still, those ideals are for us to reach, and they may always be there.
And that, to a large extent, is the difference between the actual (census) and
the hypothetical (prophecy).
Shabbat Shalom,
Doron
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