Parshat Bamidbar

SERMON     PARASHAT BAMIDBAR     May 30, 2025

ASHER WEISSBERGER BAR MITZVAH      LIBRARY REOPENING

Rabbi David Edleson    Temple Sinai       South Burlington, Vermont

NUMBERS

This week, we leave the book of Leviticus (whew) and we begin the book of Numbers. 

In Hebrew,  it is called “BaMidbar”  or “in the wilderness.”   In the Jewish conception, “the wilderness” is not some pristine forest;  it is a dry desert mountainous area where it is very difficult to know where you are or where you are going.   What you do know is that you are definitely not where you have been.   It seems appropriate for the times we are living in.   

In Hebrew numerology, Bamidbar equals 248, which is also what the name “Abraham” equals.  Abraham also left what he had known and travels through a wilderness before finally reaching his new home.  These days, we are all Abraham.

So if the Hebrew title of the book is “In the Wilderness,”  why do we call it Numbers?    Because the book starts off with the taking of a census and has another census later in the book.   The census in today’s portion is about counting the number of people eligible to serve as soldiers in the army. 

As we know,  in Israel today, counting the number of people eligible to serve in the armed forces is a very important and explosive issue.   The Haredi,  the ultra-Orthodox do not serve in the army, but the Israeli High Court has ruled that they must serve just like every one else.  The addition of Haredim to the army would add 70,000 active soldiers to the army, but the current coalition that includes the Haredi parties joined on an agreement that Netanyahu would get through a permanent exemption for them.   That hasn’t happened, and the events of October 7 make it almost impossible for it to happen.  It is one of the two things most likely to topple Netanyahu’s government.

It turns out that numbers matter.  They matter in the Torah where they are very detailed about how many people of what age were in which tribes, about how many of us went down to Egypt and how many came out; about how many plagues and how many days to Shabbat.   Right now we are nearing the end of ‘counting the Omer” which numbers the exact days between Passover and Shavuot. 

Numbers matter.  It matters how many people are still being held hostages.   It matters that so many lives have been destroyed in Gaza because of Hamas actions.   

It matters that President Trump has profited 700,000,000 dollars while in office on just one bit-coin company he created. 

It matters that his family business is getting billions of dollars in gifts and donations from Arab countries in the Middle East, and that his approach to Israel seems to change in the face of such numbers.

It matters how many federal workers, experts and scientists have lost their jobs with little or no warning. 

It matters how many people will be made homeless because of massive cuts to HUD.  

Numbers matter.  

It matters that Jews are 2 percent of the US population but account from around 60-70% of religiously motivated hate crimes, according to the FBI.  Even the year of 9/11, there were more hate crimes against Jews than against Muslims. 

But numbers then and now can be distorted and lied about.  The Torah tells us that around 600,000 adult Israelite men left Egypt, which means a total of 2-3 million people altogether.   That number is highly doubtful given that the total human population in 2000 BCE is estimated at around 50 million. 

These days, the Gaza Medical Authority has made a habit of distorting numbers.   For over a year, they and the UN claimed that 70% of the victims were children and women.  Then this month, they have quietly revised those numbers showing that only about 36% of those killed were women and children with the largest number of dead being young men of fighting age.  That makes the percentage of women and children consistent with civilian casualties in other wars.   Of course, that doesn’t get reported widely.

A few weeks ago, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher, during a BBC interview, claimed that 14,000 babies were going to die in Gaza within 48 hours, a claim that was blasted across the news and social media. It turned out that was a UN estimate of what would happen in a year if no food aid entered Gaza, but the damage done by such a loose use of numbers had already been done.  

Of course any civilian deaths are tragic, but accusing Israel of actively and purposefully starving 14,000 babies is particularly odious because it is just an updated version of a blood libel and so people subconsciously just accept it as possible.   Accusing Jews of killing innocent babies goes way way back.

Numbers matter.  

It matters today that Asher Weisberger is old enough to become bar mitzvah.   In Jewish numerology, gematria,  the letters in Asher’s name add up to 501.   “Asher” means happiness, but interestingly, if you take the first letter of each of the plagues in Egypt and add them up, it also equals 501.    

Asher, the Torah teaches us that we all have to choose between being a blessing and curse, and in your mitzvah project, you definitely turned a curse into a blessing.   Asher’s project was to help get our library ready to open after the flood we had a couple of years ago.   He did a lot of the painting, with some help from his parents,  while Pat Sears, Michael Rosenberg, Susan Zimmerman and Danielle spearheaded going through the books, putting them in an electronic system and getting the systems in place. 

We are “the people of the book,” so it is beautiful that as we celebrate your bar mitzvah, we can also celebrate our library opening again.  We decided to keep the childrens’ books out in our school, and the most borrowed and current books out in the hallway where people will pass them to bring our love of books out into the rest of the temple.  The library is there for all of us, so talk to Pat or Danielle about the system for checking books out. 

Although the book of Ecclesiastes warns us,

Of the making of many books there is no limit
And too much study wearies the flesh.  (12:12)

It happens that the word for Library,  “sifria” is very close to the word “sefira.”   In Kabbalah, the sefira are the emanations of the divine, the way God’s Infinite Light and Power come down toward earth.   It turns out the Sifria and Sefira not only sound alike, but they are equal numbers in gematria.    And speaking of numbers, our library, not including childrens books, contains 1,558 volumes.

Numbers matter.  

Asher, and everyone who helped,  thanks for turning  the “plague” of our flooded library back into an emanation of the divine light, and mazel tov to Asher on becoming bar mitzvah.  

Shabbat Shalom.

David