by Rabbi Joyce Newmark

May 29, 2008

This week we begin reading Bamidbar, the fourth book of the Torah. The word “bamidbar” means “in the wilderness,” and this book is the narrative of the 38 years the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness until they finally came to the Land of Israel.

In English this book is called Numbers because it opens with an account of the census taken early in the second year after the Israelites left Egypt. God tells Moses, “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by the clans of its ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by head.”

As is immediately obvious, this was not a complete census, but only “every male.” Moreover, the census was limited to those who were 20 years of age and older, “all those in Israel who are able to bear arms.” Unlike the census taken by means of the half-shekel before the construction of the Mishkan, the Holy Temple, this census was taken for military purposes, to determine the forces available and to organize them for battle. After all, at this point Moses and the Israelites believed that they were about to enter the Land; we won’t read about God’s decision to let the generation of the Exodus die in the wilderness for a few more weeks.

Ramban, the 13th-century Spanish commentator, explains the census this way: “This was also the manner of kings when going to war…. Moses and the princes [of the tribes] needed to know the number of soldiers available…. For the Torah does not rely on miracles, that one person should pursue a thousand.…” That is, the Israelites could not rely on miracles but had to make all the necessary preparations for meeting their enemies on the field of battle.

But isn’t the Torah full of miracles? Obviously — but there’s a difference between believing in miracles and relying on miracles. We find this in Shabbat 32a — Rabbi Yannai said: A person should never stand in a place of danger in the expectation that a miracle will be wrought on his behalf.

Quite simply, if you lie down in the middle of the street in the belief that a miracle will be done to prevent you from being run over, you’re an idiot and you deserve what happens to you. But if you’re crossing the street with the light when a drunk driver comes barreling around the corner and you are able to jump out of the way and avoid being hit, you may legitimately consider it a miracle for which thanks to God are due.

As it happens, Monday is 28 Iyar, Yom Yerushalayim. Forty-one years ago, in 1967, on 28 Iyar, the Israel Defense Forces liberated the Old City of Jerusalem. For the first time in almost 2,000 years, the Old City, the Temple Mount, and the Kotel Ha’ma’aravi (the Western Wall) were in Jewish hands.

Was this a miracle? Certainly the IDF did everything possible to prepare for war. Certainly many Israeli soldiers were killed or wounded in the battle for Jerusalem and in the war’s other battles. Still, on Sunday evening, Yom Yerushalayim, we will say Hallel, songs of praise, in gratitude for God’s miracles.

Rabbi Joyce Newmark, a resident of Teaneck, is a former religious leader of congregations in Leonia and Lancaster, Pa.

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