Numbers: Stand and Be Counted

This week’s Torah reading is the commencement of the book of Numbers (as it is called in English – in Hebrew it is Bamidbar, “In the Desert”).   The passages really are full of numbers. Leviticus contained many listings – architectural specifications, ritual details – rather than narrative drive, and Numbers continues in this vein until late in the book. A large part of the listing is census statistics. God orders the multitude, through Moses, to assemble for a counting. For Israel generally, it is of military-age men. For the Levites, it is for males one month and above. Both Israel and Levi comply.

The book is clear that those who are counted are counted as individuals, by name, rather than merely contributing anonymously to a collective sum. The Israelites stand and are counted in a way that exposes them to the risk of combat in battle. The Levites might not be liable to military service, but they stand up for inclusion in a dangerous occupation; Numbers reminds us that error in ritual can be lethal for the mistaken, and concretely, we are told again that two of Aaron’s own children – who are themselves named again – perished for bringing strange fire to the Tabernacle.

The rabbinic tradition observed that the census in Numbers was rendered sacred because it was ordained by God himself, who appreciates each individual in their own right and their own individuality. Someone who treasures every part of a collection might list and count them – as a collector of rare books might with respect to each volume.

A census can be nefarious when not ordained by God. King David carried out one on his own initiative, and God responded with punishments. A possible explanation: King David was counting individuals as means to his ends, not as sacred in their own right.

Assuming they were exempt from military – although not ritual – risk, the Levites were part of a holy nation preparing to enter a holy land, owned only by God, in the service of a covenant. But the number of military-age Levites to the rest of Israel was about one to seventy.

Modern Israeli Society

Modern Israeli society is riven by a conflict between ultra-Orthodox who refuse to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) even as it is in need of more numbers. Some of the ultra-Orthodox argue that they are serving Israel in their own way, by preserving the nation’s spiritual foundation through Torah study. But there is nothing that is faithful to tradition – to historic practice or to its underlying values – about the contemporary balance. An increasing and significant part of the population refuses to serve, enjoying the protection of men and women who do. The Tradition teaches that study without deeds is hollow. And Torah study does not place you at the risk the way temple service does; there is no record of God smiting anyone for a bad midrash. A rabbinical student is not a Levite priest. There is value to committed study of the Torah, but that is not comparable to tending a sacred tabernacle designed by God and providing direct service to the entire nation.

In the Bible, military and spiritual service work together. All the Israelites are part of a nation of priests. The Levites ensure that the Tabernacle and Temple are in sacred order so the rest of the nation can participate in its rites. The number of Levites in comparison to the whole is so small that there is no jeopardy to security.

What do we say today when military and religious service part company?

Here is what I would say.

Anyone who puts his or her life at risk in the protection of Israel, and who identifies as a Jew, should be unquestionably accepted as a Jew. There are non-Jews – including some members of the Druze, Bedouin, Christian, and other national minorities – who serve as well, and they deserve full and equal honor. But if you serve in the IDF, while not believing in a supernatural God, and not interested in the Tradition – you have done enough that no Jew should dare question your identity.

Anyone who commits to the study of the Tradition while refusing to serve in the IDF? You might be acting in good faith. But if you are outright hostile to those who do serve and to the state that protects you – I cannot say you are doing nothing to help Israel; you are helping to maintain a Jewish majority, and you are helping to keep the Tradition alive in some way. But I believe you are doing a disservice to the Torah principles you purport to hold and the God who revealed them.

The Jewish Diaspora

These tensions over service and identity in Israel find parallels in the Jewish Diaspora.

There is a name for a particular group of people who criticize the policies of Israel: Israelis. You can be a member of the “loyal opposition” – like the prophets, you can be critical of current policies and practices, yet loyal to the death in the commitment to your people.

That is very different from being a Jew who is one-sidedly hostile to Israel or selectively denies the national rights of Jews – while asserting the national rights of Palestinian Arabs.

The Jewish view is that all human life matters. The life of innocent Palestinians matters. So even do the lives of enemy combatants; in the Exodus, when Pharaoh’s charioteers drown in the Red Sea, God cautions He does not celebrate the death of His enemies. In my own writings, I have tried to propose ways to achieve meaningful peace through political means that minimize violence.

But the Jewish view is also that Jewish lives matter, and Jews have the right, indeed the obligation to themselves and to their God, to defend themselves. It is sometimes a sad necessity to engage in warfare; the Jewish and Israeli view is that it must be done as ethically and humanely as possible in the circumstances. But sometimes hard fighting must be done. Hamas is a militant extremist group committed to the destruction of the Jewish people. Israel must not allow it to stay in power and launch more October 7 pogroms.

Diaspora Jews who wear keffiyehs, wave Palestinian flags, and demonize Israel are not exhibiting either a Jewish or universal morality. They are asserting that Jewish hostage lives don’t matter, the children of Sderot who have PTSD from Hamas rocket attacks don’t matter, the next round of men, women, and babies murdered by an attack like October 7 don’t matter.

Are these people Jews? I have no clear answer. In one sense, if you are born a Jew, you are always a Jew. In another sense, I see them as abusing their Jewish identities for bad faith motives. Even if they in no way contribute to Jewish religious life or support for Israel, they want to be considered Jewish because it serves their own self-focused motives. “Look at me,” they are saying; “I am so morally superior that I rise above my accident of Jewish birth, I disdain any kind of parochial affiliation to my own people, I rise to a higher moral principle.”

What these people are doing is not merely denying the distinctly Jewish dimensions of Judaism – the spiritual and cultural tradition, the sense of kinship with their own ancient people, a belief that Israel is its homeland. They are not merely ignoring the universalistic dimension of Judaism – its world-shaking commitment to the inherent dignity and equality of all of humankind. Instead, they are subscribing to the nationalisms of other peoples and, in particular, versions of those nationalisms that are tainted by Jew-hatred. They are not transcending their own identity and reaching a supposedly more detached and elevated plane; rather, they are merging themselves in the identity of other groups with their own distinctive histories and cultures. They are not breaking free of dogma, not opening themselves up to critical thinking, not demanding that belief constantly be checked against opposing opinions and modified by empirical testing. Instead, they become unthinking adepts of religions, like Wokeism, that are far more intolerant than the Jewish Tradition, with our embrace of argument and constant testing of abstract doctrine in the cauldron of real cases.

What these people are is the opposite of non-conformist. They are aligning themselves with local or global majorities. They are not risking careers in the name of principle; standing up for the equal rights of Jews in all respects, including self-determination, does not limit your career in today’s academia. It can be a precondition to having one.

Let us look at the numbers. In recent years, reports have documented a rise in antisemitic incidents on university campuses, with over 2,000 cases annually in North America alone, often tied to anti-Israel activism. Yet, the Jewish people, though small in number, continue to contribute disproportionately to global scholarship, culture, and ethics. This resilience, like the Israelites counted in Bamidbar, reflects a commitment to stand firm, not for conformity, but for the sacred duty to uphold our identity and values against the tide.

Conclusion

One in five hundred of those on earth today is Jewish.

That is all that remains.

There is one and only one Jewish state. There are dozens that are majority Arab (almost all of whom are devoid of their Jewish populations), Islamic, nondemocratic, or influenced by their domestic Jew-haters.

Vilifying the Jewish people and the Jewish state is not courageous or thoughtful.

It is not brave. It is not humanistic. It is not the triumph of philosophical detachment over loyalty.

What it is, is easy.

As for me, I am a descendant of the people of Israel and in particular the Levites. I hope that I in turn will be the ancestor of others in a succession that lasts as long as humankind itself. Here, now, I often feel like I am in the Wilderness and that the Amalekites are never far away; and for all of that, I still wish to be counted as one among my people.