This week’s Torah portion is Bamidbar. This Torah portion is about a census and how they counted the different tribes for the army.
In the Etz Hayim chumash, the midrash uncovers another way to understand the census, by comparing God to a person who had a store of precious jewels. From time to time, this individual would take out the jewels and count them. Just like the person counting his precious jewels, the Israelites are so precious to God that God just wanted to count them.
In Etz Hayim, it also says that it’s a miracle that there was the opportunity to count all of these Israelites, because Pharaoh tried getting rid of the Jews when they were slaves in Egypt. The census reminds us about everything Jews overcame to exist as a religion.
Similarly, a few weeks ago was Yom Hashoah, and we marked when the Nazis were trying to destroy the Jewish people. To this day, we should appreciate all the Jewish people we have in the world.
The big idea that I take from the census is that everyone is important. Everyone is a part of this world; we are all humans, and we all are a part of the same community.
In the Bible, it says, “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by the clans of its ancestral houses, listing the names, every male head by head.” But I feel like not only men count in this world — everyone counts, not excluding anyone just because they are a specific gender. Not only does everyone count, but we can each play a role in making everyone feel counted and included.
For example, when I first started at Krieger Schechter Day School in sixth grade, I didn’t know if I would make friends. On my first day, one of my classmates showed me to my classes and asked me to sit next to her. Then I started hanging out with her and her friends. Now I have all these friends that have helped me through hard times and really made me feel like I count. We can all make everyone feel included by doing the smallest things, like asking someone how their day is or inviting someone to sit with you or making someone smile. The census shows that we all should be included and we all can make others feel like they count as well.
Mollie Golaner is a seventh grader at Krieger Schechter Day School.
