By Miriam Michaels

This week's parsha is Bamidbar. Bamidbar goes through a census of the Israelites by Moses as commanded by God. It goes through how many people are in each tribe, and how many specifically who are above twenty and can join the army. It then splits up the tribes into North, South, East, and West. The Levites are done separately from everybody else because their numbers were similar to those who participated in the golden calf thing, and they are the ones who have to take down, transport, and set up the temple. For the difference in the numbers, 273, those that participated in golden calf worshipping who do not have Levite replacements have to pay 5 shkalim. Aaron and his sons have to set up and take down the Ark (in a very specific way).

What struck me as relevant about this parsha right off the bat after reading it was how it is basically all about drafting for the Israeli army. As soon as the men are of the correct age, they count as being a part of the army and join the other thousands from their tribe. The parsha's repetition in going through each of the tribes one by one is typical, but also makes all of the specifics a blur. Everyone who gets sent to the army becomes a statistic in the mass of statistics that is Numbers. What is frustrating to me about this is that it makes a lot of sense to know the numbers, and to have the census that describes who is how old and is doing what. This frustrates me because I feel like in Habonim, we spend a lot of our time trying to break past numbers. In addition to reading out facts about the numbers of people in Tel Aviv who do not have running water, we go to visit those places to better understand their situation. Having both sides certainly helps: both the personal and the statistical. We can have the big picture and understand what it means. Bamidbar's picture, though, is pretty huge. Going through 22,000 Levites is a LOT. Just, a LOT. Let alone all the other tribes.

I guess my point is that I have struggled to find a balance with the effectiveness and efficiency of dealing with numbers as opposed to dealing with people and specific situations. Habonim Dror North America is not massive, and that is definitely one of our strengths. At this point, if we try hard, we can speak to people and involve ourselves in their lives, making them more than a number. Outside of Habonim, in larger settings or just in different ones, it can be much harder to work beyond the "over twenty and male," or any short qualifying descriptor, due to lack of time or energy. And I think that is ok, and has to be. Including personality to everything we do is great, and valuable, and much more meaningful than the alternative, but is not always the best way to get work done. Maybe this means that the work is on too large of a scale, or maybe it means that we have to make sacrifices to accomplish a lot.

There is a lot more that can be covered in this parsha, especially relating to the army and to the splitting up of the tribes (social construct!!) but I think about the above a lot and I wanted to share it! Thanks!