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How You Count
How You Count
Poetic Notes on the Parashat Bamidbar*
Diamond souls in the desert
G-d's joy in counting every one
How many are there
for G-d's plan?
The Temple on the back
of little children
one month old Levites
The firstborn of Israel
and the future of the Temple
on their shoulders
On the shoulders
of the Levite spiritual warriors
Carrying worlds through the wilderness
Count the warriors and
Count the warrior's little sons
Don’t count the Levites
with the Israelite military
They have the Temple on their backs
Like angels carrying the throne of God
Count the Levites like angels,
Count them like the stars of glory
From one month and upward
At only one month they are the pillars
They are the guardian gates of Israel
the inner gates and the outer gates
Samuel will receive some
who are called
to guard the Temple gates above
For there is a division of labour
in the plan of G-d
the little child will enter first
and the elder will enter last
to sit in the choir of the Torah song
Melchizedek gave place with joy to Abraham
in the place of counting one
Asenath gave place with joy to Yocheved
in the place of counting seventy
Rejoice with His people
all you seventy nations!
Draw me close in behind you!
We run to get near to you!
The King has secreted me in His chambers
covered me within his holy cloud
We will rejoice in the eye of the fiery storm
and be glad we are with you!
In the wild-land synagogues
at the world’s end
we have learned that your love is
the wine of heaven
Your love is
the joy of Torah everlasting!
It is right that the children love you
*Being a meditation on a Torah class on parashah Bamidbar, delivered by Rabbi Baitelman of ChaBaD Richmond, B.C., based on the series, Torah Studies, by Rohr Jewish Learning Institute. Neither Rabbi Baitelman nor the JLI have reviewed or approved of the content of this post.
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