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Our Torah reading for this week, parashat Bamidbar (פרשת במדבר), is always read just before the holiday of Shavuot (i.e., "Pentecost"), which is the time we celebrate "mattan Torah" (מתן תורה) -- the giving of the Torah of the LORD (first at Mount Sinai, and then later at Mount Zion). The reading begins: "The LORD spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai... saying 'Lift up the head' (i.e., count) of the children of Israel (Num. 1:1-2).
Central to Sefer Bamidbar, or the Book of Numbers, is the counting of the person, identifying his "place" within the chosen vessel of Israel (Num. 1:52), and therefore the traditional sages link the idea of being counted by God with the giving of the revelation itself. In other words, as we come to know who we are as God's redeemed people, as we learn to reckon ourselves as his beloved, so we will receive Torah and be accounted among his people. Our heads will then be "lifted up," and we will receive the very first blessing of the Torah, namely: אנכי יהוה אלהיך - "I AM the LORD your (singular) God" (Exod. 20:2).
Hebrew Lesson
Exodus 20:2 Hebrew reading:
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"The LORD spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai... saying 'Lift up the head' (i.e., count) of the children of Israel (Num. 1:1-2). The Torah commentator Rashi insightfully noted that as we are counted, so we are lifted up and beheld by God. In other words your life matters to heaven, and you are counted worthy because of God's great redeeming love. The sages say that each of us is as a letter of Torah; each of us counts in God's book. Indeed our beloved Savior Yeshua said, "Even the hairs on your head are numbered" (Matt. 10:30).
May you lift up your head and be counted as one of God's own, friend....
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