"When you lift up the heads of the children of Israel to count them [in a census], let each one give an atonement offering for his soul when they are counted, so that there not be a plague in the counting of them." (Exodus 30:12)
This week's Biblical portion seems to cry out directly to us, the reborn State of Israel, surrounded by enemies 
This week's Biblical portion seems to cry out directly to us, the reborn State of Israel.
many times more numerous than we, almost constantly involved in war, and subject to oft-made threats by the fundamentalist despot of Iran, with his finger dangerously close to the nuclear trigger. What we must attempt to understand is what allows a seemingly weak nation to win wars and seemingly strong nation to lose a crucial battle. Just listen to the lesson of the Bible.
The opening verse of our portion, Ki Tisa, quoted above, teaches that it is forbidden to take a number count of the Israelites - a census activity which Jewish organizations are constantly involved in doing. This prohibition is reinforced by the prophet Hosea (chapter 2), when he declares: "The number of the children of Israel shall be as the sands of the sea, which cannot be numbered and cannot be counted...." And historically, even King David learned the bitter lesson of the power of this command, when - against the will of his Chief Commander Joab - he ordered a census, and the Israelites suffered a plague (II Samuel 24).
Why can't we count Jews? What is the meaning of "giving atonement offering for his soul"? And didn't Hosea realize that we are not now - and were not in his day nor in any other time in Jewish history - as numerous as the sands of the sea?
The answer may be found in a very strange incident during the judgeship of Gideon, great leader of Israel, cited by Chief Rabbi Sacks in his Covenant and Conversation. Encouraging war against the Midianite enemy (Judges 6-7), Gideon assembles an army of 32,000 soldiers, but G-d declares this army too numerous for the Midianites to be placed into Gideon's hand. Exemptions are then offered to anyone who feels frightened, and 22,000 depart, leaving an army of 10,000. But G-d declares it's still too large a number and Gideon is ordered to bring his men to a waterway and have them drink. The vast majority, 9,700 men, kneel down to drink, while the rest lap up the water with their hands, remaining in an upright position. The 300 who do not kneel on their knees comprise the select soldiers that will wage war against the Midianites - soldiers who understand that it is only permissible to kneel before G-d and nothing else. Even though the Midianite forces are described as "innumerable [unable to be counted] like the sand at the edge of the sea in large quantity," (Judges 7:12) the small band of 300, waging a surprise nocturnal battle accompanied with great victorious sounds of the shofar, win the day.
The message is clear. A census presupposes that in battle there is strength in numbers. However, the Divine commandment forbidding a census teaches that if G-d is with Israel, then numbers are unimportant, and there is no need to start comparing our numbers with the numbers of other nations. To be alone with G-d is to always be with a majority of One. And to be with G-d first and foremost means that the soldiers, and especially their leaders and the leaders of their nation, believe that they are fighting G-d's battle, the battle of the just and the good and the righteous. To be with G-d means to be committed to the victory of the cause, to believe in oneself, in one's nation and one's mission.
A small band of dedicated people willing to sacrifice their lives to a Divine cause - such as a Jewish homeland poised and inspired to teach the world about a G-d of love, morality, pluralism and peace - is automatically as numerous as the sands at the edge of the shores of the sea. Such an army is as united as are the sands of the sea, and such an army contains soldiers each of whom is willing to give up his life (soul) as an atonement for G-d. That is why we successfully defeated all of the Arab hordes when our population was barely 600,000 in the War of Independence, whereas we sometimes hear from frightened leaders debilitating claims that even with a Jewish population of nearly six million we are too tired to win wars today. The Bible warns that Jews who lack the faith to risk their lives meaningfully in a just war for the sake of peace may find that their lives will be taken (absurdly) by plague, G-d forbid.
And if our portion of Ki Tisa opens by teaching that it is forbidden to count Jews in a census, which essentially implies that quantity equals quality, our portion goes on to teach that nevertheless every single Jew within Israel certainly does count. Moses is atop Mt. Sinai (or in the supernal heavens) receiving the Decalogue of morality from G-d, while the panicking Israelites - having expected their great prophet to return on the fortieth day when he had 
He did not enter into a covenant with only the elite and most dedicated Jewish scholars.
planned his return for the forty-first day - are worshipping the golden calf. G-d commands Moses: "Get down, because your nation whom you took up from the land of Egypt is acting perversely." (Exodus 32:7)
The sages of the Talmud expand on G-d's words: "Get down from our exalted state. I only gave you greatness because of your nation. Now that your nation is sinning, what do I need you for?" (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 32a) Picture the scene: here is the greatest kollel (rabbinical seminary) in history, with the Almighty as Dean of the Academy (Rosh HaYeshiva) and Moses as disciple (avrech). Nevertheless, G-d explains that He did not enter into a covenant with only the elite and most dedicated Jewish scholars; G-d entered into a covenant with every single Jew, from the elders and judges to the choppers of wood and the drawers of water.
Just as a holy Torah scroll is invalidated by a single letter which is missing, so is historic Israel (Knesset Yisrael) invalidated if one Jew is disaffected. Moses must go down to his errant nation and lift up each of the Israelites, restore every Jew to the commitment to the Divine message and mission.
Yes, the Jews as a nation must not be counted, especially if the census becomes the criterion for a successful battle in warfare; nevertheless, each and every Jew certainly counts, and each and every Jew is invaluable to Knesset Yisrael.