The book of Bamidbar or "Numbers" is the book describing the wilderness experience of the newly emerging people of Israel. It describes their challenges and their failures on the one hand and their persistence and courage on the other. As with all the words of Torah it also remains as an eternal guide for the generations that will follow. Each generation with its own unique wilderness experience. This book is also called “ Sefer Hapekudim, the Book of Counting”. We read in the beginning of the first parsha “Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by families following their fathers' houses; a head count of every male according to the number of their names. (Numbers 1:1-2)
The Midrash rabba explains that in fact there were to be ten such countings. Why must HaShem make a point of counting His people again and again and why must we be told of those countings?
Rashi explains that this was so because of " G-d's great love for His people, He counts them all the time.” Just as one who counts his prized possessions again and again out of affection. We are then told “As HaShem commanded Moses, so did he count them (Vayifkidem) in the Sinai desert. (Ibid: 19)
HaShem’s use of the word “Vayafkidem” to denote counting as opposed to more commonly used Hebrew words “Sofer” or “Moneh”, is not happenstance. The root word of this word is not just another way of saying “counting” but is rather a critical and powerful code word .Code words that point to redemption .When Joseph was on his death bed he relates these words to his brothers , knowing that they were about to enter a period of deep exile and bondage. On his deathbed, Joseph said to his brothers, the following “AndJoseph said unto his brethren: 'I die; but God will surely remember you’ (pakodyifkod etchem), and bring you up out of this land unto the land which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying: 'God will surely remember you ‘(pakodyifkod etchem), and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.' “(Bereishit 50:24.25).
When the time for Israel’s redemption finally arrived G-d appears to Moshe at the burning bush.He tells Moshe to gather the 70 elders and to tell them that their redemption was at hand. He told Moshe to say to them "the Lord, the G-d of your fathers, the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared unto me saying, " I have surely remembered you ( Pakod Pakadeti Etchem) and seen that which is done to you in Egypt'" ( Shemot 3:16).
The children of Israel understood,the message and its hidden code words. “ And Aaron spoke all the words which HaShem had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that HaShem had remembered ( PAKAD) the children of Israel, and that He had seen their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped. ( Genesis 4: 30.31)
What, then, does the word Pakod actually mean? The Ramban understands that the word Pakod does not merely mean to count or to remember, but rather to show concern, to take heed of other. As in "And the Lord remembered ( pakad) Sarah as He had said ... and Sarah conceived" ( Breishit/Genesis 21:1-2).
Yet there is a deeper level, as we see in the use of the word, Pakod, in another context as well. When David is concerned lest King Saul attempts to kill him he decides to go into hiding. He tells his close friend Yonatan, the son of Saul, what to say if his absence at the feast of the new month will be noticed “If your father miss me at all (Pakod Yifkideni), then say: David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Beth-lehem his city; for it is the yearly sacrifice there for all the family. (I Samuel 20:6)
The word Pakod does not only mean “to count” but to also to make sure that nothing is missing. It is more than counting “what is”; it is about ensuring that all that needs to be there is accounted for as well. HaShem is telling Moshe, in this torah portion, not only to count his people but to account for them all as well. HaShem is intent that no one is left out. He wants Moshe to make sure that none goes missing.
That as we know from our sages becomes not only the responsibility of Moshe or the concern of HaShem. It becomes the obligation of everyone of us.We read in the book of Deuteronomy “. You have selected the Lord this day, to be your God, and to walk in His ways, and to observe His statutes, “Deuteronomy 26: 17) How can mortals walk in the way of the infinite? The Gemara in Sotah (14a) describes the actions of HaShem: He clothes the naked (Adam and Chava) visited the sick (Avraham Avinu) comforted the mourning (after Sarah’s death), and so on. By emulating these things we will be in essence walking in the ways of HaShem.
This is true here as well. We are obligated to our fellow brothers and sisters to ensure that none of them go missing. The ravages of persecution and the pain of exile have wreaked havoc in the midst of our people. We, by walking in the ways of HaShem, must continually be turned towards all those “wandering in the wrong pastures”. When the people of Israel were attacked by Amalek we read,”You shall remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you went out of Egypt, : how he happened upon you on the way and cut off all the stragglers at your rear, when you were faint and weary, and did not fear God” ( Deteronomy 25:17-18)
Who did not fear G-d? Was it Amalek that attacked G-d’s people so close to G-d’s redemption? Was it perhaps referring to G-d’s people who did not completely fear G-d? It was this lack of faith and fear of G-d that allowed for a situation to occur wherein there were in fact “stragglers at your rear”. Stragglers that had gone missing.
The world and our people are being hurled forwards into their Destiny in a quickened pace. What was once measured in decades is now being measured in weeks. We are obligated, then, to look around us, not in judgment but in concern. We must not point fingers but rather learn to extend our hands. As the world becomes more and more embroiled in upheaval, we must be empowered to reach out in kiruv (outreach), hessed (livingkindness) and dialog, just as HaShem was counting and accounting for His people to ensure that none went missing, we cannot avoid our obligation to emulate that as well. That is the key to redemption.