Being Careful When Counting People

The Inside Story of Chabad in America — Through the Mindel Archives

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel Archives.

This week's parsha is a very unique parsha. It comes right after last week's parsha, and the two are connected. This parsha speaks about the machatzis hashekel, the half-shekel, and it speaks about how this is a forgiveness for the sin of the golden calf.

So the Torah says that Hashem said to Moshe: when you count the Yidden, don't count people directly — count the shekel, half a shekel — and you'll know how many there are, and there won't be a plague, and that will be a forgiveness for the sin of the golden calf.

Now, counting, as Rashi says, individuals can bring an ayin hara, a bad eye. Counting people arouses negative forces; it brings jealousy, and it can even bring death. It brings a bad eye in general. People shouldn't make a big fuss of things, shouldn't make noise when they count. When you count, you're making a fuss over this person. That's why, with children, many times you hear people say, "Oh, this child is a good child" — when you say the words "good child," maybe you shouldn't say so. Don't make a fuss or noise; you're calling attention to someone special. Counting — because when you count, you're creating a reality, and it arouses negativity, negative forces, attention. And there's a Satan that might take notice of this, and he's going to start to examine and start questioning. We don't want that. Don't make yourself a target, as we say — the Satan might interfere.

So this is the idea of ayin hara, and by the way, that is one of the reasons why, for a minyan, when you need ten people in shul, you don't count "one, two, three, four, five." Usually what do people do? They count using a verse with ten words — "that's ten." You don't count people directly, because of that reason.

Talking about a minyan — one of the reasons we daven with a minyan is because when a person davens alone in the house and says, "Give me understanding," or "I want to learn Torah," or "give me parnassah," or "bring Moshiach," or whatever a person has in mind, his prayer goes up, but until it goes up all the way, it is examined — they search him: who is he, what kind of person is he, is he worthy of all these brachos? And you know, every person has faults, so they examine him so much that they say, "Maybe we shouldn't let it through." But when you pray with a minyan, ten people, when their prayer goes up, they don't examine the person so much — it goes through right away, mimeila. That's the inyan of davening with a minyan — one of the reasons people should daven with a minyan.

So going back to the shekel — the shekalim and the golden calf. Now, this golden calf is called a collective sin; it's a defect on the entire nation, a blemish on the entire nation. It's called a sin of the generation. If somebody sins privately, that's between him and God, but this was a sin that touched everyone — since it's a sin of the whole generation, it's called a klali (collective) sin. It touches the nefesh haklalis, the collective soul. That's what it affected in the general soul. That's why it was so severe — he, Moshe, had to deal with this collective sin.

So we see here that the Yidden and Moshe are connected. Dealing with this touches the collective soul also, and it makes a descent, a fall — like it says, it brings down — like it says, "Go, go down," when Moshe heard about the golden calf. So the machatzis hashekel was a forgiveness for Moshe and for the Jewish people.

I heard an interesting teaching about a word — the connection between Moshe and Hashem especially. It's five letters. The middle letter is [unclear], then there are two letters on the right side of the middle letter, and two letters on the left side, right next to the middle letter. On the right is [unclear]; on the left is a yud. When we are close, we're connected; when we're far, [we're distant]. The first letter is a mem, and the last letter is a [samech/sin — unclear]. You're like a dead person if you're not connected — you should always be connected to Hashem.

So we see from last week how important the connection to Hashem is, as we learned — that you are connected to Him through a tzaddik.

So the Rebbe asks: why does a tzaddik feed us faith? He says: how can one be connected to God specifically through a tzaddik? Because, true, everyone has faith, but the faith that we have is a superficial faith. For it to go internal, inside the person, that can only be through being connected to a tzaddik. That's why —

Some people wrote to the Rebbe about this, questioning the need to be connected to a tzaddik. They said: "He learns, he davens, he does everything, he raises his children, he does things carefully — why does he have to be connected?" This is the question of connection. So the Rebbe said: No, you have to be connected to a tzaddik. A tzaddik brings down [G-dliness]. Learn from the tzaddik, learn the way the tzaddik is — this will bring you true faith. This is what it says, what we learn.

And we learned that last week's parsha, Moshe's name is not mentioned, for a reason — but this means you are higher than a name.

Moshe is the one who connects us with Hashem, and through that it has an impact also in the world — as it says, Moshe is called the head, and the Jewish people are called the feet, and Moshe brings down [G-dliness] to them. Just like a person's feet can take the head to a place the head couldn't reach on its own, the same is true with Moshe and the Jews — through Moshe, it gives an addition even in places that couldn't otherwise be reached. Moshe is called the faithful shepherd — he feeds the Jews emunah, he instills faith in them — even in those who said, "Every person has faith, and a person can say, I can do it through learning Torah alone." No — you can't; you have to have a tzaddik, and that faith has to be internalized, pnimi'us.

And the same thing applies not only to Moshe's generation — it says every generation has a tzaddik, and being connected to him will strengthen their faith. And that's what it means — that it brings out the hidden faith from every single Jew. Basically, this is what it says — not just superficial faith. So it says you should be connected, you should do what the tzaddik does — look at the tzaddik, not only learn from him but look at him, learn from him every day, from his [conduct]. That's one thing that we learn from [unclear].