Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Numbers Pinchas Verses 25:10-30:1

Unfortunately, this is my final post before I leave for camp. There will be no blog posts from July 4th to August 15th. I promise to write a blog about all the wonderful things I expect will happen at camp as soon as I can when I return. The camp is a Jewish camp in upstate New York that especially highlights the importance of Israel, teamwork, and friendship.

Anyways our Torah portion begins like many others in the book of Numbers, with Moses talking to God in the desert. In the beginning, God is talking about Aaron's grandson, Phineas (or in Hebrew Pinchas). Phineas chose to show passion to God rather than hostility going against peer pressure like Joshua. As a result, any descendant of Phineas shall be a powerful person in the Israelite nation. Then, the Lord asks Moses and Aaron to take a census of the people. Each tribe is counted. Judah had the largest population and the smallest tribe were the descendants of Simeon. Finally, God describes the different sacrifices necessary for various festive periods.

Although, a census provides decent information it got me thinking, "What is in numbers?" Strength is good in numbers, knowledge collaborates. Unfortunately, delegations is not always easy in large groups. Imagine being Barrack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu, or even Michael Bloomberg. Leading has its rewards, but it is a tiring position.

Who is the leader of the Israelites? Some would say Moses, but they would be wrong. Aaron? Nope! Maybe even Joshua? Or even the newly mentioned Phineas? No, no, and no. God is the only leader of the Jewish people. Every person mentioned previously is a messenger of God. As Jews, we are all messengers of God. We show the world what we believe.

Jews are minuscule in numbers compared to Christianity or Islam. This used to bother me. I pictured myself as an ant in a world of people who were different. Not that I did not like the diversity, but I just wished there were more Jews whom I would have a large commonality with. Hitler's answer was to get rid of people in large quantities. Our mission is to add people.

Here is Judaism by the numbers. We have 13.3 million Jewish people. 37% live in Israel. The largest numbers of Jews per country is United States,Israel, and then France. 50.4% of the Jews in the world primarily speak English. Tel Aviv is the largest Jewish city in the world, followed by New York.

I thank http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/world-jewish-population.htm for providing me with very detailed statistics.

Now that we know the numbers, I say who cares? Numbers are for adding, subtracting, and doing taxes. The only Numbers I care about is the book in the Torah. I said we should add people. Add people? It is true! People do not even reveal their Jewish side to the world. Imagine a world where Jews flock to synagogue or fill their homes with prayer. Then maybe Jacob's big football game or Sarah's dance, won't be scheduled on a Friday night. It is a dream, but only we, the Jews can show passion for God rather than hostility.

1 comment:

  1. Adam - I am going to share this one with my friends via email. You have captured the essence of why WE all should be proud to be who we are - not just convenient to call yourself Jewish when you feel can.

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