Va-Yakhel (Shekalim): Can You Count to 500?

You're not gonna believe this - I certainly didn't - but this blog post you are reading right now is actually my FIVE HUNDREDTH post! Yup, that's right. Somehow, over the course of nine years and seven months (give or take...), I have managed to write something vaguely-intelligible in this space 500 times. And 140,000 page views later (well, technically, 139,957; but who's counting?), I guess you're still finding it worthwhile to read. Thank you, everyone, for your interest, your feedback, and your support. I still enjoy writing them, so as long as you still want to read my Take on Torah, I guess we'll just keep meeting here like this! :-) Thanks again.

Every year it feels funny to say this, but even though it's still winter and we haven't even celebrated Purim yet, this weekend begins the countdown to Passover. Since it's one of our most significant holidays of the year, the rabbis inserted four (but really, five) special Shabbatot on the calendar to help us get psyched about the

festival and really build up to it. We begin that journey with an occasion known as Shabbat Shekalim. This name comes from the special supplementary reading, the maftir, that we add to the end of the Torah portion, where God tells Moses to instruct the Israelites to take a census. As they wander through the desert, it's helpful to know who's actually here and how many able-bodied men (yes, they only counted men; it infuriates me too...) are ready to defend them against potential dangers and enemies along the way. So each male above age 20 has to contribute a half-shekel to the public coffers, and when they ultimately tally up all the accumulated funds (divided by two), they have the total number of testosterone-y Israelites. Chauvinist, yes, but straight-forward. Right? Ok, then why is the Torah terrified that taking this census may cause a plague??

Oddly enough, the text states the following: "Each [dude (my insertion)] shall pay Adonai a ransom for himself on being enrolled, that no plague may come upon them through their being enrolled." (Exodus 30:12)

Why a ransom? And what's with the plague?? Well, have you ever heard of the superstition that we're not supposed to count people? It isn't quite as common these days, but centuries (and decades) ago, if you went to a synagogue's morning minyan, and they wanted to count to see if they had reached a quorum of ten, they would say "nicht-ein," "nicht-zwei," meaning "not-one" and "not-two," so they weren't *really* counting. Or they came up with a phrase that's ten words long, and used that instead of counting, e.g. "To be or not to be, that is the question." Superstitions are hard to pin down, both in origin and meaning, but there seems to be a concern about tempting "The Evil Eye" (spirit with ill-intent), if you acknowledge that a group of Jews has come together. It's dangerous to even just state out loud: "Hey, how great that we got all these people together!" And the Torah reading for Shabbat Shekalim represents an early example of this deep fear.

Honestly, I'm not even that bothered by superstitions. I'm not a mystic or a Kabbalist myself, and I don't subscribe to these fears about tempting The Odious Orb*, but I acknowledge that it speaks to a primal, nervous, fight-or-flight tendency
in all of us to maintain vigilance against potential dangers. However, what DOES bother me is that some of these superstitions stand as polar opposites to gratitude and mindfulness. If we stop for a moment and appreciate something, declaring out loud that we are aware and grateful for our health, our families, our good fortune - whatever - then we're inviting calamity. But then how can we be mindful and reflective, if the very act of doing so puts us in harm's way? So this is the part I find really interesting: the Torah says, essentially, 'take the census anyway.'

Despite all the risks, the potential plagues, the looming Perilous Peeper*, we are STILL commanded to determine how many Israelites are present. The benefits of valuing each person, of stating publicly that every individual head-of-household 'counts,' outweighs the fears. And one commentator

even suggests that the reason for a HALF shekel is to remind each man that there's a whole other segment of the population (women and minors) that they must represent. So even though we might be tempted to dismiss their superstitions, it is also interesting to note that these fears were quite genuine for our ancestors, and they went ahead with the census regardless. How much more so, then, might we say that today we NEED to recognize the contributions of every individual. Wealthy or poor, Jewish or not, and without consideration of gender, race, sexuality, religion or any other factor; we all contribute to society. Everyone is accounted for, and - Ignoble Globe* be damned - everybody counts.

*I got bored repeating "Evil Eye" over and over, so I decided to make up new synonyms for it...


Pictures in this blog post:
1. CC image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Picryl
2. CC image courtesy of JVR Pictures on YouTube
3. CC image courtesy of Shelly on Flickr
4. CC image courtesy of Bank of Israel on Wikimedia Commons