This week I watched an interesting clip of the President of the United States taking a stroll through the park in Washington. What was great about the video, were the shocked looks of disbelief of the stunned tourists, joggers, vendors and people hanging out in the park as they literally bumped into the President. People were excited to have a Selfie with the President or to have a quick hello, and the sense of awe and individual excitement from a momentary encounter with the President of our country was quite poignant. One person asked the President if he was for real and another was convinced that others would think the photo was with a Wax replica.
In this week's Torah portion, we begin the book of Numbers in which multiple stories and lessons from the Jewish people’s years in the desert are recorded. One of the themes of this book is Counting of Numbers and Censuses of Populations, with this first portion containing a census of the Jewish people during the second year of their sojourn in the desert.
Counting of people is not a side note to the book, as the book itself takes on the name of Numbers with this concept in mind. Counting of people is not a random act, rather it is G-d's way of stating to people that they matter. G-d is telling them, that they aren't just a collective mass gathering of people who share common beliefs and goals; rather they are a mass of specific and unique individuals who each have a role to play in the big picture and together they can form the beautiful tapestry that G-d wishes us to create in the world.
Sometimes we may wonder about our self-worth and wonder about the quality of our specific contributions to the world in which we live. Yet the recording of the multiple censuses of individuals is G-d's way of reminding us, that regardless of what we have done and the levels of our success, we inherently matter just by virtue of being and existing. Counting us individually, is G-d's way of bumping into us in the park and reminding us that we really do matter and that we each have our own specific and irreplaceable role to play in G-d's world.
G-d may not pose for Selfies but he sure wants you to know that you count!
Our job is to remember to capitalize on the potential that we have and learn how to use these reminders to inspire ourselves to greater heights and better accomplishments.
Good Shabbos
Yisroel