Bar’chu
et YHVH ha-m’vorach, Baruch YHVH ha-m’vorach l’O’lam va-ed!
Baruch
ata YHVHEloheinu melech ha-olam asher bachar banu m’kol ha-amim, v’na-tan lanu
eht Torah-to. Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Bless YHVH the blessed One; Blessed is YHVH, the
blessed One for all eternity. Blessed are you, YHVH, our Elohim, King of the
Universe, you have selected us from among all the peoples, and have given us
your Torah.)
Why would YHVH give instructions concerning a census while amid giving
instructions about the construction of the set apart articles for the
Tabernacle?
Initially these census instructions may seem out of place. However,
counting of the men 20 years and over was including them to take responsibility
to establish and keep order in the affairs of the nation.
‘’Pirket Avot 5:21 He used to say: At five years of age the study of
Scripture; At ten the study of Mishnah; At thirteen subject to the
commandments; At fifteen the study of Talmud; At eighteen the bridal canopy; At
twenty for pursuit [of livelihood]; At thirty the peak of strength; At forty
wisdom; At fifty able to give counsel; At sixty old age; At seventy fullness of
years; At eighty the age of “strength”; At ninety a bent body; At one hundred, as
good as dead and gone completely out of the world.’’
Exo 30:11 And יהוה spoke to
Mosheh, saying,
Exo 30:12 “When
you take the census of the children of Yisra’ĕl, to register them, then each
one shall give an atonement for his life to יהוה, when you
register them, so that there is no plague among them when you register them.
יב כִּי תִשָּׂא אֶת-רֹאשׁ
בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, לִפְקֻדֵיהֶם, וְנָתְנוּ אִישׁ כֹּפֶר נַפְשׁוֹ לַיהוָה,
בִּפְקֹד אֹתָם; וְלֹא-יִהְיֶה בָהֶם נֶגֶף, בִּפְקֹד אֹתָם.
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12 'When you (sing) will lift up the
head of bnei Yisrael to cause them to
be called to account they cause a man to be given a covering atonement for
his soul unto YHVH, to be counted; and not to be for them a fatal plague-.
for a sheltering covering is with them.
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“Census”- pâqad
- BDB Definition
1d) (Pual) to be passed in review, be
caused to miss, be called, be called to account
1c) (Piel) to muster, call up.
If we directly translate the Hebrew of these verses it
sounds completely different.
“ki tisa et
rosh benei Yisrael” or “when you will lift up the head of the sons of Israel…”
This has
been translated “when you take a census of the children of Israel”
Note the
use of the word “rosh” or “head” it is written in the singular. Note also the
use of the words “ki tisa” can also be translated “because you will lift up”…
The
translators most probably had trouble in trying to understand what the text was
saying. It is possible that this scripture is trying to tell us the following:
“Because a time is coming when you will lift up the son of man who is the
head of Israel” in him all those who are redeemed will be counted”
Exo 30:13
“Everyone among those who are registered is to give this: half a sheqel
according to the sheqel of the set-apart place, twenty gĕrahs being a sheqel.
The half-sheqel is the contribution to יהוה.
“Half” implies that two parties
need to co- operate to make a whole.
Exo 30:14 “Everyone
passing over to be registered, from twenty years old and above, gives a
contribution to יהוה.
Exo 30:15 “The
rich does not give more and the poor does not give less than half a sheqel,
when you give a contribution to יהוה, to make
atonement for yourselves.
Exo 30:16 “And you
shall take the silver for the atonement from the children of Yisra’ĕl, and give
it for the service of the Tent of Meeting. And it shall be to the children of
Yisra’ĕl for a remembrance before יהוה, to make
atonement for yourselves.”
Shemot 38:25-26 tells us that the silver collected was
equivalent to 100 talents of silver and 1775 shekels – and was used for the
foundation sockets of the tabernacle. Silver symbolizes redemption and the
total gematria of the Hebrew alphabet is 1775 – if you include the “sofiet”
letters – kaph, nun and tzaddi. -
Exo 38:25 And the silver from the ones
counted of the congregation was one hundred talents and one thousand seven
hundred and seventy-five sheqels, according to the sheqel of the set-apart
place:
Exo 38:26 a beqa, half a sheqel for a head,
according to the sheqel of the set-apart place, for everyone passing over to
those counted, from twenty years old and above, for six hundred and three
thousand, five hundred and fifty men.