[Avodah] counting

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 11:31:13AM +0300, Eli Turkel wrote:
: In a shiur I heard the question was raised how count the Jews are
: counted several times in the desert to show how dear they are to G-d and
: OTOH we have a prohibition to count Jews as we see that King David was
: punished and we dont count people for a minyan
: One can find technical differences but they don't really explain what is the
: meaning of counting.

Ein berakhah ela bedavar haneelam min haayin.

My own guess is that this is because human knowledge can change a
potential event from being considered good fortune to being neis nigleh.

But that only applies to people, not HQBH, as ein davar neelam mimeka.
There is no information added when He counts us.

I know you asked for a "real" answer, but this thought (not claiming
it's peshat) from R' Jonathan Sacks was too beautiful not to share.

Why are Jews counted by each contributing a machatzis hasheqel?

If you count the Jewish population, the number is small. How many are we
today? 13.3 million Jews? 0.2% of the world population?

If you count the *contributions* of the Jewish people, however,
everything we have given society since monothestic ethics, the dignity
of man, our constribution to the arts, sciences, medicine, commerce, and
our size is far far greater.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             You cannot propel yourself forward
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