Bamidbar sermon:
In the last year of the last millennium, I became a deputy at the Board of Deputies on behalf of the Union of Jewish Students. It wasn’t the most exciting of leadership positions to take up, and I don’t remember much about most of the meetings other than the sense of playful camaraderie amongst the 5 student reps who lowered the average age in the room quite significantly. There is one meeting I have very strong memories of though. The Board were debating a new question that the government had announced it would be including in the 2001 Census for the first time. It was the question of personal faith. The Board debated whether or not it would support such a move, despite the fact that it was already happening. One of the deputies, a lady from Golders Green Synagogue who was wearing a sheitel or a wig to cover her hair, took the podium to suggest we should absolutely oppose this move as it would be how the next Hitler would find us, we mustn’t give the government this kind of information.
The next speaker was the magnificent Ben Helfgot – then the deputy for the Holocaust Survivors Association. He took the microphone, and directly addressed the previous speaker. ‘Darling, this is not how Hitler will find you. Every time you buy something kosher at Tesco and use your clubcard, they know! And there will be no new Hitler, this is not what we should be worrying about now’.
Ultimately the Board voted to endorse the question (over which they had no say). But I have often thought about this debate, particularly on Shabbat Bamidbar, when we read about the census Moses carries out amongst the Israelites. I wish I’d had a chance to ask Ben Helfgott what he thought we should be worrying about these days.
In fact the census question has become a useful tool for bodies such as Jewish Policy Research who can use the statistics to track the community, alongside it’s own studies, and this in turn helps movements and synagogues plan for the future, and know what to be worried about, and what to be excited about, in the future.
The census in this week’s torah portion is a very specific. It occasionally deviates but on the whole it is an attempt to establish a list of conscripts – men of fighting age who can be called upon to fight as the 12 tribes make their towards and into the promised land. The Torah wants to understand who will stand up and be counted for this specific task. Census’s today help us understand who will stand up and be counted as part of a community. But what it is we will stand up and fight for might be a bit more individuated.
There’s one name in the portion that really stands out for me, and it was the last name mentioned in the portion – Nachshon Ben Aminadav. All we know about him is that he is the Head of the tribe of Judah. But the midrashic tradition has given him a much more important role. As the children of Israel arrived at the forbidding Red Sea, they began to panic. The Egyptian army lay behind them, and the Sea in front of them. There was no way forward, and enslavement or massacre behind them. According to Midrash, it was Nachshon who took matters into his hand, before Moses staff could save the day. Nachshon began to walk into the water. The water came up to his knees, and nothing happened. He kept walking. Then the water was up to his waist, and nothing happened, but he kept on going. The water reached his chest, but still he powered on, with the aghast Israelites watching on. Eventually the water covered his lips, and was about to cover his nose, when the miracle of the splitting of the sea finally happened. Moses raised staff helps maintain the miracle, but it was the faith, bravery, and seizing of the moment that Nachshon took upon himself that perhaps forced God’s hand and ensured there was a way through for the entire nation.
Nachshon was not only counted in the census, he stood up to be counted in a moment of intense crisis. During this coming week, having counted the Omer since Pesach, we will be celebrating Shavuot and the giving of Torah. It is a festival that Rabbinic Judaism designed to teach us that the freedom granted us at Pesach, comes with responsibilities. Perhaps this is also a useful metaphor when we think about marriage today, and prepare to celebrate Lydia and Alex’s forthcoming wedding. You are both free individuals, but are choosing to step into the responsibility of marriage – choosing to care for and support one another as a unit, rather than revelling in just your individual freedoms. Being a part of something bigger than just ourselves is perhaps a core human instinct, but each partnership, community or tribe is made up of diverse individuals, with different priorities and passions.
We might not all want to stand up for the same issues – just as our lady from Golders Green and Ben Helfgot disagreed on how to approach the census, but in partnership and in community we can usually make a much bigger impact on those things we do decide to stand up for. And sometimes, it takes one brave individual to lead the crowd, the nameless numbers in the census, and in taking those first few steps, to lead us forward, and out of crisis.
As we approach Mount Sinai and Shavuot, the census of Bamidbar is perhaps a call to arms beyond the military men it was counting. Perhaps it is a chance to each ask ourselves ‘Will I stand up and be counted? What am I prepared to take responsibility for?’ We don’t all need to stand up for the same things, or even be the Nachshon in every situation, but partnership and community are amazing tools to enable us to feel our contribution can count, and to find where our passions lie.
Wishing everyone a Shabbat shalom and chag sameach, and may we all be blessed to find ourselves taking responsibility for that which we wish to stand up for, and making a real difference. Cain Yehi Ratzon – may this be God’s will. Venomar. Amen.
