This parsha begins with the commandment to take a census among all the men of Israel twenty years and older. Instead of using a verb for counting, the Torah uses the expression “when you lift up the heads of the children of Israel.” In addition, we are taught that the people should not be counted directly, rather they should each give one half shekel towards the maintenance of the Tabernacle, and these shekels would then be counted to establish the correct number of people. There is much we can learn about contemporary reality and the human psyche from the particular way this census was done and how it is described in the Torah.
The idea of being a nameless entity in a cold and impersonal world has perhaps never been stronger than today. With the bonds of family and community increasingly weakened, and as the mentality of a computer driven, consumer society proliferates, the feeling of being just another faceless number in a ever more complex web of bureaucracy touches almost everyone in some way on a daily level. It is no accident that the Nazi death machine used the branding of numbers on peoples arms as a way of degrading the individual, taking away their freedom, humanness and true identity.
Therefore the Torah instructs us not to count other Jews as you would count other objects. A human being can never be thought of as a number devoid of a unique personality and infinite worth. This awareness teaches us the true way to relate to others.
For this reason the Torah uses the expression “when you lift up the heads” as a way to teach us that when relating to others we need to not only relate to them as individuals, but to also lift them up and make them feel special and worthy of attention and love.
Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach once visited a prison in the United States in order to give them hope and encouragement. As was his way, he hugged and kissed all the prisoners, Jews and non-Jews. As he was leaving one of the inmates who was physically very large and muscular came running after him which at first startled him and the guards. He then shyly asked for another hug which Reb Shlomo gladly gave him. He then confided that had someone only given him a hug like that when he was younger he would not be in prison today.
To lift up another’s head entails seeing beyond superficial appearances and seeing the Divine spark within each person. By realizing that you are just as much a half shekel as everyone else helps in deflating the ego, which tends to delude us into thinking we are somehow whole and everyone else is but a half. It is the Divine spark within each person which brings the feeling of true completeness and gives us the eyes to see so much deeper and the strength to lift up those we come into contact with.
