Numbers…Numbers…Numbers – Parshat Pinchas

100,000. Its just a number. So are 7, 613, 3.14159, and 17. Yet each  (99,998) of these numbers have special significance in their own context.1 What is significant about 100,000? For me, today, it is a personal connection. As I write these lines, I am privileged to be approaching a plateau of 100,000 people who have come in to read this blog over the years. (99,999). It is a privilege that I could not have foreseen or even considered when I started about 5 years ago. There is even a certain synchronicity here as well. This event takes place as we near the end of Sefer Bamidbar, also known as the Book of Countings.

(100,000) Yea‼ Lechayim! A well-deserved congratulations to us all - the writer and the readers. Without people reading, and in so doing, communicating their interest, this probably would not have lasted so long.

But wait. Am I making too much of this? After all, it's just a number. How is it different from 87,323 or any other number? Some will just say: Allan – shut up and appreciate this accomplishment – you have worked and, yes, you can enjoy this moment. (In fact, I am taking a short break to enjoy the moment).

(Two days later)

Good to be back.

There is a discussion amongst the commentaries regarding the nickname for Sefer Bamidbar. Literally meaning 'Book of The Desert', Chazal has also nicknamed it 'Book of Countings'. The different commentaries explain the nickname with relation to the general census occurring twice in this book - at the beginning and near the end in Parshat Pinchas. Yet, I have just checked and in all but three of the portions in Sefer Bamidbar, there is some form of counting of the entire people or of those who died in different manners. Countings are, in fact, occurring throughout this book. It really is a book of countings!2 This would  seem to support one of Rashi's contentions that Israel is like a flock – just as a shepherd watches over his flock and notes the damage when a wolf or some other predator invades his flock, so too, God is our shepherd and notes the damage when his children are killed by war or plague.

But why are WE interested in numbers? And shouldn't the Torah have something better to talk about than mere numbers? Maybe our fascination with numbers are just a part of the human condition. Just as we generally prefer symmetry, we are fascinated by numbers and statistics.

We see that with new analytic tools, numbers and statistics have become even more inseparable from sports where there are constantly new and improved stats which help analyze a player's performance. Maybe we can say that it's a way to predict outcomes and exert greater control over own fate and experiences.

In the end, I am fascinated as well by my fascination with this topic and wanting to understand it. And this may even be the most important part. There is curiosity. That curiosity has done me well over the years and I hope to remain curious about the world for many years to come. So, it is not necessarily wanting to have that control over my fate but perhaps learning to look at it and ask: what am I to do with this information? What is expected of me?3

i don't know yet. So, for now, 100,000 is a nice round number with some zeroes attached. I will simply appreciate it as a milestone and continue on.

Gratitude

Baruch shehecheyanu vekiyemanu vehigianu lazeman hazeh. (Blessed is God who caused us to live, stand up tall and eventually reach this moment)

Thank you God for helping me reach this date even though I hate writing and even though I had a heart attack in the middle which, thankfully, kind of disrupted things (and gave me ideas for a few of the blogs).

Thanks to Katriel Reichman, who built my English website and implored me to start writing for that website which eventually led to logoParsha.

Thanks to the dedicated staff at the 'Frum Therapist' site which hosts the logoParsha blog.

Thanks to all the readers and commenters who gave me feedback, even by just reading the blog.

Thank you to all those who gave me ideas (including anonymous hitchhikers) and helped with wording.

On to the next 100,000.

Notes

  1. 7 has multiple meanings in Judaism – including the 7 noachide commandments, the special fruits of Israel, King David was the 7th son of the 7th generation from Judah, and much more. 613 is the agreed upon number of divine commandments. 3.14159 is Pi. 17 is just my favorite prime number.
  2. Bamidbar chapters 1, 26 and Rashi 26:1
  3. A favorite question of Dr. Viktor Frankl. We are not to ask what do I want from life but rather… “It is we ourselves who must answer the questions that life asks of us, and to these questions we can respond only by being responsible for our existence.” Frankl, Viktor E.. Man's Search for Meaning (p. 156). Beacon Press. Kindle Edition.

Have A Great Shabbat!laughing

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