Parashat Bemidvar: And Yet Accounted For

“Bemidbar,” in the desert, is the Hebrew name of the fourth book of the Torah, which we begin reading today, just a day before the festival of Shavuot.

In Spanish and many other languages, the book is known as Numbers, a name inherited from the Greek translation of the Bible. That name stems from the census that opens this week’s parashah. Moses is commanded to count every Israelite, tribe by tribe.

שְׂא֗וּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ֙ כׇּל־עֲדַ֣ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖ם לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֑ם בְּמִסְפַּ֣ר שֵׁמ֔וֹת כׇּל־זָכָ֖ר לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָֽם׃ מִבֶּ֨ן עֶשְׂרִ֤ים שָׁנָה֙ וָמַ֔עְלָה כׇּל־יֹצֵ֥א צָבָ֖א בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל תִּפְקְד֥וּ אֹתָ֛ם לְצִבְאֹתָ֖ם אַתָּ֥ה וְאַהֲרֹֽן׃ וְאִתְּכֶ֣ם יִהְי֔וּ אִ֥ישׁ אִ֖ישׁ לַמַּטֶּ֑ה אִ֛ישׁ רֹ֥אשׁ לְבֵית־אֲבֹתָ֖יו הֽוּא׃

“Take a census of the whole Israelite company, clan by clan, family by family, listing every male by name, head by head. From the age of twenty and up, all who are fit for military service, you and Aaron shall enroll them, man by man. One leader from each tribe shall assist you, each one the head of his ancestral house.” (Numbers 1:2–4)

The passage goes on to list the names of those tribal leaders, those who would help count and be counted.

But here's a detail: if you’re looking for the word “census” in Hebrew in this portion, you won’t find it. While modern Hebrew uses the word מִפְקָד (mifkad) for census, the Torah uses a far more poetic phrase: שְׂאוּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ (Seu et rosh) literally, “Lift the head of each person.”

This is not just counting people; it’s honoring them. Every person is lifted up, recognized individually, not reduced to a statistic. Not just how many, but who. Not just numbers, but names. People.Each counted according to their tribe, and all part of a greater whole. We are not a crowd; we are a people. And every single person matters.

The Torah says: “They took these men who were designated by name, and they gathered the whole community on the first day of the second month, registering them family by family, household by household, by name, from twenty years old and up, as the Lord had commanded Moses, he counted them in the wilderness of Sinai.” (Numbers 1:17–19)

This isn't a dry bureaucratic task. This is a spiritual moment. We are called to count with meaning, to acknowledge each soul who walks beside us, to affirm that we can count on them and that they can count on us. That is how a people is born: one soul at a time, one lifted head at a time.

And what’s more, this moment of counting leads us right into Shavuot, the moment we stood together at Mount Sinai and received the Torah.

The message is clear: Everyone counts. Everyone belongs.

Our tradition reaffirms this again and again, especially near the end of the Torah, when Moses, on the verge of death, addresses the entire people with these words:

אַתֶּ֨ם נִצָּבִ֤ים הַיּוֹם֙ כֻּלְּכֶ֔ם לִפְנֵ֖י יי אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֑ם רָאשֵׁיכֶ֣ם שִׁבְטֵיכֶ֗ם זִקְנֵיכֶם֙ וְשֹׁ֣טְרֵיכֶ֔ם כֹּ֖ל אִ֥ישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ טַפְּכֶ֣ם נְשֵׁיכֶ֔ם וְגֵ֣רְךָ֔ אֲשֶׁ֖ר בְּקֶ֣רֶב מַחֲנֶ֑יךָ מֵחֹטֵ֣ב עֵצֶ֔יךָ עַ֖ד שֹׁאֵ֥ב מֵימֶֽיךָ׃ לְעׇבְרְךָ֗ בִּבְרִ֛ית יי אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ וּבְאָלָת֑וֹ אֲשֶׁר֙ יי אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ כֹּרֵ֥ת עִמְּךָ֖ הַיּֽוֹם׃

“You are all standing here today before the Lord your God: your tribal heads, your elders, your officials, every Israelite man, your children, your women, even the strangers in your midst, from the woodchopper to the water-drawer, to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 29:9–12)

From the leaders to the laborers, from men to women, from Israelites to strangers; all are present.

And yet, over generations, tradition has sometimes twisted this message of radical inclusion, fencing off the mountain of God from those most in need of climbing it.

When we revisit that moment of revelation at Sinai, we are reminded: who was meant to receive the Torah? Everyone. No exceptions. No conditions. Age, status, gender, tribe. None of that mattered. What mattered was presence, and willingness.

We read in the book of Ruth on Shavuot not just because it takes place during the barley harvest, but because Ruth’s story is the Torah’s way of doubling down on inclusion.A woman. A foreigner. A widow. A migrant.

And yet, from her comes Obed, father of Jesse, father of King David. And from David, tradition tells us, the Messiah will come.

Let’s follow that genealogy for a moment.

It begins with Tamar, a Canaanite woman who becomes the ancestor of David through a controversial but determined path.

Then Ruth, a Moabite, a member of the very people who tormented Israel in the wilderness, chooses to join the Jewish people and is fully embraced.

Tamar and Ruth, two outsiders, become the foremothers of the Messiah. 

There is no “pure bloodline” in Judaism. There never was. The redemptive future is not about pedigree, it’s about integrity, justice, and inclusion.

We need that reminder now more than ever.

Today marks 601 days since October 7.Six hundred and one days of unfathomable pain, of unanswered prayers. Six hundred days and ona since we fell into an abyss of terror and destruction.That day, and every day since, left us with a wound still bleeding.The brutal attack, the murder of civilians, the rapes, the abductions.

And a war that, so far, has seemed tragically futile. It has not freed the hostages. It has destroyed lives, land, hope, and trust... ours and others’. It has eroded our faith in a future.

Today, 58 souls still remain beneath Gaza. Underground. In darkness. In terror tunnels. And the world dares to look away. To fall silent.

To receive Torah is to embrace life.It is to commit to justice.It is to honor memory.It is to affirm: we were all at Sinai. And therefore, we are all responsible for one another.

Shabbat Bemidbar, and the day leading into Shavuot, demand of us something deep.They call on us to count with purpose. To speak the names of the missing. To raise our voices for justice. To refuse to accept a world of indifference and hate.

As we end the counting of the Omer, we keep counting: those who are here, those who are gone, those we still long to bring home, and those who’ve given up on being present.

We count because everyone counts.We lift heads because every head matters.We show up because that’s the beginning of being a people.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach.

Rabbi Gustavo Geier