Why Doesn't the Torah Count Everyone?
Q. I have a question about the countings of people in the Torah. If we say that the many countings of the Jewish people is a sign of chibah/love, then why is only a small section of the Jewish people counted and not everyone? What does that say about who Hashem loves or what is required for Hashem to love someone?
A. Thanks for your question. The various censuses taken were for practical purposes, such as how many people were obligated to give the half-shekel donation, or how many people were eligible for military service. God can love everyone equally, but it wouldn't make much sense to have the Jews count little girls in a census of potential soldiers (for example). They counted what was relevant for the purpose at hand.
Q. But isn't at least one of the reasons the commentaries give for the counting to show Hashem's love? I understand the Jewish people needing a census, that doesn't explain why Hashem chose to put those counts into the Torah for us all to see throughout time.
A. Yes, some commentators do say that, but (a) that could just be their opinion, with which other commentators differ, or (b) they're not mutually exclusive; both reasons can be true.
God's love of Israel is the answer to the question of why there are so many censuses. Like when a human being has a collection of valuable stamps or baseball cards (lehavdil) that he takes out and lovingly pores over time and again. But that doesn't mean that each census didn't also have a more immediate pragmatic purpose. (The latter is the p’shat; the former is a drash.)
As far as why Hashem chose to put those counts into the Torah, the answer typically given is what you said: to demonstrate His love for us (again, this is not mutually exclusive with the stated purpose of any given census). Additionally, consider what the Gemara says in Sanhedrin (99b), that King Menashe used to mock the Torah, saying things like, “Did Moshe have nothing better to write than ‘the sister of Lotan was Timna?’” The Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim goes on to illustrate how many seemingly superfluous details in the Torah actually have legal ramifications (you can read more about that here). So, in addition to demonstrating God's love for us – which is no doubt reason enough to include the censuses – who knows what other significance such information might carry?
Q. It just seems like with all the counts at least one time in the Torah we could have gotten one total definitive number of the entire nation at the time they entered Israel or how many people actually left Egypt, etc. so we wouldn't need to spend millennia guessing/extrapolating. It seems at least as important as the numbers of men 20-60 in each Shevet, or at least as important as how many years the people in the beginning of the world lived.
A. If that information were important for us to have, we’d have been given it! Do you know the names of Kayin and Hevel’s three sisters? Neither do I! Nor do I know the names of Noach’s siblings or Tzipporah's mother. The Torah gives us information that Hashem deemed necessary for us to know; that doesn’t always align with what we’d like to know. Even if the Torah had given us all of the above information, there would always be an infinite number of other details we could ask about.
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Q. Is a Jew not supposed to take part in a U.S. census?
A. Thanks for your question, which was forwarded to my attention. There's no problem with participating in the US census for many reasons. I'll give you two:
1. The prohibition against counting Jews applies to Jews; others are not so prohibited.
2. The prohibition is against counting people. When they collected a half-shekel from everyone and counted the half-shekels, that wasn't a problem. Similarly, if you fill out a census form and say that there are five people in your family, and then someone takes all the forms and adds all the numbers, they're not counting heads.
I hope this helps!
Rabbi Jack's book Ask Rabbi Jack is available from Kodesh Press and on Amazon.com.