In
English, Sefer Bamidbar is called Numbers, and Parshat Bamidbar
tells us why. A census is taken, which is an incredibly powerful and important
event in the history of Bnei Yisrael. We know that this census is important due
to the fact that we are given a date for it. God tells Moses to take this
census on the first day of the second month following the Exodus from Egypt.
In
the census that we encounter in Parshat Bamidbar, only the men are
counted. Moses is commanded to “take a census of the whole Israelite community
by the clans of its ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by
head” (Bamidbar 1:2). Why were only the males counted here? After all, the
women had an extremely vital role in the exodus as well. If it weren’t for
them, the Jewish lineage wouldn’t have been preserved. Women were part of the
“Israelite community,” so why were they left out? Further, Jewish identity is
passed through the woman! No matter how many children the Jewish men produced,
if it was not with a Jewish mother, the children would not be Jewish. So why
here does it seem as if the women didn’t count in this crucial enumeration of
the Jewish people? This census, God tells Moses, is of “all those in Israel who
are able to bear arms” (Bamidbar 1:3). So because only men could serve in the
military, they were the only ones to be counted? Were theirs the only identity
Hashem wished to count?
Taking
a deeper look at the Jewish view of gender differences we can see how men and
women play such different roles for the Jewish people. According to Rabbi Barukh Halevi Epstein
(Tosefet Berakhah to Num. 1:2), the Hebrew word for son, ben, comes from the
word boneh, or build. Bat, the word for daughter, is a contracted form of bayit, or home. We can infer from this that men are builders of community,
while women are builders of homes. Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks applied this view to our patriarchs and matriarchs. Both
Rivka and Rachel had the insight to know which son would continue the covenant.
Rabbi Sacks continues to describe the other powerful women throughout the
Jewish historical narrative. He writes,
The story of the “six women” of the
Exodus who played key roles in the story of redemption: Yocheved, Miriam,
Shifra, Puah, Pharaoh’s daughter and Zipporah…there are many other female
heroes in the pages of Tanakh: Hannah, Deborah, Ruth and Esther …. What characterizes
these women is their emotional-spiritual intelligence and the moral courage
that comes from it.[i]
The fact that only the men
were counted in the census is because of the inherent masculine quality of
being more likely to be in the public and constructive domain, as is necessary
for their status as military fighters. While the strength of a military, on one hand,
might come from the males, the strength of the nation, the ummah (from the same
root as eim- mother), comes from the women.
Thus, the Torah, despite
your view on gender equality or feminism or civil rights, can only truly grow
to fulfill its potential through intense study and conversation by both men and
women. Studying at Drisha for the month of June introduced me to Rabbi Silber’s
idea of Torah growing through the study and learning of women. Not only do
women benefit from Torah study, but Torah study can benefit from the unique
approach a woman brings to learning.
Strength of an army may have
come from the men, as in Sefer Bamidbar . However, the strength of a
nation comes from the women. Torah takes physical strength and emotional
compassion. Torah needs as many different outlooks as possible. The Hebrew
title of this sefer, Bamidbar, means in the desert. Just like a desert is open
to all, Torah is open to all. To maximize Torah’s potential, all must have
access to it, and all must contribute. If we keep Torah as the sole
responsibility of half of the Jewish population, we are stripping Torah of the
other half of her potential. Torah needs women just as much as women need
Torah.
Shabbat Shalom!
[i]“Weekly Dvar Torah: Bamidbar,” Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/9493.
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