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By Rabbi Tuvia Bolton, Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim, Kfar Chabad, Israel

This week we begin the fourth book of the Pentateuch, Bamidbar; ‘In the Desert’ relating the adventures of Moses and the Jewish people after they left Egypt before they entered Israel.

Being that this Shabbat is directly followed by the holiday of Shavuot, when we received the Torah over 3,300 years ago, it must have a message that will help us experience the holiday.

But this week’s reading contains no commandments or interesting stories to learn from. Only the dry numerical results of Moses’ counting of all the Jews person by person, tribe by tribe thousands of years ago.

What possible connection could this be to the greatest most significant and powerful event of all time when millions of Jews personally heard and saw the Creator of the Universe at Sinai?

In order to understand this here is a story.

The late Seventeen hundreds were difficult times in Europe and Russia for Torah Judaism. Myriads of Jews were being lured away from the Torah and it’s commandments by atheistic ‘enlightened’ Jews who presented an alternative: art, philosophy, assimilation and unrestrained fun.

One of the outstanding Torah figures of all time; Rabbi Eliahu ‘the Genius (Gaon) of Vilna’ decided to take action.

He chose ten (in another version ‘tens’) of his most brilliant and talented pupils to visit the universities and salons of Berlin, understand the new ideas there in order to disprove and defeat them once and for all.

But they seriously underestimated the enemy and the results were disastrous; all of these pupils, save three, became so enamored of the free spirit they found there that they joined the ‘maskilim’ and abandoned Judaism completely.

Two of the three that did not leave Judaism were; Rabbi Pinchas (who wrote a book called Sefer HaBrit) and Rabbi Moshe Mizlish who fled Germany and became a devoted Chassid of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Chabad (the enlightenment movement had less success among the Chassidim).

The third was Rabbi Shlomo Faigen and our story is about him.

The experience in Berlin awakened in him a desire to leave Judaism like the others, but something told him not to give in. After all, he was an accomplished Talmudic scholar with a bright religious future before him and …. he had doubts about atheism.

So he lived in a limbo world of doubt and indecision.

He remained observant, settled in Germany and made a living as a businessman; buying quantities of goods in Leipzig and selling elsewhere. Eventually his travels brough him to the city of Liozne where his friend Moshe Mizlish was, home of the Chabad Chassidim and their leader Rabbi Shneur Zalman.

Here, unlike the cold academic atmosphere of Vilna where he originated, the spirit was warm and alive. The Rebbe was truly unique as were his deep, intimate Torah discourses. And followers; awesome scholars and G-d fearing Jews; had an interesting ‘custom’ of occasionally making informal meetings called ‘farbringens’ where they would sit together, drink vodka, sing Chassidic songs (‘nigunim’) and speak inspiring words about how to love G-d, the Torah and all G-d’s creations. He felt his soul opening to a new world of joy and meaning, maybe here he could ignore his urges and doubts. He decided to stay.

One day the Rebbe called him to his office and gave him a mission.

“Shlomo, you used to be a businessman, right? Well, if you ever decide to do business again and return to Leipzig, please stop in the city of Karlin on the way and say hello to the great Rabbi Shlomo there for me.”

Sure enough, a week later our hero heard about a really good business deal and decidedurge to go for it! He packed his bags, got the Rebbe’s blessing, set off on his journey and, as he promised, stopped at the city of Karlin to see the Karlin Rebbe.

He arrived at the Synagogue, told one of the Chassidim there he had a greeting to deliver from the Rebbe of Chabad and was given a chair near the Rebbe of Karlin’s door to sit and wait until the Rebbe invited him in.

He sat there alone for five or ten minutes in silence when suddenly the strangest thing happened.

From within the Rebbe’s room, he heard pacing. Someone in there was racing back and forth in frenzy. Chairs were being pushed and things fell to the ground. Suddenly the door opened, it was the holy Rebbe Shlomo of Karlin, eyes bolting out of their sockets, staring wildly at the young man, gazing deep into his soul. Then he said,

“Maybe after all G-d does exist?”

He pulled his head back into the room, slammed the door shut and the sound of furious, mad footsteps resumed until, moments later, the door again burst open and the Rebbe again looked out and said:

“Perhaps it’s true?” Perhaps there really is G-d?”

When the scene repeated itself yet a third time, after the Rebbe again closed his door, our hero stood, brushed himself off and ran out the door.

He completed his business trip and returned to Liozne to rejoin the chassidim. Then, one evening a few weeks later, while the Rebbe was giving a talk explaining the mystical aspects of washing hands before eating, a scoffing smile appeared on young Shlomo’s lips and the Rebbe commented.

“He has a worm eating at his soul”.
A few days later Shlomo left Liozne, changed his name to Stefen and abandoned Judaism.
Years passed. Rebbe Shneur Zalman of Chabad, while fleeing the advancing armies of Napoleon, passed away and was buried in the small town of Haditch and, as fate would have it, the Czar decided to build a new cross-country highway that was to run through the very resting place of the Rebbe. What could they do? To move the Rebbe was out the question. Their only chance was to appeal to the Minister of Transportation.
But after a thorough investigation they discovered that the Minister of Transportation was none other than …. Shlomo (Stephan) the apostate! He had risen in the political spectrum until he was chosen to be a high Minister in the Czar’s government with massive headquarters in St. Petersburg. It was one in a million that he would help them …… but he was the only straw to clutch at.
A chassid by the name of Moshe Valinker, who had befriended Shlomo in the old days, was chosen for the task and several days later he was sitting in an ornate waiting room outside the Minister’s office.
Two guards appeared. He was escorted into the Minister’s office. The minister was sitting at his desk elegantly dressed, clean shaven with a well-groomed mustache. ” I remember you. What do you want?” He said coldly and officially.
Rav Moshe leaned forward and told the story of the Rebbe’s passing and the problem of the proposed highway.
“Aha!” Said the Minister. “Yes, I understand. You want me to divert the road, do you? Well, there is something I want from you as well.”
He rang a small bell on his desk, a secretary entered with a serving tray covered with a silver cover. Rab Moshe was afraid that the Minister would ask him to eat not-kosher food.
But the Minister waited for the secretary to leave, opened the cover and revealed a bottle of vodka, two cups, two small plates of herring and pickles.
He poured vodka into each of the cups, looked at Rab Moshe warmly and said, “The words I heard from the Rebbe of Karlin ‘Maybe there is a G-d after all’ echo in my head constantly and they make me long for the days I spent by your Rebbe. Now, do me a favor. Let us make a Farbringen like in the old days. Nu, Rab Moshe, make a le’chiam.”
After the le’chiam, he took out a large map of the proposed new road, spread it open on his table, erased the line that went through Haditch where the Rebbe’s grave was, and redrew it so it went around the town.

This answers our question about the connection between the Jews being counted and the Receiving of the Torah.

The Jews were counted not to determine population but to express the essential importance and uniqueness of each and every Jew; that each Jew ‘counts’.
First of all that each counts equally; ‘one’. But also that each has the power and obligation to add something unique and meaningful to the world. And this power is inherent in every Jew.
Therefore, there are no commandments in this week’s reading because, as the Minister in our story felt deep in his heart and mind, this G-d given value and responsibility is unconditional; not depending even on the observance of the commandments.
But on the other hand, every Jew inherently wants to do as many commandments as possible. To fix the world and reveal G-d’s presence even the desert i.e. a spiritual wasteland, through the Torah.
That is the message of our Torah reading and the message of Shavuot; each Jew counts……. And at Sinai we were chosen by G-d to inform all mankind that they too ‘count; i.e. are indispensable, and responsible to improve the world.
This ultimately will be accomplished by Moshiach and, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe said time and time again, Moshiach is VERY close, we need only to open our eyes…..

We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish hopes, prayers and suffering.   Now it could be that just one more good deed, word or even thought can bring ….

Moshiach NOW!!

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