MAY 21 • 2020 | 31
Spirit
torah portion
T
his week’
s portion is
the first in the Book of
Numbers, known also as
Bamidbar/In the Wilderness.
The English name is drawn
from the census of the Israelites
that takes place in the desert. .
Why, at the beginning of a
book chronicling the dramatic
ups and downs of a peo-
ple in formation, are we
subjected to a tedious
and technical census?
Today, we are indeed
in the wilderness:
The coronavirus has
catapulted us into
uncharted territory.
Like the Israelites, we
find ourselves counting.
Counting days of iso-
lation. Counting 6 feet
apart. Counting risk
factors. Counting pre-
cious dollars lost from
retirement funds. That’
s
just on the personal
level; what about the
various collectives of which we
are a part? Our organizations
are counting money in reserve;
our communities are counting
lives lost; our society is counting
months until a vaccine.
On a deeper level, another
sort of counting is going on.
The shutdown has forced soci-
ety to ask: Who counts? Who
is disposable? Whose lives are
worthy of protection? We’
ve
witnessed a wave of strikes from
those deemed “essential work-
ers;” from Instacart to Amazon,
workers are trying desperately
to bring attention to lack of
adequate pay and protection.
The pandemic has laid bare the
brutal hierarchy of human life
our society is built on.
Perhaps the biblical census
serves to undermine the logic of
slavery in addition to the inhu-
manity of our own social order.
Rabbi Shai Held writes: “R.
Isaac Arama (1420-1494) asks
why all the seemingly dull
details of the census are nec-
essary. Did God not know the
number of Israelites encamped
in the desert? Taking account
of them one by one, R. Arama
argues, serves to teach that
each one has individual worth,
and is not just a member of the
collective. ‘
They were all equal
in stature,
’
Arama writes, ‘
and
yet the stature of each one was
different”’
(Akeidat Yitzhak,
Bamidbar, 72).
His commentary pushes
us to consider how our
various choices reflect an
underlying assessment
of a person’
s worth. For
those of us with economic
privilege, will we go back
to ignoring and exploiting
those who pick and pack-
age and deliver our food?
Or will we take this oppor-
tunity for cheshbon nefesh
(soul accounting) and
reevaluate our concep-
tions of whose labor and
lives are valuable? And
will we translate that new
understanding into action, like
joining Detroit Jews for Justice’
s
long-standing involvement in
the effort to guarantee paid sick
time for all workers?
Throughout Passover, com-
munities gathered online for
Hallel, the festival service of
praise. The morning I led the
prayers, I was stopped in my
tracks when I came across the
verse from Psalm 118: “The
stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief corner-
stone.
” A beautiful thought that
always seemed aspirational at
best suddenly felt within reach.
Perhaps we can emerge from
this pandemic with transformed
consciousness and accompa-
nying practice, that affirm the
inherent dignity and holiness
of every human being. Ken yehi
ratzon, may it be so.
Ariana Alpert is the director of Detroit
Jews for Justice and the rabbi of
Congregation T’
chiyah in Oak Park.
Parshat
Bamidbar:
Numbers
1:1-4:20;
I Samuel
20:18-42.
(Shabbat
Machar
Chodesh)
Rabbi Alana
Alpert
Noting Individual Worth
5829 Maple Rd. Ste. 129
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