SPIRIT
TORAH PORTION

28 | MAY 13 • 2021 

Everyone Counts
W

e’ve now arrived 
at the fourth 
book of the 
Torah, Bamidbar, “in the 
wilderness.” We refer to 
this book as Numbers. Both 
names are accurate 
since the narrative 
takes place in the 
desert, and there are 
many censuses taken 
through the story. 
The Torah por-
tion opens with 
the scene of the 
Israelites organizing 
themselves for the 
long journey to the 
Promised Land. Since 
the text is focused 
on preparation to 
cross the wilderness, 
which includes taking a 
census, there are no explicit 
permanent mitzvot found 
here. However, we can 
understand one of the com-
mandments based on its 
connection with a verse in 
our Torah portion:
 “The Lord spoke to 
Moses, saying: ‘I here-
by take the Levites from 
among the Israelites in 
place of all the first-born, 
the first issue of the womb 
among the Israelites: the 
Levites shall be Mine. For 
every first-born is Mine: at 
the time that I smote every 
firstborn in the land of 
Egypt, I consecrated every 
first-born in Israel, man 
and beast, to Myself, to be 
Mine, the Lord’s’.”
 The mitzvah connected to 
these verses is the redemp-
tion of the first-born, or 
pidyon ha’ben. The general 
idea is that the first-born 

male of every regular 
(non-Kohein) Israelite fam-
ily is consecrated to God 
and needs to be redeemed 
from service by a ceremony 
with a descendant of the 
priests and five silver 
coins, or its equivalent. 
The ceremony can be 
understood as not only 
a reminder of the deep 
history of our people, 
but also as teaching a 
powerful theological 
idea, namely that we 
do not “own” our pos-
sessions — not even 
our children.
 “Redeeming” a 
child is a way of rit-
ualizing the idea of 
stewardship; that we 
are entrusted with precious 
things, yet have a responsi-
bility beyond our own per-
sonal preferences, desires 
and ambitions. 
 Even though pidyon 
ha’ben is not an “every day” 
mitzvah; and even though 
we can, and should, raise 
questions about a mitzvah 
that seems to privilege the 
birth of one sex over anoth-
er, we can still learn what 
I believe the mitzvah is 
trying to teach. Ownership 
is only an illusion; and, 
in a spiritual sense, we all 
belong to God. That is true 
not only of the firstborn but 
of every human because we 
are all created in the holy 
image of God. 

Rabbi Jason Miller officiates at bar 

and bat mitzvah ceremonies around 

the country — both in person and 

virtually. More information can be 

found at mitzvahrabbi.com.

Rabbi Jason 
Miller

Parshat 

Bamidbar: 

Numbers 1:1-

4:20; Hosea 

2:1`-22.

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