Bamidbar: who counts
The Talmud designates Bamidbar ( in the desert) as the book of Piqudim. The parsha involves counting, it repeatedly uses the root word פְקֻדָ֑ PQD, which the targum ( official translation) renders מִנְיָ MNY, count. Presumably, that is why the fourth Book of Moses was designated Numbers in English. The talmudic designation of the other books are: Sefer Yashirim (book of the upright) for Breshith, Sefer Yitziath Mitzraim ( the Exodus from Egypt) , Torath Kohanim (Vayikra, Leviticus) and Mishneh Torah (Devarim, Deuteronomy).
PQD, פְקֻדָ֑ means more than tallying the number, it has a strong connotation of assignment. Each tallied individual has a special role. The first use of the word (Genesis 21:1) is Gd remembering the childless Sarah In this case, Onkelos translates the word, פָּקַ֥ד PQD as דְּכִיר , remembered. We can see a relationship. Counting makes a person or a thing significant. It counts.
We, in the current Coronaworld, are in the midst of a numbing counts, the infection rates and the death tolls. The numbers are beyond comprehension, their meaning comes from a place in our consciousness that is very different from the enumeration of eggs in a dozen. These are industrial, scientific, political numbers. No one ever counts that high. Yet, they represent the sufferings and deaths of individual people, all of whom were significant [figures], all of whom counted. These calculations are an overwhelming problem for the mind's computation system. These are the kinds of numbers that pit abstraction against sensitivity.
The parsha contains an extraordinary omission: Moshe's children Gershom and Eliezer. After stating that the offspring of Aaron and Moshe are about to be enumerated, all of Aaron's sons, whether dead or alive, are named. Moshe is left blank. Moshe's children did not count! This is the ultimate anti-nepotism. In the midst of establishing lineages with hereditary privileges, Moshe's legacy is excluded. It leaves us wondering: what are the inclusion criteria?
There are now more than 5 million, 5,000,000, Cornoavirus cases worldwide, There were 603,550. Israelite men in the first post Exodus census [all but 2 died before entering the Promised Land], Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. My parents survived. They all counted.
I wank the PQD of rembering.
Oh, I want to be in that [favored] number
similar 2014
more on PQD
PQD, פְקֻדָ֑ means more than tallying the number, it has a strong connotation of assignment. Each tallied individual has a special role. The first use of the word (Genesis 21:1) is Gd remembering the childless Sarah In this case, Onkelos translates the word, פָּקַ֥ד PQD as דְּכִיר , remembered. We can see a relationship. Counting makes a person or a thing significant. It counts.
We, in the current Coronaworld, are in the midst of a numbing counts, the infection rates and the death tolls. The numbers are beyond comprehension, their meaning comes from a place in our consciousness that is very different from the enumeration of eggs in a dozen. These are industrial, scientific, political numbers. No one ever counts that high. Yet, they represent the sufferings and deaths of individual people, all of whom were significant [figures], all of whom counted. These calculations are an overwhelming problem for the mind's computation system. These are the kinds of numbers that pit abstraction against sensitivity.
The parsha contains an extraordinary omission: Moshe's children Gershom and Eliezer. After stating that the offspring of Aaron and Moshe are about to be enumerated, all of Aaron's sons, whether dead or alive, are named. Moshe is left blank. Moshe's children did not count! This is the ultimate anti-nepotism. In the midst of establishing lineages with hereditary privileges, Moshe's legacy is excluded. It leaves us wondering: what are the inclusion criteria?
There are now more than 5 million, 5,000,000, Cornoavirus cases worldwide, There were 603,550. Israelite men in the first post Exodus census [all but 2 died before entering the Promised Land], Six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. My parents survived. They all counted.
I wank the PQD of rembering.
Oh, I want to be in that [favored] number
similar 2014
more on PQD
posted by Sheldon Goldberg at 10:34 AM
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