Counting Our Numbers D'var
Torah: B'midbar
May 22, 2009
This Shabbat we begin the book of Numbers. It’s the fourth book of the Torah. Time flies.
Lately, some of my best conversations have been with upcoming Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. In a recent meeting, I asked an upcoming Bar Mitzvah if he had any questions about the Bar Mitzvah itself. Then I asked if he had any questions about Judaism that he always wondered about. I said “this would be a great time to ask.” At first, it seemed like he would pass but he thought twice and decided to take me up on my offer. He said that in public school this past year he learned about the world's great religions. “If we’re the religion that started it all, how come we take such a back seat” he asked. I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by back seat. He explained that, in terms of numbers, we’re very small compared to others and we have been constantly persecuted by them. How come?
This is a great question. In Hebrew school, this young man is taught how great Judaism is. In public school he learned how small we are. What gives? If we’re so great how come we don’t have the numbers that other religions have. There are about one billion Muslims in the world and rapidly growing. There are twice as many Christians in the world comprising about 33% of the worlds population. We Jews weigh in at about 0.2% of the world’s population at some 13.3 million and at best staying steady. Sadly steady can not be said of the American Jewish community as now numbers diminish. Yes, what gives? If what we have is so great, how come the masses aren’t breaking down the doors to join our team. They’ve broken down our doors for sure but not to join. In a world where bigger is better, we don’t seem like such winners.
Other world religions have long looked for new and more converts. More than looked, they created new adherents sometimes with a carrot and sometimes a stick. . We were too often at the other end of the stick. Judaism, on the other hand, always maintained that the righteous of all the nations have a share in the world to come. Being Jewish is not the only path to salvation. A couple of weeks ago, the Haftarah for the portion of Kedoshim opened with the words from the prophet Amos speaking in G-d’s name “To Me, O Israelites, you are just like the Ethiopians." If we think that we have a monopoly on G-d’s love, we’re mistaken.
That Judaism has had no need to go out and convert the world speaks to a certain internal self confidence. We didn’t need to boast another thousand souls this week to make us feel that our product is of great value. Not unlike my thoughts of last week, we don’t need a Jewish American Heritage month to make us feel good about ourselves. We just do.
I think this may well be why Israel has chronically been poor at public relations. With all of the great New York public relations firms under Jewish auspices how can Israel have been so weak in this arena? It may be because Israeli leaders always felt their position was just and they didn’t have to market it to the world. It’s the Jewish approach. Thankfully, while Israel has lost the public relations battles, it has won the too long list of wars. I think Israel has learned of late the need to convey its just position to the world. In part this accounts for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s appointment of Dr. Michael Oren, an American who made Aliyah at the age of twenty four (does that make him an American-Israeli?) as the new Israeli ambassador to the U.S.
This past week, Rabbi Aronson, Cantor Frimark and I took two candidates to the Mikvah at Shir Ami and the numbers of the Jewish people has increased by a count of two. The three of us constituted a Beyt Din, a tribunal. We had previously met with the parents of the little boy who was taken into the Mikvah by his father. In discussions with the parents, we ascertained that this beautiful little boy would be raised in an exclusively Jewish and loving home. The other, an adult attended the Goodblatt Academy for the past nine months in preparation for conversion. He and I met periodically. He met all of the requirements set out for him. He studied and reached the point where we felt he was ready to realize his goal of becoming part of the Jewish community. He met with the Beyt Din a couple of weeks ago and again this week at the Mikvah. In Yiddish they say “Shver tzu zein a Yid.” It’s hard to be a Jew. It’s infinitely harder to become a Jew and I haven’t even told the whole story. For some other religions, all it takes is the proclamation "I believe!"
And so we have been a people that has never been concerned with numbers even though we wrote the book.... of Numbers. Interestingly, we even have a certain aversion to numbers in spite of the number of accountants we have produced over the years. If we count the people present for a Minyan, we traditionally say "not one, not two, not three." And where has this disinterest in numbers left us? We are now consumed with numbers. We are consumed because we are concerned that we are so small and getting smaller we will not have the critical mass to survive. Anything that weakens our numbers threatens us.
I loved this Bar Mitzvah’s question. I loved that he was taking what he learned in the synagogue and public school, feeling a tension and wanting to find some resolution to the conflict and he articulated his question so well. I am sure many others also share this question.
If bigger were always better, we’d all be buying Hummers now. We’re not!
Shabbat Shalom,
- Rabbi Perlstein
|
|
