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Biography of Yehuda Katz | Archives | This Week's Parsha

BAMIDBAR

"And Hashem spoke unto Mosha in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Mishkan.......Count all the Congregation of Israel...." (1:1-2)

A question can be asked, why does the Torah have to specifically indicate that Hashem had commanded Mosha to count the nation "in the wilderness of Sinai"? Why is the location of the command significant in regard to counting?

Rashi comments that the counting of the nation of Israel indicates G-ds love for the children of Israel......(refer to RAshi)

The desert is directly related to G-ds love For Israel........In Jeremiah (2:1-2) it states the following, "The word of G-d came to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem , saying, I (G-d) remember in your (Israel)favor, the devotion of your (Israel) youth (early years).....When you (Israel) went after me (G-d) into the desert, in a land that was not sown (without food)"..........When the Jews left egypt, they followed G-d into the desert due to their abundant simple faith in Hashem.

This simple faith is a great source of merit for the Jewish people. In addition, the desert itself represents simple faith......A desert is very elemental-----simple to the core......It is our simple faith in G-d which arouses G-ds love for the nation.....When the verse states (1:1) "in the wilderness of Sinai" in reference to counting, it is teaching us that the very thing that arouses G-ds love is simple faith, as represented by the desert..

We must all strive to reach the lofty level of simple faith without any doubts.Knowing G-ds existance is so powerfull a concept that all intellectual speculation seems small in comparison......Have a good Shabbos

 


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