Bamidbar 2017

במדבר 5777

This Torah portion, Bamidbar, begins the fourth book of the Bible and shares the same name. The Hebrew name is taken from the first sentence, while it is known in English as Numbers because of the census taking.  God tells Moshe to take a census to know how many are in the community of Israel.  Th vocalization in the Hebrew text would indicate the pronunciation is, "bi-midbar" meaning the indefinite "a dessert." Since the Israelites are only in one dessert (or wilderness)  the meaning is "in the dessert."  Therefore we usually call the book, "Ba-midbar" with the definite, "ba," meaning "in the."

Since Passover, we have read several double Torah portions and the weekly portion was not always the same in Eretz Yisrael and the diaspora. Now we can read this same parasha on the Shabbat before Shavuot, the festival of the giving of the Torah. This portion is always read on the Shabbat before Shavuot.

Is there a relationship between the counting the days between Pesah and Shavuot?  The word במדבר (bamidbar), means “in the wilderness.”  It also has the same root as דבר (daber) meaning to speak.  There is a connection between the wilderness, revelation, and counting. It was in the wilderness that God gave the Torah with words, some written and some oral.  We learn that the Torah was given to all the people and each one could give an interpretation.  The count is so that we can put a number to “all.” 

Much of the portion talks about the process of the census and names people involved with this process.

The management lesson is that the organization needs to know about its people.  The census of a country is more than just a count.  Many facts are gathered and correlated to locations, down to the smallest census block.  In the organization, the head count and knowing where people are working is important for running of the organization.   This count needs a process for almost daily updates because people come and go and have a need to cooperate with others.  I was once the person in charge of devising the process and keeping the staff directory updated daily.  While we didn’t print a daily directory, there was an online program for staff to check phone numbers and offices. In organizations that don't have a good directory, time is wasted trying to find how to phone or contact the right person.