Greatly Beloved by God

1 Sivan 5773
Erev Shabbat - Rosh Chodesh Sivan
Day 45 of the Omer

Parshat Bamidbar

Hashem spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai ..., saying: Take a census of the entire assembly of the Children of Israel according to their families, according to their fathers' household, by numbers of the names, every male according to their head count. (Num. 1:1-2).

Tanchuma, Bamidbar, 20, teaches:  A man had glass vessels, and he would take them to the market, set them out and gather them back up without ever counting them. Because they were of glass, he did not keep track of them.  He had other merchandise, fine pearls, which he would count before taking to the market, before setting them out and before gathering them back up. Because they were pearls, he loved them. In the same way, so to speak, G-d said, “I did not count the nations, since they have no importance for Me, as it says, 'all the nations are as nothing before Him, they are accounted before Him as things of naught and vanity' (Isaiah 40:17). Yet, you, Israel, 'are borne by Me from birth, carried by Me from the womb' (Isaiah 46:3). Therefore, I count you constantly.” Thus it says, “Make a tally of the male firstborn among the children of Israel” (Num. 3:40)...

[Source: Compiled by Tzipora Liron-Pinner from "The Jerwish Idea" of Rabbi Meir Kahane HY"D]

Shabbat shalom!