"

Page 1 of 7
A Fuchs Mizrachi Stark High School Publication


Candle Lighting: 8:27
Havdala: 9:37
Note: The Halachic times listed here are from www.myzmanim.com.
Shoot for Your Star
By Akiva Raskind, Class of 2013
We are not human beings; We are human becomings
-Ernst Bloch
Parashat Bamidbar begins with G-d
ordering Moshe to take a census of the Jewish
Nation, as it is written "
."
(Bamidbar 1:2). Rashi famously comments that G-
d incessantly counts us to demonstrate His
affection toward us, as he writes "
." Thus, according to Rashi, this
census was ordained as a gesture to highlight His
unconditional love for us. Rashi then enumerates
three instances when G-d took inventory of his
people: immediately following the Exodus from
Egypt, the execution of the 3,000 Golden Calf
worshippers by the hands of the Levites, and
finally here, before the Jewish peoples reception
of the Mishkan.
Rashi's answer is rather unsettling. Read
literally, Rashi overtly contradicts himself. If G-d
constantly counts us, why does the Chumash
bother to mention three specific instances where
G-d had the Jewish People counted? Additionally,
it is reconcilable that we were counted during the
first two of three aforementioned censuses: Upon
Exodus, an event where the Jews achieved
nationhood, demonstrating Gods love for His
becoming nation and following the Golden Calf
executions, a time of religious and physical
trauma, G-d similarly counted His people to
remind and reassure them of His unwavering love.
Here, before receiving the Mishkan; however,
why was the head count necessary?
The Ramban deflects our query by
suggesting the following. G-d's decision to count
His people now, before receiving the Mishkan,
was decided independent of the time. From the


Bamidbar
Friday, May 23, 2014 / " "
"
Page 2 of 7
A Fuchs Mizrachi Stark High School Publication
time when the first 70 souls traveled to Egypt to
the current one, Bamidbar, the Jews had
exponentially grown to that of "the sand of the
sea..." Thus, the census in Bamidbar was designed
to highlight the chessed G-d has performed for
His people.
Yet again we face a predicament. In
Shemot (Pekudi 37:26) it states that we amassed a
grand total of 603,550, the same amount we
amassed in our Parashah (Bamidbar 1:46).
Therefore, how does the Ramban suggest that the
purpose of the census of Bamidbar was to
highlight His chessed! Our sheer numbers
plateaued!
The Shem Mishmuel provides us with the
following insight. In Bereishit, we are blessed to
be like "the grains of the sand and stars of the sky".
Why are we blessed with two quantifiable
descriptions of a nation? Surely one would suffice!
His answer is life-changing. The "grains of
the sand" is a quantifiable blessing, while the
"stars of the sky" is a qualitative blessing. The
Shem Mishmuel explains that each star in the
night sky is representative of a different path
which exists in this world. Thus, we were blessed
to make it our duty to capture every waking
moment of our lives and fill it with the challenge
of finding and becoming the star that we were
destined to become. Conversely, if we do not
redirect our goals so that we may deliver what we
are destined to achieve, the world will become a
darker place. Only once we deliberately set aside
time to delve into our inner souls, to find and
utilize our G-d given talents, will both aspects of
the blessing come true; enabling our numbers to
continue to grow (from that of 603,550), allowing
us to ultimately become an Ohr Lagoyim.
Thus, it is imperative that before we
receive G-d's gift, the Mishkan, we be counted to
remind ourselves to tenaciously grasp the reigns,
direct our life to its proper heading, shoot for the
star we are each destined to be and prevail.
Shabbat Shalom!
Adapted from Rav Gershon Turetsky, Shiur: Back to Basics:
Learn How to Count
Seu Et Rosh: Because Everybody Counts
By Joey Senders, 11th Grade
Our Parashah this weekend bears the
same name of the book in which it is found,
Bamidbar. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks states that
the superficial reason for this name is that it is the
first distinctive word in the books opening verse.
Rabbi Sacks quotes two famous anthropologists,
Victor Turner and Arnold Van Gennep, who
suggest that the fact that Bnei Yisraels formative
experience was in the wilderness turns out to be

highly significant. The Jewish people become a
unit in the wilderness, where they experience the
most desolate of places and learn to rely on one
another in order to be a cohesive group when the
time came to enter the Land of Israel.
Our Parashah has a second name
however, when translated to English, Bamidbar,
means Numbers. The Parashah begins with
Hashems command to take a census of the
"
Page 3 of 7
A Fuchs Mizrachi Stark High School Publication
Jewish people and therefore, based on the
census, the books central theme is numbers, or
demography. But what is the significance of
taking the census? Why here at the beginning of
the book? Additionally, there have already been
two censuses prior to this one, and this will be
the third counting within a year! Surely, one
census would be sufficient.
Rabbi Sacks begins his answer by
distinguishing the contradiction between Rashi
and the explicit voice of the Torah. Rashi states,
Because they (the children of Israel) are dear to
Him, G-d counts them often. He counted them
when they were about to leave Egypt. He
counted them after the Golden Calf to establish
how many were left. And now that He was about
to cause His presence to rest on them (with the
inauguration of the sanctuary), He counted them
again. (Rashi, Bamidbar 1:1) Rashi notes with
intent that Hashem counts the nation out of his
love for them. But on the other hand, the Torah
states, "When you take the sum of the children of
Israel according to their numbers, let each one
give to the Lord an atonement for his soul when
they are counted; then there will be no plague
among them when they are counted. (Shemot
30:11-12)
Here, the Torah states that counting the
nation is risky and should not be done on a
regular basis. We also know that many years
later when David Hamelech takes a census of the
people there is a mass death and 70,000 people
die. How can this be if counting the people is
regarded as something out of love?
To answer this question, Rabbi Sacks digs
deeper into the words used by Hashem. The
answer lies in the phrase the Torah uses to
describe the act of counting: seu et rosh, which
literally means, lift the head.
Biblical Hebrew contains many verbs
meaning, to count: limnot, lifkod, lispor,
lachshov. Rabbi Sacks poses the obvious
question: why does the Torah use such a strange
expression, lift the heads, rather than using
simple Hebrew terms? The shorter answer is
simple; when counting a large mass of people,
whether at a sporting event or at a business,
there is a tendency to focus on the group as a
whole. 60 million, 100,000, and 60,000 are all just
numbers of masses of people. Counting devalues
the individual and tends to make him or her
replaceable. If one soldier dies in battle, another
will take his place. If a sports star leaves, the city
will win the draft lottery 3 out of 4 years and will
draft the next star (heh heh). We are all one unit,
a blurred mass of people. A study by Gustav Le
Bon, in his book, The Crowd: A Study of the
Popular Mind (1895) shows that people in a
crowd become anonymous. They lose a sense of
personal responsibility. Maybe Hashem just
wanted to make sure everyone was paying
attention so he counted everyone.
The longer answer is a little deeper in
nature. The Talmud explains that every person is
different. We each have different attributes. We
all think our own thoughts. Only God can enter
the minds of each of us and know what we are
thinking, and this is what the census promotes.
In other words, even in a massive crowd, God
still relates to us as individuals. This is the true
meaning behind the phrase, lift the head.
Hashem tells Moshe to do so, because he knows
that there is a danger in counting the nation
because there is always a fear that a congregant
will feel insignificant. So Hashem commands
"
Page 4 of 7
A Fuchs Mizrachi Stark High School Publication
Moshe to lift the head as a sign that each
individual counts. Each person has a gift. Each
person has something to offer to the world. Each
person is unique. In Judaism, Rabbi Sacks says,
taking a census must always be done in such a

way as to signal that we are valued as
individualsTo lift someones head means to
show them favor, to recognize them. It is a
gesture of love.

The Holiness of the Holy City
By Ari Bar-Shain, 12
th
Grade
is coming up this Wednesday.
We constantly mention the holy city in our
davening and learning. We acknowledge the
metropolis in the shemoneh esrei brachot of
VLirushalayim, Vetechezeinah, and even in the
Monday-Thursday Tachanun that no one says.
And we all know that ditty we sing
Whats the deal? What about
necessitates the constant repetition and
focus?
The in says,
" ( )

is built like a city where people are friendly
together - A city in which all [the people of] Israel are
friends
This concept still holds true now.
unites many different kinds of people. If you go to
the there are multiple sets of siddurim: some
that are nussach ashkenaz, some nussach sfardi,
and some nussach edut hamizrach. Additionally,
if you roam the streets of the city youll find the
black hatters, modern Orthodox, people who
wear those white cardboard kippahs, and even
Jews who are non-practicing. There are plenty of
rich people, as well as a large handful of beggars.
What keeps all of the diverse members of
together is .
The Gemara in Kiddushin states:
"
"
"Ten measures of beauty descended to the world, nine
were taken by , and one for the rest of the world."
This statement holds true on two levels.
The first, is that has great pulchritude. For
those of you not taking AP English that means
physical beauty. The sunsets are gorgeous, the
herbage is magnificent, and the gleaming of the
stone is like nowhere else.
Secondly, is spiritually beautiful.
There are thousands of Jews learning in various
Yeshivot and Midrashot, and well, theres the
Kotel. Shir HaShirim Rabbah says that Hashems
Shechinah will never depart from the Kotel based
on the passuk that says, - ,
Behold He stands behind our wall. The divine
worship of Hashem at the Kotel, and throughout
the rest of the capital city is incredible.
The fact that unites Jews of all
demographics, is physically stunning, and is a
center for religious observance with eternal
"
Page 5 of 7
A Fuchs Mizrachi Stark High School Publication
proximity to Hashem gives us reason to have it on
the top of our minds and to celebrate today. Our
job, however, is not done. When we sing LShanah
Habaah the last word of the phrase is Habneuyah-
built. Although we have the holy city in our
possesion, we still must actively participate in
bringing the Mashiach and the Beit HaMikdashs
return.
!

Rally Banner
By Rabbi Chaim Zimmerman
When one is asked about Parashat
Bamidbar, the first topic that generally comes to
mind is the counting and with good reason.
Much of the parashah is dedicated to the counting
of the twelve tribes, and much ink has been used
by the commentators to explain the significance of
these countings.
However, there is another fascinating
aspect of this parsha that gets a bit less fanfare,
and that is the degalim the banners which
served to give placement and meaning to the
tribes, beyond that of the individual members.
The meforshim explain that the counting
of the Jewish people symbolized Hashems love
for each and every individual within the nation.
Every person counts in His eyes, and this should
give every person the self-confidence needed to
push through the many difficulties in life. What,
then, is the purpose of the banners? A banner
gives a person a rally point. In battle, even if a
person would get lost, the banner would enable
him to find his way back to the central meeting
point; a place to reconnect with his mission and
direction.
Even more than this, Midrash Tanchuma
explains that all of the banners were set up
specifically in the way that Yaakov Avinu had
envisioned them years ago, when he instructed
his children as to which position they should take
around his bier while carrying it from Egypt to
Canaan. Yaakov was telling his children that the
only way they could function as Bnei Yisrael
was if they each took up their specific placement
within the nation and held up their part of the job.
Yaakov saw his children not as separate
individuals, but individuals that together formed
a cohesive network all different, yet all focused
toward the same goal.
In this day and age, we often get this
concept backwards. Specifically within the realm
of Torah, we look at our approach, and we see
only correct or incorrect. Its my way or the
highway. We form a bubble around ourselves and
say I am doing whats right, and they are doing
wrong rather than viewing the life of every Jew
as a small part of a vast, interconnected tapestry.
This point is beautifully illustrated by the
Chafetz Chaim. The Chafetz Chaim was once
asked, "Why is the Jewish community of Europe
divided into so many different factions there are
"
Page 6 of 7
A Fuchs Mizrachi Stark High School Publication
those who give priority to Torah study over
prayer, there are others who are more dedicated
to prayer than Torah study, there are yet others
who toil in music and song while still others are
involved in festive dance. Wouldnt the world be
better if there were only one Torah lifestyle, a
people who all share the same nusach and the
same traditions down to the smallest detail, all
"carrying one banner"? The Chafetz Chaim
answered, "Before you ask me about the Jewish
people, please approach the Czar and ask him
why he has so many different forces within the
army: infantry, cavalry, artillery, air force, and
navy. Would the world really be lacking if there
were only one fighting force with only one
weapon system, with one general leading them all?
Rather, numerous tactics and resources must be
available to defeat the enemy, since each one has
strengths the other does not. Infantry excels at
hand to hand combat while the cavalry has speed
and induces fear; the artillery can accomplish its
goals from a distance. Even the military musicians
inspire the troops and lift morale so they can fight
on. Similarly, in our battle against the yetzer hara,
our evil inclination, each individual group is
made up of soldiers in G-d's corps, each group
using its own "weapon system" to fight the enemy:
this one with Torah study and this one with
prayer, this one with song and this with the blast
of the shofar. The important thing is that they are
all focused on fortifying the Torah."
The banners in Parshat Bamidbar serve as
a reminder to us that despite our individuality, we
always need to connect back. First, we should
connect to our specific banner to our direct
community to realize that our existence is
severely limited if not directly tied into those
around us. And then we should connect to the
entire structure envisioned by Yaakov Avinu, and
the part in which we all play. We should view
ourselves literally as Bnei Yisrael the children
of a single man who understood how individual
personalities and actions can come together as a
cohesive unit to reach a common goal.
May this realization enable us all to grow
closer to each other, rather than continue to fall
apart, and bring us to experience the coming of
Mashiach as a single Am, bimhera biyameinu.







"
Page 7 of 7
A Fuchs Mizrachi Stark High School Publication

Shabbat Table Discussion Questions:
By Avi Hartstone, 10
t h
Grade
1. Why does Moshe need an exact census for the army and not just a rough estimate? (1:2-3)

2. Why did certain tribes get to be heads of the camps, and why did they get that specific direction? (2:2-31)

3. Why does Hashem switch the Leviim and Bechorim now? (3:41)

4. What is the point of redeeming the firstborns? (3:40-43)

5. Why does the torah need to add the totals of all the tribes together if we could have computed it ourselves by
adding up each individual tribe? (1:44- 45)
Email us at FMSshemesh@gmail.com with your answers or submit them on our website, fmsdvartorah.weebly.com, and you could be featured in
next week's edition!

Brought to you by:
Staff:
Editors in Chief- Ari Bar-Shain and Zev Karasik

Associate Editors- Eli Meyers, Etan Soclof, and Yosef
Coleman

Faculty Consultant-Rav Rick Schindelheim

Distribution Manager-Rivka Coleman

Faculty Manager-Yael Blau

Head Writers-Avi Hartstone and Zak Fleischman
Student Writers:
o Alan Soclof
o Ami Shamir
o Amital Haas
o Aviva Muskin
o Ben Jaffe
o Bentzion Goldman
o Ian Lorand
o Ilan Senders
o Jenna Fox
o Jennifer Brenis
o Joey Frank
o Joey Senders


o Lizzy Soclof
o Michael Brenis
o Miriam Pincus
o Mordechai Blau
o Sarah Pincus
o Seth Weiss
o Sonny Kugelman
o Talya Engelhart
o Yonah Bar-Shain
o Yonaton Shiller
o Zach Zlatin
o Ziva Bibbins


!
To view an archive of past publications or to subscribe to MiMizrach Shemesh, please visit fmsdvartorah.weebly.com.