(1) Ad-nai spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting on the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, saying: (2) Take a census/raise the head of the whole Israelite community by the clans of its ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by head.
(1) וידבר… במדבר סיני … באחד לחדש וגו׳ Because they were dear to him, He counts them every now and then: when they went forth from Egypt He counted them (Exodus 12:37), when many of them fell in consequence of their having worshipped the golden calf He counted them to ascertain the number of those left (cf. Rashi Exodus 30:16); when he was about to make His Shechinah dwell amongst them (i. e. when He commanded them to make a Tabernacle), He again took their census; for on the first day of Nisan the Tabernacle was erected (Exodus 40:2) and shortly afterwards, on the first day of Iyar, He counted them.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks:
In any census, count or roll-call there is a tendency to focus on the total: the crowd, the multitude, the mass. Here is a nation of 60 million people, or a company with 100,000 employees or a sports crowd of 60,000. Any total tends to value the group or nation as a whole. The larger the total, the stronger is the army, the more popular the team, and the more successful the company.
Counting devalues the individual, and tends to make him or her replaceable. If one soldier dies in battle, another will take his place. If one person leaves the organisation, someone else can be hired to do his or her job.
Gustav Le Bon’ The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind
An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will. (p. 13)
(pp.113-114)
In the case of human crowds the chief is often nothing more than a ringleader or agitator, but as such he plays a considerable part. ... A crowd is a servile flock that is incapable of ever doing without a master.
The leader has most often started as one of the led. He has himself been hypnotised by the idea, whose apostle he has since become. It has taken possession of him to such a degree that everything outside it vanishes, and that every contrary opinion appears to him an error or a superstition. ...
The leaders we speak of are more frequently men of action than thinkers. They are not gifted with keen foresight, nor could they be, as this quality generally conduces to doubt... They are especially recruited from the ranks of those morbidly nervous, excitable, half-deranged persons who are bordering on madness. However absurd may be the idea they uphold or the goal they pursue, their convictions are so strong that all reasoning is lost upon them. Contempt and persecution do not affect them, or only serve to excite them the more. They sacrifice their personal interest, their family - everything. The very instinct of self-preservation is entirely obliterated in them, and so much so that often the only recompense they solicit is that of martyrdom. The intensity of their faith gives great power of suggestion to their words. The multitude is always ready to listen to the strong-willed man, who knows how to impose himself upon it. Men gathered in a crowd lose all force of will, and turn instinctively to the person who possesses the quality they lack.
(When was this written? 1895, published just before the Dreyfuss trials in France)
Crowds have the effect of tending to make the individual lose his or her independent judgment and follow what others are doing. We call this “herd behavior,” and it sometimes leads to collective madness.
() וידבר ה' אל משה במדבר סיני באהל מועד באחד לחדש השני בשנה השנית לצאתם מארץ מצרים לאמר שאו את ראש כל עדת בני ישראל. שאו הוא לשון התנשאות היינו שע"י המנין יהיה לכל אחד ואחד התנשאות וכל אחד יהיה מדוגל, כמ"ש (הושע ב',א') והיה מספר בני ישראל כחול הים אשר לא ימד ולא יספר. והפסוק הזה נראה כסותר (יומא כ"ב:) כי בתחילה כתוב והיה מספר, משמע שיוכל להספר ואח"כ כתוב אשר לא ימד וכו'. אך באמת כלל ישראל הם בלא מספר, ומ"ש והיה מספר נאמר על פרטי נפשות מישראל שיהיה כל אחד מספר, היינו דבר שבמנין ויהיה חשוב בעיני הש"י, וכמ"ש (תהלים פ"ז,ו') ה' יספור בכתוב עמים. ולציון יאמר איש ואיש יולד בה. ה' יספור בכתוב עמים היינו כי על האומות ג"כ משגיח הקב"ה, אך לא על כל נפש בפרט רק על כולם בכלל לקיום המין. ולציון יאמר איש ואיש יולד בה, היינו שמשגיח הקב"ה על כל נפש בפרט. וזה פי' והיה מספר שכל אחד יהיה נצרך, כי מתוך כלל ישראל ניכר גדולות הש"י ובאם נחסר אחד מכלל ישראל אז יחסר המזג. כמו שמציירין צורת המלך על כמה אלפים טבלאות ואם יאבד אחד מהם צורת המלך חסרה. ובעת שהיה נמנה כל אחד מישראל אז הוא הגדול שבכל ישראל כי כל ישראל הם חלק הש"י, כמ"ש (דברים ל"ב,ט') כי חלק ה' עמו. וכל אחד ואחד הוא אחוז במדה אחת ממדותיו של הקב"ה, ובעת שהיה נמנה אז היה הש"י בזאת המדה שהוא אחוז בה וממילא הוא היה הגדול, ועי"ז יש לכל אחד מישראל התנשאות.
Ad-nai spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting on the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, saying: raise the head of the whole Israelite community. "Raise" is an expression of elevation - that is, through the counting every individual will feel heightened and supported, as we read (Hosea 2:1) 'and the number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which will not be measured, and will not be counted." And this verse seems to contradict itself (see Bavli Yoma 22b) because the beginning says "And the number of the children of Israel will be" suggesting that it is possble to count them, and after that it says "Which cannot be measured etc". In fact, all of Israel is without number, and what is written "the number will be" is said over every single specific soul of Israel, that every single one will be counted, that is, something of consequence in the counting, and important in the eyes of the Holy One of Blessing, as it is written "Ad-nai will count in the register of peoples [that each was born there.]" (Psalms 87:6) "And to Zion it says: every person was born in her" (Psalms 87:5) - this is that God does providence also with the other peoples, just not specifically on every single soul, but on all as a whole. "And to Zion it says 'every person was born in her' - this means that the Holy One is interested in every single soul. And this is the explanation for "and the number will be" that every single person is needed, since through the community of Israel the greatnesses of the Holy One are made known, and if one is missing then the demeanor is missing. This is similar to when they draw the face of the king in thousands of tablets, and if one is missing - something of the face of the king is missing. And at the moment that one is counted in Israel he is the greatest of all Israel, since all Israel is a piece of the Holy One of Blessing, as it is written "A piece of Ad-nai is His people" (Deuteronomy 32:9) and every single one holds within oneself one of the aspects of the Holy One of Blessing, and at the moment s/he is counted then the Holy One was in that aspect that s/he is held by and therefore s/he is the greatest - and through this every single person of Israel is heightened/elevated.
Even though the blowing of the shofar on Rosh HaShanah is a Biblical decree, it hints at something, i.e., “Wake up, sleepers, from your sleep! And slumberers, arise from your slumber! Search your ways and return in teshuvah and remember your Creator! Those who forget the Truth amidst the futility of the moment and are infatuated all their years with vanity and nothingness that will not help and will not save, examine your souls and improve your ways and your motivations! Let each of you abandon his wicked ways, and his thoughts which are no good." Therefore a person needs to see himself all year long as if he is half innocent and half guilty, and also [see] the whole world - half innocent and half guilty. If he sins one sin - he has tilted herself and the whole world to the side of guilt and caused its destruction. If he does one mitzvah - he has tilted herself and the whole world to the side of innocence and caused redemption and rescue, as it says, the righteous are the foundation of the world (Proverbs 10:25). This refers to a righteousness that has tilted the whole world to innocence and saved it. And for this reason the whole House of Israel has a custom to increase charity and good deeds, and to engage in mitzvot from Rosh HaShanah until Yom Kippur, more than the rest of the year. And everyone has the custom to wake up during the night on these ten days and to pray in the synagogue with words of pleading and words of surrender until daylight.
(ז) וַיְדַבֵּר ה' אֶל משֶׁה בְּמִדְבַּר סִינַי (במדבר א, א), לָמָּה בְּמִדְבַּר סִינַי, מִכָּאן שָׁנוּ חֲכָמִים בִּשְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים נִתְּנָה הַתּוֹרָה, בָּאֵשׁ, וּבַמַּיִם, וּבַמִּדְבָּר. בָּאֵשׁ מִנַּיִן (שמות יט, יח): וְהַר סִינַי עָשַׁן כֻּלּוֹ וגו'. וּבַמַּיִם מִנַּיִן, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שופטים ה, ד): גַּם שָׁמַיִם נָטָפוּ גַּם עָבִים נָטְפוּ מָיִם. וּבַמִּדְבָּר מִנַּיִן וַיְדַבֵּר ה' אֶל משֶׁה בְּמִדְבַּר סִינַי, וְלָמָּה נִתְּנָה בִּשְׁלשָׁה דְבָרִים הַלָּלוּ, אֶלָּא מָה אֵלּוּ חִנָּם לְכָל בָּאֵי הָעוֹלָם כָּךְ דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה חִנָּם הֵם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (ישעיה נה, א): הוֹי כָּל צָמֵא לְכוּ לַמַּיִם, דָּבָר אַחֵר, וַיְדַבֵּר ה' אֶל משֶׁה בְּמִדְבַּר סִינַי, אֶלָּא כָּל מִי שֶׁאֵינוֹ עוֹשֶׂה עַצְמוֹ כַּמִּדְבָּר, הֶפְקֵר, אֵינוֹ יָכוֹל לִקְנוֹת אֶת הַחָכְמָה וְהַתּוֹרָה, לְכָךְ נֶאֱמַר: בְּמִדְבַּר סִינָי.
(7) "And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai Wilderness"(Numbers 1:1)." Why in the Sinai wilderness? From here the sages taught, the Torah was given through three things: fire, water, and wilderness. How do we know [the Torah was given through] fire? [From the verse] "Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke..." (Exodus 19:18). How do we know [the Torah was given through] water? As it is written, "Both the Heavens and the clouds dripped water" (Judges 5:4). And how do we know [the Torah was given through] wilderness? [From the verse] "And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai Wilderness" (Numbers 1:1). And why was the Torah given through these three things? Because just as these three are free to all the inhabitants of the world, so too are the words of Torah free for them. As it is written, "Oh, all who are thirsty, go to water [even if you have no money]" (Isaiah 65:1). Another interpretation: "And God spoke to Moses in the Sinai Wilderness" (Numbers 1:1) [means] if one doesn't make oneself ownerless like the wilderness, one cannot acquire wisdom and Torah. Therefore it says, "The Sinai Wilderness."
Every dissenting view is carefully recorded in the Mishnah, even if the law is otherwise. Every verse of the Torah is capable, said the sages, of seventy interpretations. No voice, no view, is silenced. Judaism never allows us to lose our individuality in the mass.
There is a wonderful blessing mentioned in the Talmud to be said on seeing 600,000 Jewish persons together in one place. It is: “Blessed are You, Lord ... who discerns secrets.”
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 blessing refers to.
Gustav Le Bon's The Crowd can be found at:
https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Lebon/LeBon_1895/LeBon_1895_02.html