28 May 2011 | 24 Iyar 5771 | Numbers 1:1-4:20

I opened my newspaper earlier this week to the headline, “What’s Up With the Jews?”  You missed that headline?  Let me explain.  I hardly ever open up an actual newspaper anymore.  I just don’t like that newsprint on my hands.  Moreover, when I “open” my newspaper, it is usually long before the printed edition has arrived at the foot of our driveway.  And by “headline,” I don’t mean to refer to the classic, above-the-fold words that greet newspaper traditionalists when they sit down with their coffee and prepare to get their fingers dirty.  No, this was one of the New York Times website homepage op–ed headlines on Tuesday morning.  I think you will find Stanley Fish’s, “The Opinionater,” an interesting read:  http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/whats-up-with-the-jews/

True, there is only one newspaper in America in which this column could have appeared... in the city that serves as home to several million Jews.  Yet, the New York Times still markets itself as the newspaper that shares “All the News That’s Fit to Print.” It is read each day by people living throughout our country and the world. As I read Mr. Fish’s provocative column, I felt a twinge of self-consciousness. Is that (what Mr. Fish writes) really what we Jews are?  Is that how the world views us each day?  Do we really need such attention?  My self-consciousness and discomfort bordered (maybe even went over the line) on shame – Are these the images we really project?

A midrashic understanding of the beginning of our parasha provides us with insight from a very different time and circumstance.

On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, saying: Take a census of the whole Israelite community by the clans of its ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by head. You and Aaron shall record them by their groups, from the age of twenty years up, all those in Israel who are able to bear arms (Nu. 1:1 – 3)

This census, which had the purpose of helping the community know its potential numerical fighting force, is understood by our commentators in a very different fashion. The command to count the Israelites is couched in words that mean something very different when they are translated literally.  God does not tell Moses and Aaron to “take a census of the Israelites.”  God tells them to “raise the heads of the whole congregation of Israel.” According to a midrash, our Israelite ancestors suffered self-esteem problems and were in need of divine confidence-building. More specifically, in the wake of the Golden Calf incident, the Israelites’ self-confidence and assurance of God’s continuing presence and support was flagging.  In this light, God was instructing Moses and Aaron to reassure the Israelites:

“Give them confidence in the face of the nations because after the affair of the calf, the nations said that the Israelites would never be forgiven. Therefore, ‘raise their heads,’ so that the nations will know that I have forgiven them” (Midrash HaGadol)

Surely, as individuals, each of us has lived through lapses in self-confidence when our self-image was impugned.  But what about as a people? Do we ever suffer lapses in self-confidence?  Does our experience reflect problems in our self-image? Obviously, no generalized characterization can ever apply to an entire group. Sometimes we could speak out, and we choose not to do so…not just as individual Jews, but as a group. Sometimes, I have seen that we could act, and we choose not to do so. One of the best examples in our day concerns the justice of Israel’s cause as it seeks to pursue peace. Today, too few Jews are comfortable sharing the Israeli narrative with those who question its veracity.

It all begins with a lack of knowledge about Zionist history of the past 125 years which, in turn, results in self-consciousness or a lack of confidence in projecting the justice of Israel’s cause to others. Obviously, education is an important element of the “antidote.” But there is something else that can help us, and we saw an example of it if we watched C-Span on Tuesday morning.

At that time we saw Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu speak before a joint session of Congress. He spoke with knowledge and confidence in the justice of his story and cause.  Disagree, if you like, with this or that statement. Disagree, if you like, with a particular policy of the present Israeli government concerning peace. It was impossible to listen to Prime Minister Netanyahu on Tuesday morning and not be lifted up as he explained what Israel will and will not do as it seeks to reach an agreement with the Palestinian Authority.  Those who the Prime Minister lifted up should have included people whose confidence in Israel may have flagged as they have accepted aspects of the Palestinian narrative about Israel (e.g. Israel, the aggressor, Goliath, oppressing the Palestinians and making their statehood impossible).

In our parasha, Moses and Aaron lifted up the Israelites at a difficult time in their journey to the Promised Land.  Kol Hakavod to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who lifted us up earlier this week at this challenging time for our people who live in the place our Israelite ancestors finally reached.