Nasso - Does God like Counting?

(1) The anger of the Eternal again flared up against Israel; and so God incited David against them, saying, “Go and number Israel and Judah.” (2) The king said to Joab, his army commander, “Make the rounds of all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and take a census of the people, so that I may know the size of the population.” (3) Joab answered the king, “May the Eternal your God increase the number of the people a hundredfold, while your own eyes see it! But why should my lord king want this?” (4) However, the king’s command to Joab and to the officers of the army remained firm; and Joab and the officers of the army set out, at the instance of the king, to take a census of the people of Israel. (5) They crossed the Jordan and encamped at Aroer, on the right side of the town, which is in the middle of the wadi of Gad, and^-d [went on] to Jazer. (6) They continued to Gilead and to the region of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to^-e Sidon. (7) They went onto the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites, and finished at Beer-sheba in southern Judah. (8) They traversed the whole country, and then they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. (9) Joab reported to the king the number of the people that had been recorded: in Israel there were 800,000 soldiers ready to draw the sword, and the men of Judah numbered 500,000. (10) But afterward David reproached himself^-f for having numbered the people. And David said to the Eternal, “I have sinned grievously in what I have done. Please, O Eternal, remit the guilt of Your servant, for I have acted foolishly.” (11) When David rose in the morning, the word of the Eternal had come to the prophet Gad, David’s seer: (12) “Go and tell David, ‘Thus said the Eternal: I hold three things over you; choose one of them, and I will bring it upon you.’” (13) Gad came to David and told him; he asked, “Shall a seven-year famine come upon you in the land, or shall you be in flight from your adversaries for three months while they pursue you, or shall there be three days of pestilence in your land? Now consider carefully what reply I shall take back to the One who sent me.” (14) David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Eternal, for Divine compassion is great; and let me not fall into the hands of human beings.” (15) The Eternal sent a pestilence upon Israel from morning until the set time;^-e and 70,000 of the people died, from Dan to Beer-sheba. (16) But when the angel extended his hand against Jerusalem to destroy it, the Eternal renounced further punishment and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Stay your hand!” The angel of the Eternal was then by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

(23) David did not take a census of those under twenty years of age, for the Eternal had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars of heaven. (24) Joab son of Zeruiah did begin to count them, but he did not finish; wrath struck Israel on account of this, and the census was not entered into the account of the chronicles of King David.

כי תשא This has the meaning of obtaining: WHEN YOU TAKE [THE SUM], (not of “lifting up” as in Genesis 40:13); as the Targum has it, תקבל. The sense is: when you wish to obtain the sum total of their number — to know how many they are — do not take their census by their polls but each of them shall give half a shekel, and you shall count these, and so ascertain their number. ולא יהיה בהם נגף THAT THERE BE NO PLAGUE AMONG THEM — for counting is subject to the influence of the “evil eye”, and pestilence comes upon them, as we find in the days of David (II Samuel 24:10 and 15).

(1) וידבר… במדבר סיני … באחד לחדש וגו׳ etc. — Because they were dear to God, God counts them every now and then: when they went forth from Egypt God counted them (Exodus 12:37), when many of them fell in consequence of their having worshipped the golden calf God counted them to ascertain the number of those left (cf. Rashi Exodus 30:16); when he was about to make the Divine Shechinah dwell amongst them (i. e. when God commanded them to make a Tabernacle), and 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, God counted them.

§ It was taught in the mishna that if both of them were equal, the appointed priest says: Extend your fingers [hatzbiu]. It was taught: Put out your fingers for a count. Let him count the priests themselves! This is a support for Rabbi Yitzchak, as Rabbi Yitzchak said: It is prohibited to count Jews, even for the purposes of a mitzva, as it is written concerning King Saul and his count of his soldiers: “And he numbered them with bezek” (I Samuel 11:8), meaning that he counted them through shards. Rav Ashi strongly objects to this: From where do you get that this word bezek is a term to break apart? Perhaps it is the name of a town as it is written: “And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek” (Judges 1:5). But learn from here: “And Saul summoned the people and numbered them by sheep” (I Samuel 15:4).

Rabbi Elazar said: Whoever counts a group of Jews violates a negative mitzva, as it is stated: “And the number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured” (Hosea 2:1). Rav Nachman bar Yitzḥak said: They violate two negative mitzvot, as it is stated: “Which cannot be measured and cannot be counted” (Hosea 2:1).

(3) Care should be taken not to take a head-count of people to verify whether there is a minyan, because it is forbidden to take a head-count of Jews even for the purpose of a mitzvah, for it is written: "And Saul gathered the nation and counted them by means of lambs." It is customary to count them by reciting the verse: Hoshiah es amecha etc which contains ten words.

And Rabbi Yitzchak says: Blessing is found only in a matter concealed from the eye, as it is stated: “The Eternal will command blessing with you in your storehouses” (Deuteronomy 28:8), where the grain is concealed. The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: Blessing is found only in a matter over which the eye has no dominion, as it is stated: “The Eternal will command blessing with you in your storehouses.” The Sages taught: One who goes to measure the grain on his threshing floor recites: May it be Your will, O Eternal, our God, that You send blessing upon the product of our hands. If one began to measure the grain he says: Blessed is the One Who sends blessing upon this pile of grain. If one measured and afterward recited this blessing, this is a prayer made in vain, because blessing is found neither in a matter that is weighed, nor in a matter that is measured, nor in a matter that is counted. Rather, it is found in a matter concealed from the eye, as it is stated: “The Eternal will command blessing with you in your storehouses.”