Community Torah Corner, May 30, 2025

This week's parsha is Bamidbar which is the first parasha in Sefer Bamidbar. God says:
שְׂא֗וּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ֙ כׇּל־עֲדַ֣ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖ם לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֑ם בְּמִסְפַּ֣ר שֵׁמ֔וֹת כׇּל־זָכָ֖ר לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָֽם׃

which means that God asks Moshe to take a census of the male Israelites that are 20-60 years old for the military. Moshe counts everyone except for the Leviam because they have a special role to work in the mishkan. 

As we know this parsha talks about numbers and taking a census. This fits very well into all of our lives right now because we are all counting things. Most of us may be counting down the days of school left since it is the end of the year. Others could be counting the days until they go to sleepaway camp or they go on vacation for summer break. At any time in our lives there will always be things that we wait for and count just like how God asked Moshe. 

Counting things also has to do with order. Moshe had to be very organized while counting. We can connect to this because anything we do whether it's schoolwork or cleaning up your room you always want to be tidy and complete things in an orderly fashion. Just like before a field trip, the teachers have to count everyone and make sure no one is missing. They might do that by making you stand in a line or smaller groups to keep things organized. Yesterday we had a drill in school for security measures, and we had to listen to our teachers to make sure that we would all be safe. This goes back to being organized and counting because to do one you have to do the other too. 

Parashat Bamidbar also talks about how the leaders have to be organized and all the responsibility they may have. People always look up to our leaders like the Israelites did towards God, Moshe, or even the Levites. And those leaders took charge in a way good leaders should. At Golda Och, we also look up to people in charge like Mrs. Himmelstein, Mr. Huseman, Rabbi Nevins and all of our teachers here. It is always important to treat your leaders with respect and to listen to them. 

Even though the school year is almost over and we are all excited and ready for the break, we still have to remember to be kind and respectful to our leaders. They all work so hard just like Moshe and God did to control the Israelites because we know how hard it can be to keep track of all the Israelites and their complaining. We also know that if we are not being the best students we can be right now, we will have time to think over our break and when we come back next fall we can be more grateful to our teachers and leaders. 

There are only 12 more days of school! We are all definitely counting down until the last day, I know I am! It is almost the end of the school year, and we have to get organized for it. Most of us have finals or hard tests to end the year which could be stressful. The year feels like it has flown past us but we have to thank all of our leaders or teachers for helping us through this year. We are all so thankful and will take all of the things you taught us into our summer break and next year. We will also remember how God asked Moshe to take a census and Moshe did it in an organized and neat way. We will definitely remember that if only Moshe could handle all of B’nei Yisrael, we can definitely make it through the last days of school and a few more assignments! 

Shabbat Shalom!