Hillary Guttman: Welcome to Into the Verse, where we share new and unexpected insights about the parsha, diving deep into the verses to uncover the Torah’s own commentary on itself. This is Hillary Guttman.

Mazal tov! Congratulations on finishing Leviticus this past week! We’ve now completed the first three books of the Torah: Genesis – aptly named for the beginning of the world and the nation who become the focus of the rest of the Torah; Exodus – about the nation’s epic departure from Egypt; and last week we finished Leviticus – the book filled with tons of laws about the Levites, the priestly tribe. This week we begin the Book of Numbers. Now, I hope all you other math enthusiasts are just as excited as I am to start crunching some numbers – enough of that drama stuff. The Book of Numbers should be all about counting and math, right? Well, I hate to spoil your numerical fun, but once you get past the census report in this week’s parsha, this book is packed with drama and struggles – spies, rebellions, miraculous plagues, battles, and it even has its fair share of illicit relationships. So, how does the name “Numbers” fit with what the book, as a whole, is all about? 

In this week’s episode, Rabbi Fohrman is joined by another member of the Aleph Beta family- literally. It’s his daughter, Ariella, who is interning at Aleph Beta. Together, they explore the significance of the title “The Book of Numbers.” Their discussion actually leads to a fascinating theory about the names of the Torah’s first four books and weaves them into a singular story. The inspiration for their theory lies, interestingly, in the counting that occupies the bulk of this week’s parsha. 

Here are Rabbi and Ariella Fohrman.

Rabbi David Fohrman: Ariella, it's good to have you. Say hi to everybody.

Ariella Fohrman: Hi.

Rabbi Fohrman: All right, Ariella. I have a question for you, for starters. Are you ready for my question?

Ariella: I hope so.

Rabbi Fohrman: Okay. Great. Here's the question I want to ask you: You're on the approval table for names of the Bible. On a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being “really bad” and 10 being “wonderful,” I'd like you to rate and explain how you think the name of the book matches with the main ideas of the book. You got to approve them. Are you ready?

Sefer Bereishit – we're going to call it Bereishit not just because of the word Bereishit but because we think Bereishit actually works to capture the idea of the book. Bereishit means “in the beginning” or, in Latin, “Genesis.” How good of a name do you think this is?

Ariella: I think that for the parsha, it's a ten. For the sefer (book), it's like a two.

Rabbi Fohrman: But if you take a more expansive view of “in the beginning,” what else could in the beginning mean?

It could mean in the beginning of a universe and in the beginning of a people, a nation, the beginning of our people. In which case it's a great name for the book. It probably gets a 10, because it's laying the groundwork where the family gets started that is ultimately going to become Israel. It's the beginning of a world, and it's the beginning of a nation, all wrapped into one, so let's keep that.

Okay, Ariella, let's go to our next book, the Book of Shemot in Hebrew or Exodus in English. Do you think it's a good name? Here, you have to break up the difference between the Hebrew name and the English name. They seem to have little to do with each other. If you had to translate the name Shemot into English, what would you have called the book?

Ariella: Names.

Rabbi Fohrman: Names, but notice how that's not how the English authors called it. They called it Exodus, probably because Exodus sounds like a much better name for the book, right? Ariella, if you had to think about Exodus on a scale from 1 to 10, how good of a name would that be?

Ariella: Nine.

Rabbi Fohrman: Nine, because that's, like, a major idea about the book, right? The people of Israel are all going through and all the movies made of them – The Prince of Egypt, The Ten Commandments – it's like a stunning theatrical event, the exodus from Egypt, a really good name for the main event of the book. If we called the book “Names,” on a scale from 1 to 10, what would you rate it?

Ariella: 0.5.

Rabbi Fohrman: It's, like, really bad, right? I mean, it's, like, the first verse and then we're off to the races with an entirely different idea. There's a new king, everyone becomes slaves, they get out of Egypt. What does “names” have to do with anything? Let's move on.

Let's go to Leviticus, Hebrew name Vayikra. Notice how the English people do not stick with that name.

Ariella: For good reason.

Rabbi Fohrman: For good reason. So, Ariella, how good of a name do you think Vayikra is for the book?

Ariella: One.

Rabbi Fohrman: One. Why is it so bad, Ariella?

Ariella: The only reason why it's good is because it's used so much in Vayikra, but it has nothing to do with anything.

Rabbi Fohrman: Nothing to do with the meaning of the book. What does the word Vayikra mean?

Ariella: And He called.

Rabbi Fohrman: And He called. So Moses got called. That's the first thing that happened. Pretty bad name, right?

Ariella: Mm-hm.

Rabbi Fohrman: Leviticus is a much better name, which is probably why the English folks didn't just translate the Hebrew. Instead, they just changed it entirely to Leviticus which just means the laws of the Levite class or the laws of the priests, which actually picks up on what Chazal (our Sages) say the name of the book is. They call it Torat Kohanim, the Laws of the Kohanim.

Basically, we've got two books now, that the English names seem to have nothing to do with anything. The direct English translation based off the Hebrew or the Hebrew names seem to be weird. The Hebrew name for Bereishit, I kind of get why it might be a good name for the book. It's the beginning of everything. When it comes to Shemot and Vayikra, Ariella has given us an official 0.5 and 1 for these names, very bad because a book that is called Names and a book that's called Callings doesn't really have to do with much, seemingly.

That brings us to Numeri or the Book of Numbers, which is another time where the Hebrew name for the book and the English name kind of diverge. What do you have in Hebrew for Numbers? If you were translating it, Ariella, what name would you give Bamidbar?

Ariella: In the Desert.

Rabbi Fohrman: In the Desert. Okay. How good of a name for the whole book would you say “In the Desert” is?

Ariella: Seven.

Rabbi Fohrman: Pretty good because they were at least in the desert. Strangely, though, the English folks thought they could do even better. They called it Numeri, Numbers, based off of, seemingly, one of the first things that happens in this book. Take a look at the first couple of verses here, Ariella. See if you can read them and tell me why the book is called Numbers. Go ahead.

Ariella: וַיְדַבֵּר יְקוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה בְּמִדְבַּר סִינַי בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד בְּאֶחָד לַחֹדֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִי בַּשָּׁנָה הַשֵּׁנִית לְצֵאתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם לֵאמֹר (Numbers 1:1).

Rabbi Fohrman: So God is telling Moses to do something over here in the second year of the desert. What's He telling him to do?

Ariella: שְׂאוּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ כׇּל־עֲדַת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם לְבֵית אֲבֹתָם בְּמִסְפַּר שֵׁמוֹת כׇּל־זָכָר לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָם (Numbers 1:2).

Rabbi Fohrman: What should he do?

Ariella: He should count B’nei Yisrael.

Rabbi Fohrman: He should count the Children of Israel. Ah, so now you see why it's called Numbers?

Ariella: Yeah.

Rabbi Fohrman: Yeah, because it has to do with counting, right? Okay. Now, rate it. How good of a name is the Book of Numbers because we've got some counting over here?

Ariella: Three.

Rabbi Fohrman: Three. It's pretty good for Parshat Bamidbar. It doesn't do much for the rest of the book. The rest of the book has to do with the travails of the people during this time in the desert, very little to do with numbers.

So, Ariella, we have got quite a task for us. In looking at the names of all these books, few of them make sense to us. Genesis – we can get by with. Shemot – well, the English sounds a lot better than the Hebrew. What does Shemot have to do with anything? And Vayikra – that sounds like a really poor name, much better in English, Leviticus. Over here, the Book of Numbers, you know, it's sort of okay in Hebrew, “In the Desert.” The English name, Numbers, is really kind of weird. The English name, by the way, comes off as something else that our Sages say, Chumash HaPikudim, because the word for numbering over here is actually pakad.

If you read one more verse, verse 3, over here in the beginning of Bamidbar, we hear, מִבֶּן עֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה וָמַעְלָה – From 20 years old, כׇּל־יֹצֵא צָבָא – anybody that goes out to the army, תִּפְקְדוּ אֹתָם – there's that word, pikudim – you shall count. And, therefore, hence the word “numbers” in the book, pikudim (Numbers 1:3).

So, Ariella, what I'd like to do with you is try to come up with a theory that would make at least these four first books of the Bible actually make sense. Genesis, Exodus or Shemot, really, the Book of Names, the Book of Leviticus, the book of not just the laws of the Levites but the book of calling, and finally, the Book of Bamidbar or otherwise known as Chumash HaPikudim, the Book of Counting. How would these all stitch together?

A Chameleon Word

To do that with you, Ariella, I want to engage in a little Venn diagram analysis of this central word that Chazal, that our Sages, used for Sefer Bamidbar. We're going to be looking at the word pakad and its various different meanings and almost kind of assembling a Venn diagram and trying to see that this word is almost like a chameleon. It has a lot of different shades of meaning. How exactly do they overlap?

So, Ariella, we've seen the word pakad over here, right at the beginning of Bamidbar, to be a word that means “to count.” From your vast knowledge of the rest of the Bible, can you give me any other instance where pakad, you think, might mean something else?

Ariella: וַיקוָה פָּקַד אֶת־שָׂרָה (Genesis 21:1).

Rabbi Fohrman: Sarah is about to have a child. She gets pregnant. The word for that, וַיקוָה פָּקַד אֶת־שָׂרָה. There's that verb. Give me some sort of translation of that verb. God what Sarah?

Ariella: Remembered.

Rabbi Fohrman: God remembered Sarah, maybe. That, in fact, is how many translations will translate it. But "remember" doesn't seem to have a lot to do with the idea of counting. Let's take another shot at pakad. Does pakad mean anything else from your knowledge of Torah? Where else would the word pakad ever appear?

Ariella: פָּקֹד יִפְקֹד אֶתְכֶם (Genesis 50:24).

Rabbi Fohrman: Good, פָּקֹד יִפְקֹד אֶתְכֶם. Where does that phrase appear?

Ariella: At the end of Bereishit, with Yosef telling his brothers to not bury him in Mitzrayim (Egypt).

Rabbi Fohrman: What is he telling the brothers when he says, פָּקֹד יִפְקֹד אֱלֹקים אֶתְכֶם...מִזֶּה (Genesis 50:25)?

Ariella: Hashem is going to remember you.

Rabbi Fohrman: Not just that He'll remember you. We're on the cusp of a terrible, dark moment in Jewish history, slavery which lasts for 400 years. The Jews don't want to just be remembered. What else do they want?

Ariella: Redemption.

Rabbi Fohrman: They want redemption. You're going to be redeemed. You're going to be taken out of this terrible place. In a way, that's what Yosef wants from his brothers because, as you put it, what's Yosef's request of his brothers at that moment, when he says that God will ultimately remember you in Egypt? 

Ariella: When Hashem takes them out, that they should remember to bring his bones.

Rabbi Fohrman: Oh, there's that word again. They should remember me. In other words, don't forget me, redeem me as well. In a way, you're beginning to see a connection between the words “redeem” and “remember.” How does the idea of “remember” connect with the idea of “redeem?” How does it feel to be remembered? How does it feel to be redeemed? Imagine you're a slave. What bothers you about being a slave?

Ariella: No one notices you.

Rabbi Fohrman: And what's the only reason why you matter?

Ariella: If you're doing something in the world.

Rabbi Fohrman: Yeah, I'm doing something in the world for Pharaoh, not for myself. I'm making bricks. If I die and if I drop, there's always somebody to take my place. I feel forgotten. But when someone redeems me, I feel like I matter again. I feel like I count. Someone remembers me, I feel like I count. That which is forgotten doesn't count.

So there's this Venn diagram here of meaning where three words that seem to mean different things – to count. Count in English has two meanings. It can mean to number something, but it can also mean to matter, to count. The idea of being remembered is when you feel like you matter. To be redeemed is actually when, oh my gosh, somebody actually cares about me and takes me out.

That, in fact, is what Joseph is asking from his brothers: Could you remember me? Could I count when I'm just bones? Could you take my bones out from here? That would be a great show of brotherhood that I count, that I'm part of your family, that I matter to you.

Another Meaning of Pakad

In fact, there's one other meaning of the word pakad which is going to appear in Bamidbar. If you read a little bit more here in this parsha, if I can direct you now, Chapter 1, perek aleph, pasuk mem-chet and mem-tet and nun (Verse 48, 49, and 50). Take a look at those three verses. Hafkeid is this word that has sort of another chameleon example of it. וַיְדַבֵּר יְקוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר...

Ariella: אַךְ אֶת־מַטֵּה לֵוִי לֹא תִפְקֹד וְאֶת־רֹאשָׁם לֹא תִשָּׂא בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל – But Levi you shouldn't count, and you shouldn't make them be a part of Bnei Yisrael (the Children of Israel).

Rabbi Fohrman: And you shouldn't count. It's just another word for count, tifkod and tisa. Now, look at that verb, how pakad is now going to take on a different shade of meaning in the very next verse. Read the first half of the next verse.

Ariella: וְאַתָּה הַפְקֵד אֶת־הַלְוִיִּם עַל־מִשְׁכַּן הָעֵדֻת (Numbers 1:48-50).

Rabbi Fohrman: And what does that mean? What does hafkeid mean now?

Ariella: Appoint.

Rabbi Fohrman: You should appoint the Levites to a special job that they have. So if, Ariella, you got appointed to a special job, how would you feel?

Ariella: Happy.

Rabbi Fohrman: And you would feel like you...?

Ariella: Are remembered.

Rabbi Fohrman: ...you were remembered, you counted. Here, you know, we can use your little internship here with Aleph Beta as an example. You come to Aleph Beta, and imagine that you're here for two days and you say, "Hi, I'm here for my internship," and no one blinks. You sit around for 15 minutes, you sit around for a half an hour, you sit around for two days, and no one even acknowledges your presence. How do you feel?

Ariella: Forgotten.

Rabbi Fohrman: Forgotten. Even more, how would you feel?

Ariella: Like I don't make a difference.

Rabbi Fohrman: Like I don't make a difference…like I don't count. So you see how those words come together. But then someone comes and says, "Oh, my gosh, Ariella, I can't even believe it. We have this incredibly important job that only you can do. We're going to appoint you over this job." All of a sudden, you're going to make this difference. So now you do count. Now you've been remembered.

In a way, you almost feel like you've been redeemed. To be unredeemed is to feel lowest of the low, but to be redeemed is someone has taken my soul and I feel renewed, which is what it feels like when you actually matter in the world. So it's this idea of mattering as an individual, as a nation, which really is perhaps the essence of the idea of pakad.

Pakad means more than just count, more than just numbers. It means to appoint. It means to count. It means to be redeemed. It means to be remembered. It means to not be forgotten. It means to actually gain significance.

Finding a Story in the Book Titles

Now, here's my challenge for you. Let's go back and read the names of these books and see if we can find a line that we can draw through all four of them, almost a story that's being told through Bereishit, Shemot, Vayikra, and Bamidbar/Chumash HaPikudim. Let's start from the very beginning, in Genesis. Here we have this very first book, and we say it's not just a 3, it's a 10. It's a really good name. Why is it a good name? Because in Bereishit, it's the beginning of what?

Ariella: It's the beginning of everything.

Rabbi Fohrman: Of everything, which is to say, not just a universe, but the beginning of a nation. A family that starts with Avraham, then it devolves to Yitchak and then to Yaakov and then his children and they're on the cusp of becoming something more. They're on the cusp of becoming a nation.

Now, when something goes from just a person, you would say in the larger scope of the universe, which is what creation is all about, how much does any one person count or matter? Look at the universe – big place – 100 billion galaxies. In every galaxy, 100 billion stars. Out of one of those lonely galaxies, there are nine planets. On the third rock from the sun, there are seven billion people. One of them, in the scope of the universe, doesn't seem like it counts that much, right?

Ariella: Well, there are some people that count a lot in the whole world.

Rabbi Fohrman: Okay. Good. There are some people that count a lot, some people that can make their mark. What do you do to make your mark? What makes you count?

Ariella: If you change the world.

Rabbi Fohrman: If you change the world. These people that came along, that began to change the world, that began to count, because Avraham was important not just because of what Avraham did, but because of the family and the legacy that he left behind.

Now, in Hebrew, there's a word for “legacy that you leave behind,” as a person grows into a family that grows into a nation. When a person dies, they want something to be carried on. What do they want to be carried on? Think about yibum (Levirate marriage) here, or this notion that a person dies and they don't have kids and they don't have legacy. So the brother of the deceased is supposed to marry the widow, and then they're supposed to have this child, and they have the child. In the words of the Torah, what do they carry on from that dead brother? What's the Hebrew term for that?

Ariella: The name.

Rabbi Fohrman: וְלֹא־יִמָּחֶה שְׁמוֹ מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל – His name shouldn't be blotted out (Deuteronomy 25:6). Isn't it interesting, Ariella? What's the next book in the Torah after Bereishit?

Ariella: Shemot.

Rabbi Fohrman: The Book of...?

Ariella: Names.

Rabbi Fohrman: ...Names – the moment when we really start to count because there's a legacy. The person has not just become a person but a family. The family is on the cusp of becoming a nation, and the people who started the nation, they all count. They all matter, and you know they matter because they all have names. The difference between a whole bunch of people and people who matter is if those people I'm looking at are not just dots on the screen, but they all have…names. So naming someone is a way of describing that they count, they matter.

Now the problem is that there are a couple of things that can get in the way of mattering. Dying can get in the way of mattering. If you die, you no longer matter. But if your name is continued, if someone continues your legacy, then they keep your name alive, and you still continue to matter.

So when Abraham dies, and his name is continued, and he has a family, and everyone in that family matters, and they all have names, and there's a nation that's there and is going to make a name for themselves, maybe that's what Shemot is about. But there's only one problem. What happens the minute after you learn the names of this incipient nation?

Look at the very first paragraph in Shemot. It's devoted to the names of this nation, and the nation should just come into fruition. It should become this wonderful nation that actually matters in the world and is making a difference in this world of creation. 

Ariella: But they do make a difference, Abba (Dad).

Rabbi Fohrman: Yes, go ahead.

Ariella: That's what our whole religion is about.

Rabbi Fohrman: That's right, but you're reading from the end. In the end, we make a difference. Let's say you didn't know the end and just read verses 8 and 9.

Ariella: וַיָּקׇם מֶלֶךְ־חָדָשׁ עַל־מִצְרָיִם אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יָדַע אֶת־יוֹסֵף – There was a new king in Egypt that didn't know Yosef. (Exodus 1:8-9)

Rabbi Fohrman: Ah, didn't know Yosef. Yosef was the intern now, and there's this new king that's ignoring Yosef. Someone stops counting – the most of important of the Israelites and Yosef doesn't count. What did he tell his people? וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־עַמּוֹ (and he said to his people). Keep on reading.

Ariella: הִנֵּה עַם בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל רַב וְעָצוּם מִמֶּנּוּ.

Rabbi Fohrman: What's he concerned about?

Ariella: That the Bnei Yisrael is bigger and better than Mitzrayim.

Rabbi Fohrman: They count too much. They matter too much. We're worried about them. We're worried that they can do us harm. So what does he do? He enslaves them. And as he enslaves them, what is he seeking to do? He's seeking to make sure...? Keep on reading.

Ariella: הָבָה נִתְחַכְּמָה לוֹ פֶּן־יִרְבֶּה.

Rabbi Fohrman: So let's deal wisely with them (Exodus 1:10). He tries to keep their numbers down as he tries to keep the population smaller and to that end, he throws baby boys into the Nile. When you throw baby boys in the Nile, what are you really saying about the human life that you're destroying?

Ariella: That they don't count.

Rabbi Fohrman: That they don't count, they don't matter, and every one of them is expendable. So this really is the Book of Names. Do you matter or don't you matter? It's a devastating book of slavery. Then these slaves are redeemed, and they come out of slavery. Listen to that word, they are redeemed. As they come out of slavery, God says, "I want to tell you guys something. You count. You matter to Me." Then there's one person and that person is called. When someone is called by God, that person matters.

Ariella: Vayikra.

Rabbi Fohrman: That's right, Vayikra. So you have not just a nation of names, but now there's one person, and that person is called and goes into this Mishkan (Tabernacle) and God says, "Here's My place among you."

Moshe begins to count. Maybe it's just Moshe. What about the people? And the question for the people is, are they just a bunch of former slaves? Are they people who don't have confidence in themselves? Are they people who don't have enough in themselves to establish relationships with each other, to establish a nation, to matter in the world, to fulfill their destiny? What is Bamidbar all about?

Bamidbar is about the struggle. If you think about Bamidbar – the story of Korach, think about the story of the spies, think about all the backsliding that happens in Bamidbar, the struggle for the nation is, will they go backwards and say “Let's go back to Egypt, the world in which we did not count, the world in which we had no names, the world in which we didn't matter. Will we go that way or will we go forward into the land?”

Therefore, it is Bamidbar. It is no man's land. It is the place between the world in which we did not count, the world of slavery and the world of Egypt, and the world in which we do count, where we're a nation in our new land. Therefore, it is the Book of Pikudim. It is the Book of Counting. It is the Book of Mattering. It is the book of a nation struggling with whether they matter. Will they reclaim their names or will they go back into nameless slavery? That is the challenge, I think, of Sefer Bamidbar.

Hillary: Rabbi Fohrman’s theory about the names of the Torah’s first four books frames for us how to understand the Book of Numbers. It is, in fact, a book about counting, but not in the numerical sense. Rabbi Fohrman is suggesting it’s about the struggle of the Israelites to carry on the legacy begun by Abraham, but which was jeopardized by Pharaoh and for which, ultimately, Moses was called upon to continue. It’s a legacy to make a difference in this world, to count, in that figurative sense. 

And we’d like to turn to you, our listeners, because your voice counts – it makes a big difference to us. What are you taking away from this episode? How did it impact you? And as we continue through the rest of the Book of Numbers, share with us your reflections on how well Rabbi Fohrman’s theory about the Book of Counting holds up. Just click the link in the episode description and let your thoughts flow. We can’t wait to hear from you.

Credits

This episode was recorded by Rabbi David Fohrman, together with his daughter, Ariella Fohrman. 

When this episode originally aired on Aleph Beta, it was edited by Rivky Stern. 

Into the Verse editing was done by Evan Weiner.

Our audio editor is me, Hillary Guttman.

Our senior editor is Ari Levisohn. 

Thank you so much for listening, and we’ll see you next week.