Bamidbar – Individuality

Around this time of year we celebrate ל”ג בעומר which is unique in the fact there is virtually no mention of it in Halacha, except for the fact that there is no תחנון on that day. Throughout the whole year, the שלחן ערוך dictates every waking moment of our day and even the way we sleep. When it comes to Shabbos and Yom Tov there are tomes written about every aspect of these days. Yet when it comes to ל”ג בעומר, near silence. Why is it that ל”ג בעומר is almost completely absent from Halacha?

We all know that ל”ג בעומר is the yartzheit of R’ Shimon Bar Yochai. There is a גמרא in מסכת סנהדרין that says that the midrashim from the different parts of the Torah have default authors. If there is a ספרי that doesn’t have a specified author then it is assumed that R’ Shimon is the one who said it. Rashi says that ספרי is the מדרש explaining ספר במדבר and ספר דברים. When it comes to understanding these two ספרים of Torah, R’ Shimon is the one to turn to.

Unique to ספר במדבר is the counting of the בני ישראל, so much so that it is called ספר הפיקודים, or “Numbers”. In general, the names that are given to the חמשה חומשי תורה are generally very central themes to that ספר. בראשית is all about the creation and genesis of the world. Beginning with Adam and then again with Noach after the destruction of the מבול, and finally the story of the creation of the Jewish people. שמות is all about the גאולה from מצרים, and the immediate journey thereafter to build the משכן and receive the Torah, which is explained as the purpose of leaving Egypt. ספר ויקרא (תורת כהנים) is almost entirely centered around the specific laws pertaining to the kohanim. But if you look throughout ספר במדבר the Jews are only counted twice, once in this week’s פרשה and once in פרשת פינחס. So why is the entire ספר themed after counting if it is seemingly such a minute part of the ספר?

The purpose of counting is to lift the person up to show the power and specialness of each individual. But if counting was merely to show that you are an individual, that should only make you lonely and separated from others. In a world of pure individualism people wouldn’t be able to relate to one another since they are all so different. We have a different type of counting. The point of the type of counting that we do is to count the individuals but specifically with the goal of adding them up to get to the total which tells the number of individuals in the group. This is because the individual’s true power is when they join their uniqueness’ together and help each other reach a common goal together.

Let’s take another look at ספר במדבר as a whole. We begin with the Jews being counted, then we have the description of the way each family and tribe camped within the entire nation, and the rest of the ספר is mostly occupied with stories of individuals. There are 2-3 million people walking through the desert yet we hear about 5 sisters who want a piece of land, 254 people who rebelled against Moshe, 1 person who decided to chop wood on Shabbos, and 12 spies, 2 of which passed the test and 10 who failed. It seems so strange that until this point we’ve been discussing history and the Jews on a macro level and suddenly, we start discussing such a small number of people.

This is the theme of ספר במדבר, every single individual Jew is counted and we each have own place to camp and place our homes within the nation. We then hear stories about specific people who become famous or infamous. The underlying theme is that each person is an individual within the nation and can make a difference.

So, R’ Shimon Bar Yochai, who is the master of ספר במדבר is the one to teach us the power of the individual. And therefore, on the day that is dedicated to R Shimon, there aren’t any specific הלכות since halacha is a communal list of laws that we all need to live by. ל”ג בעומר can’t get a specific list of its own laws since it is meant for each person to reflect and introspect on their own individual level and mission.

The מהר”ל says that every Shabbos holds the potential energy for the week which comes after it, and the following 6 days unravel from Shabbos (he explains that this is why it is called שבת הגדול and שבת שובה, since those 2 שבתות hold the power of the גאולה of Pesach and the Teshuva of Yom Kippur, respectively). It is no surprise then, that this Shabbos of פרשת במדבר ushers in the week of Matan Torah. ספר במדבר is coming to teach us that we are each an individual within the nation, and the Torah was given to the entity known as כלל ישראל which is nothing more and nothing less than the sum of all the individual Jews in the nation of ישראל.

At Har Sinai we each got 2 crowns from Hashem, specifically tailored to fit our heads. The Torah is a gift to each and every one of us which Hashem gave to us and wants us to use to find our own path in this world. With ל”ג בעומר in the near past, Shabbos פרשת במדבר in the present and קבלת התורה in the immediate future, we should each focus on our own uniqueness and connection point to הקדוש ברוך הוא, and hopefully we can all feel our own crowns being placed on our heads this coming week.