Women

This week’s parsha, Bamidbar, begins with the counting of the Jewish people not only once, but twice. The reason for the numerous countings is because, as Rashi points out (the first Rashi in this week’s parsha), the more something is counted, the more precious it is. Therefore, the Jews are counted numerous times to show how precious they are. Take a close look at the counting, though, and you will see that a large segment of people are not counted. It is the women. The women are never counted in all of the Torah. Therefore, the only logical conclusion that can be drawn is that they are not precious. It seems to be that the men are the only important people in this world. Why else would the Torah only count the men?

To answer this question, let’s take a close look at who is being counted. There are 600,000 men counted twice at the beginning of this week’s parsha. As we continue on through Sefer Bamidbar (Numbers), we will see that all of these 600,000 men (except for Calev and Yehoshua) dies. These are the men that accept the negative report of the Meraglim (spies) in Parshas Shelach that causes the Jews to wander in the desert for 40 years. They caused many problems for the Jewish nation after leaving Egypt.

There is one group of people that were very holy from the day we left Egypt. It is the women. The women did not take part in the Golden Calf. The women did not accept the negative report of the Meraglim. The women were not complainers. The women did what they were supposed to do. Therefore, the reason the women are not counted in the Torah is not because Hashem does not love them. The reason they are not counted is because the Torah does not want to waste words. We can learn that they are the most treasured of Hashem from a simple “kal v’chomer” (which means if one thing is true then how much more so must something else be true). If the men, who sinned against Hashem, were loved so much that their counting is mentioned twice in one parsha, how much more so must the women, who did not commit these crimes, be loved by Hashem. The women are the most treasured possession of K’lal Yisroel. They are the reason that we have existed throughout the ages.

I don’t have enough room to write every example (hopefully in future Divrei Simcha I will be able to write more), but I’d like to share one example from Jewish history of the powerful role women have played. There was once a poor shepherd with no Torah knowledge at all. A woman named Rochel, who came from a very prominent family decided to marry this man. When her wealthy father heard this, he disowned her and refused to give her any money. This very wealthy woman went from sleeping in a huge mansion with many servants to sleeping on straw. Rochel then sent her husband away for twenty-four years. Think about what this woman went through — she sacrificed so much. I’ve been away from my family for four weeks before and emotionally it was almost impossible. This woman was away from her husband for 312 times that amount of time. But her husband grew to become the great Rebbe Akiva. If we have a Gemara today, it is only because of Rebbe Akiva. The anonymous sayings that are brought down in the Gemara are almost always from Rebbe Akiva or one of his students. And the only reason we have a Rebbe Akiva is because there was one woman that gave up her life for him — Rochel. It is the women in every generation that have saved us.

As we celebrate Shavuos this coming week, let’s remember that the only reason we are celebrating the Torah is because of the women. Our Torah would have been forgotten a long time ago if it was not for them. Thank you very much to all of the women in this world!

Good Shabbos!

-yes

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By Rabbi Yaacov Seltzer
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(305) 652-0186