T ORAH P ORTION
The Sum of Us, Not Just Some of Us
BY RABBI RON SYMONS
Parshat Pinchas
o Once in connection
with the formation of
the camps [Numbers 1].

o and once in connection
with the division of the
land [Numbers 26].

Twice in the days of Saul
[1Samuel 11:8, 15:4].

Th e eighth time in the days
of David [2Samuel 24:9].

Th e ninth time in the days of
Ezra [Ezra 2:64; Nehemiah
7:66]. Th e tenth time will be in the
future era of the Messiah,
when, [as Jeremiah said:]
Th e sheep shall pass again
under the hands of one
who counts them [said the
Eternal]. [Jeremiah 33:13].

PERHAPS YOU remember
the 2020 census. I know, it
seems like it was so long ago.

• Th e arguments about citizen-
ship questions and deadlines, •
enumerators and computer
forms, congressional districts •
and federal funding — it seems
like a lifetime ago because of
COVID, and yet the results will •
guide us for the next 10 years ...

until we get to census 2030 as
mandated by the Constitution.

In this week’s Torah portion,
Pinchas, we again turn our atten-
tion to a census of ancient Israel.

Th is is the fi ft h of 10 censuses the
We know that there are
people of Israel have and will take
practical reasons for all this
in the ancient world:
counting. Knowing how many
On 10 occasions were Israel
people live
in our community
counted: both today and in the ancient
• Once when they went down world aff ords us the data we
need to feed and care for the
to Egypt [Genesis 46:27].

• A second time when they most vulnerable, to assure the
rights and responsibilities of
came out [Exodus 12:37].

• A third time aft er the community, and to prepare for
incident of the Golden Calf a future of abundance for the
sum of us rather than just for
[Exodus 30:12].

• Twice in the Book of some of us.

According to Rabbi Lord
Numbers: Jonathan Sacks, z’l, all of this
is important from a human
perspective. While we need
to know all of that, there is
another reason, he argues in
“What Counts,” why counting
must happen from a spiritual
perspective: A Divine census is utterly
diff erent [than a human census].

It has nothing to do with
strength-in-numbers. It has
to do, instead, with conveying
to every member of the nation
that he or she counts; that
every person, family, house-
hold is held precious by God;
that distinctions between great
and small, ruler and ruled,
leader and led, are irrelevant;
that we are each God’s image
and the object of His love. A
Divine census is, as Rashi says,
a gesture of endearment. Th at
is why it cannot be described by
the usual verbs of counting —
limnot, lifk od, lispor, lachshov.

Only the phrase naso/se’u
et rosh, “lift the head,” does
justice to this kind of enumer-
ation, in which those entrusted
with the task are commanded
to “lift the head” of those they
count, making every individual
stand tall in the knowledge that
CAN DL E L IGHTIN G
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they are loved, cherished, held
special by God, and not merely
a number, a cipher, among the
thousands and millions.

Th e work of the Divine
census must continue long
aft er census 2020 and long
before census 2030. We, not
God, must continue the work
with the same intentionality
we applied to census 2020.

In her most recent book,
“Th e Sum of Us: What Racism
Costs Everyone and How
We Can Prosper Together,”
Heather McGhee proves
chapter aft er chapter how the
impact of racism costs all of
us, not just those who are the
object of racism.

While she proposes the
“solidarity dividend,”
I suggested to her that we can
nuance the phrase to be the
“solidarity redemption.” You
see, when the Hebrew slaves
left Egypt some 3,000 years
ago, we did not leave by
ourselves. Without checking
off a box on a form to see what
race, ethnicity, gender identity,
sexual identity, country of
origin they were, a mixed
multitude of people were a part
of our “we.”
Cohen Continued from Page 5
settled in the United States.

“Th at opened my eyes up to
the wider world,” Lisa Cohen
said. Kalisch noted that Cohen
was an activist in speaking out
against the Vietnam War and
was open to both interfaith and
LGBTQ inclusion ahead of his
time, as well as civil rights.

As a rabbinical student in the
1950s, he organized protests of
a Woolworth’s lunch counter
in Cincinnati, Kalisch said.

Cohen’s interest in civil
rights made Beth David’s
decision to relocate to
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Gladwyne in the mid-1980s
troubling for him, Kalisch
said. She said he likely was the
last congregant still living in
Wynnefi eld.

Cohen also was prolifi c as
an author. His works included
a biography of his grandfather
and “Charley Braunstein and
Jewish Tradition,” a take-off
on Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts”
characters. While serious about social
justice and Judaism, Cohen
displayed a soft er side to the
congregation with his “Charley
Braunstein” stories and silly
songs tied to holidays and
Jewish tradition, and to his
family with lesser-known
passions, Lisa Cohen said.

“My dad was an avid sports
fan,” she said, adding that they
used to play baseball in the
backyard, and his attempt to
ride a skateboard resulted in a
broken ankle. “He prayed for
the Phillies.”
When it came time for his
developmentally disabled
daughter, Shelley, to have her bat
mitzvah, Cohen wasn’t deterred.

“He said, ‘We’re going to do
something that works for her,’”
JEWISH EXPONENT
Lisa Cohen said, also remem-
bering the time he performed
a funeral service for a neighbor
girl’s hamster.

After retiring in 1993,
Cohen was active in various
groups and a strong supporter
of Ben-Gurion University, but
an early diagnosis of dementia
eventually limited him, Lisa
Cohen said.

Cohen is survived by his
daughters, Shelley and Lisa,
and a granddaughter. ●
8:15 p.m.

8:13 p.m.

All of us, the sum of us
made it through the plagues,
got to the water’s edge, were
confronted by Pharoah,
marched through the mud,
helped each other as we fell
and rose together, and fi nally
the sum of us, all of us, danced
on the other shore of the sea
as we continued our journeys
through all the challenges of
living together in community.

We will state it because it
will be true as a result of our
shared eff orts to help “... every
individual stand tall in the
knowledge that they are loved,
cherished, held special by God,
and not merely a number, a
cipher, among the thousands
and millions.”
It will be true because even
though humans count humans,
we will lift up every head so
that we see our neighbors as
“neighbors qua moral concept”
and not just numbers. It is all
about the sum of us, not just
some of us. ●
Rabbi Ron Symons is the senior
director of Jewish life at the JCC of
Greater Pittsburgh, where he is the
founding director of the Center for
Loving Kindness.

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