Parshas Bamidbar: Every Life Counts

The Torah reading this week, Bamidbar: Bamidbar (Numbers) 1:1-4:20, opens in the midst of the desert, where Moses is instructed by the Almighty to conduct a census according to His directions and the customs of the day. The census establishes the Nation of Israel's first army, a security perimeter around the Tabernacle. and a group of priests to perform sacred duties in the Sanctuary.

The census in Bamidbar counts only males from 11 of the 12 Tribes from the age of twenty to sixty; however, families are mentioned, too, as a way of including women and children. Levites received special treatment because they didn't participate in the Golden Calf incident. God appointed them managers of the Tabernacle and ordered they be counted from the age of one month and older. The one month milestone was the age of viability at that time.

This text is not a statement of non-personhood for unborn children, children under the age of one month, or for females; it is merely a pragmatic method of counting. It should not be used as a Torah based argument for killing unborn children or killing children under one month of age, just as it cannot be used as justification for killing females at any age.

Viability is now an astonishing 22 weeks gestation. With neonatal care, these babies live outside the womb. Many thrive and go on to live normal healthy lives.

The biblical census is important because it recognizes each individual member of each individual tribe as a unique human being with value, dignity, and worth. HaShem loves each one of us, and creates each one of us to fulfill a specific mission on Earth. We know that each person is unique from day one of conception, and our psalms inform us that HaShem knows the destiny of each one of us from the moment He bestows the gift of life at conception. This is one reason we define each unborn child as an entity much beloved by God. The other reason is that life and death are up to Him alone. Our task is to protect and support life at every stage of development rather than attack and destroy it.

While we are looking at numbers, let's take a look at abortion numbers within the Jewish community and beyond. The Numbers, Astonishing. The Loss Of Life, Tragic. The Reality, Frightening. The Heartache, Inconsolable.

576 Jewish Children Die From Abortion Every Week in Israel. 40,000 Jewish Children Die From Abortion Every Year in Israel. 2 Million Jewish Children In Israel Have Died From Abortion.

338 Jewish Children Die From Abortion Every Week in the US. 17,622 Jewish Children Die From Abortion Every Year in the US. 881,110 Jewish Children in the US Have Died From Abortion Since 1973.

Every 9 minutes a Jewish baby dies from abortion in the US/Israel.

According to today's abortion counter, 65,861,244 children from all backgrounds have died from abortion In the United States since 1973. 

1,737,382,835 unborn children worldwide died from abortion since 1980.

Let's keep in mind that every one of these babies was destroyed painfully from chemicals, dismemberment, lethal injection or puncture to the brain, and only God knows what other methods were used.

The Haftorah for Bamidbar, Hoshea (Hosea) 2:1-22, refers us to Samuel, a miracle baby born of a barren woman who prays for a child. She conceives after promising that she will dedicate her son's life to serve HaShem. Samuel becomes an exceptionally influential leader in his time - a prophet, priest, teacher, judge, and appointer of Israel's first two kings. Consider the disastrous effect on the Jewish people and upon history had he never been born.

Consider the devastating repercussions upon the world from all the precious unborn children who were never born because someone decided through willfulness, ignorance, manipulation, coercion, or force that they didn't have the right to be here. Think of all the wounded mothers, the sorrowful fathers, the loss of leadership, scholarship, righteous example, and unfulfilled destiny. 

The numbers don't lie. It's important that we recognize each human life, wherever they live and however they die. You can bet HaShem does.

Cecily Routman

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.