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Synagogue Sermon

February 19, 1955

A Census that Makes Sense (1955)

Parshat Shekalim
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  1. At recent R.A.Y.U. Convention, Herman Wouk compared English and Yiddish. Direct translation of Yiddish into English is fragmentary, lacks the charm, earthiness, immediacy and Jewishness of the whole Yiddish sentence though individual words and ideas are correctly translated....This is so both because of special character of Yiddish and also because it is rich in idioms, which can be translated word for word, but lack meaning as a whole. To take a minor example: ICH HAB IM LIB FUN DER VEITENS.... each word correctly translated, but meaning as a whole is more than component words. 2. It occurs to us that what holds true for language and words, holds true for personality and human beings. It is possible for a man to have all the individual qualities that go into making a fine person, and yet, as a whole, he can remain an unsavory character. 3. I believe that that is what Rabbis had in mind in their commentary on the central theme of today’s special reading, Parshat Shekalim...KI SISSA is method of census...therefore one could not give more than shekel even if he wanted to...but this was more than a clever method of accomplishing a census simultaneously with increasing the Temple’s financial resources. It was a census that made sense , it made sense in a very profound way. Our Rabbis (Mid. Rabb a Shir Hash.) pointed out that from an analysis of the various parts of the Torah where a counting or census of populations and peoples is mentioned, a difference can be noted between the census of the Israelites and those of the neathen nations. UMOS HA’OLAM YESH LAHEM MINYAN VE’EIN LAHEM SE’CHUM, YISRAEL YESH LAHEM MINYAN VE’EESH LAHEM SE’CHUM - when the Torah counts the heathens, it merely enumerates them according to their families, but does not offer a total sum whereas with Israel, gives individual counts and then a total sum of all Israelitesor all Jews included in the census. 4. Why is this? Did Torah work on assumption that Jews aren't as good in arithmetic as non-Jews? Can't we add up a list and figure out final sum? Why does Torah mention total with Jews, not with idol worshippers?...

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