The shiur tonight is on the topic of the significance of counting the Jews. And the reason I chose that topic for this week is because it happens to fit with the parsha of the week, with the portion of the Torah that we're going to read this coming Shabbos, and that we learned during this week, when Hashem, God, commanded Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon to count the Jews. And we see that counting the Jews that Hashem did, actually taking the census of the Jews, was a very, very important inyan, important issue by Hashem. The Chumash that we just started learning this week, which is Chumash Bamidbar, the fourth one of the four of the five chumashim, which is Chumash Bamidbar, actually has another name. It's called the Chumash Hapakudim, the Chumash of the counting, because the Jews were counted in this Chumash more than once. In Parshas Bamidbar, we find that the Jews were counted, and later on in Parshas Pinchas, the Jews again were counted in this Chumash. And we make a big issue of the fact that the Jews were counted, and therefore the Chumash that has the double counting is called the Chumash Hapakudim or the Chumash Hapakudim, the Chumash that has the counting of the Jews. And what we have to understand: what is so important about counting the Jews? We know that it says in the Midrash that altogether the Jews were counted ten times: nine times so far, and the tenth time will be when Mashiach will come, the Jews will be counted again. This is similar to many other things that we find that were ten times. For instance, we know it says there are ten שירות, ten songs that were sung by the Yidden, starting with אז ישיר, and then you have the second אז ישיר ישראל in Chumash, and then you have the שירה of Devorah, different songs throughout the history of the Jews: nine so far, and when Mashiach will come, we will sing a new song, and it's the tenth song. Also says that there were nine פרות אדומות till now. We know that there was a concept of a פרה אדומה, the red heifer, that was made in order to have the ashes to use to sprinkle on a person who became tamei, he became impure through a dead body, and in order to become pure, they had to sprinkle from the ashes. So so far, nine פרות אדומות were made. When Mashiach will come, there will be the tenth. And this, too, the counting, it says there were nine times that the Jews were counted, and Mashiach will come, there will be a tenth counting. And since we're making such a big fuss that there will be a new counting, obviously, counting of the Jews is something very special. And the question is: what is so special about counting? Now, we know that Rashi says in Chumash more than once that counting represents: when you love something, you count it. The nature is that when a person has something in his pocket that is very dear to him or precious, he will constantly take out and count it. If a person has money in his pocket, from time to time you you know how much you have, but you take out your money and you count again, and you want to make sure that you have the whole amount. That's nature. Why is that? Because it's something that's precious to you, so you want to make sure you have it, and it's an expression of the way you feel towards whatever you have. And the same is with the Jews. Since we are beloved by Hashem, so, as Rashi uses the term, Hashem counts us כל שעה, He counts us every while. And he even gives an example that within a short amount of time, the Jews were counted three times. When the Jews went out of Egypt, it says in Chumash the exact amount how much went out, 600,000 men, because Hashem counted them then. Then it says later on, after they worshipped the golden calf, and Hashem told him that, \"Now you have to make a משכן, build for Me a משכן in order for you to be forgiven for this sin,\" He told them to count them again. And this was not much longer. They went out of מצרים on the 15th day of Nisan, and the עגל they made on שבעה עשר בתמוז, which is not long. So you have Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, Tamuz, so right after that, a few months, and they were counted again, after the עגל, before they made the משכן. And then, when the משכן was put up, Hashem told him to count them again on the second month, the sec- the first day of the month of Iyar, which is another about six, seven, eight months from that the second counting. So we see within a little bit over a year, they were counted three times. And the reason Rashi says is because counting the Jews is shows that Hashem loves the Jews, and therefore He counts them. But obviously there must be more to it. This is the simple interpretation, but this class, as we always say, is not just for understanding the simple halachah in the case of halachah or the simple interpretation of something, but to go into the deeper meaning of the different issues that we have in Chumash or in Yiddishkeit, in mitzvot, etc., etc., according to the way it's explained in Kabbalah and in Chassidut. So there must be a deeper meaning in the concept of counting. And there must be a deeper, not just because everything that we learn in the simple peshat must have a deeper meaning, but this for sure has a deeper meaning because looking at it from the simple sense, we don't understand why counting would express the love. Normally, why is it that when you count something it shows that this something is dear to you? Because you want to constantly make sure you have it. You want to know exactly how much you have. You have money in your pocket, you know you have $100, you take it out to be sure again that I have $100. But that's only by us who don't know what we have in our pocket, so who knows, maybe I lost the money. So I'm always worried maybe I don't have it, and I want to count it over again. Because it's so precious to me, so dear to me, I want to count it again. But Hashem always knows. In other words, the counting itself is has nothing to do with being precious, being beloved. The counting is to know what you have, and why do you want to know what you have? Because you like it. So it's indirectly connected to the fact that you have some feeling to it. But the counting itself has nothing to do with feeling. The counting itself doesn't mean that this is dear to you. You count because you want to know what you have, that is an expression of this thing being dear to you. Hashem always knows. He knows how much we have, He doesn't have to count us. So we're back to the question, so why did Hashem count us, and so often, and why is it such a major issue that we call a Chumash, Chumash HaPekudim, the Chumash of the counting, because it's so important? There must be something more to it.

Now, the Shlah, one of the big מקובלים, gives a reason why Hashem wanted the Jews to be counted. And he says like this, based on a halachah: the halachah is דבר שבמנין לא בטל, something that's counted never gets nullified. Meaning like this: the halachah is that if something that's not kasher falls into a pot that's kasher, so if in the pot you have 60 times as much as the treif, the non-kasher food that fell in, the non-kasher food is batel, is nullified. Then in certain cases you don't even have to have 60 times as much, but if you have a certain object which is not kasher, that got mixed in with many objects which are kasher, there is more kasher than non-kasher, it's what we call בטל ברוב, it's nullified within the majority, different situations. But then there is a rule that דבר שבמנין אפילו באלף לא בטל, something that's counted doesn't get nullified even if it falls into a thousand times as much. The reason is because if you count it, it shows it's chashuv. For instance, give an example, in Gemara actually this example is questionable, but nowadays this would be a good example: eggs. Those things that are sold by weight will become batel, will become nullified if it falls into a certain amount. Eggs, eggs are not sold by weight, eggs are sold by number, they're counted, they're sold by the dozen. So that shows that this is chashuv, that this is important, and therefore it will not become nullified. So the Shelah says an interesting thought, an interesting peshat. He says, Hashem knows that the Jews are the minority amongst the goyim, and there are so many more goyim than we are that it's possible for us to become batel, to become nullified. So Hashem wanted to make sure that we are not batel, we will not be nullified. So He said, let the Jews be counted, so they become a דבר שבמנין, they become something that is counted, and something that is counted never becomes batel. So we will never become batel, we will never be nullified in the world amongst the other nations. Very interesting peshat, but if we start thinking about it a little bit deeper, it is not so clear because counting, the fact that something is counted, is not the reason why it doesn't get nullified. It just proves that this is very important, because you sell it by the number, that shows it's important, and because it's important, that's why it doesn't get nullified. So really, the reason it doesn't get nullified is only because it's important. Now, how do we judge If something is important or not, so one of the ways the halachah says to judge it, if it's counted, that's a proof that it is important, it's chashuv. But not that the counting makes it chashuv. The counting is not what causes it to become important. It just proves it's important. Now, by us Jews, we don't need to be counted to prove that we're important by Hashem. So we're back to the question: so why do we have to be counted? If the counting would be what makes it important, so we say Hashem wants to give us a certain special importance, He counts us, and that makes us important. But that's not so. The counting is just a proof of importance. Certain things which are important for other reasons will not be nullified either, even if they're not counted. Actually, in Yoreh De'ah in Shulchan Aruch, based on the Gemara, we find other situations where things are chashuv, they don't become batel, they're not nullified. It says certain types of food or certain amounts of food that are chashuv do not become batel. Not even want to go into the details because it'll get, you know, we'll get carried to other halachot. Because the point is not the counting, but the chashuv, the chashivut, the importance. So we Jews who are chashuv anyway, so we're back to the question: so what do we gain by Hashem counting us?

So here where chassidut comes in, based on Kabbalah, and the Rebbe explains this at length in different sichot. And this is what the Rebbe explains: Let's first analyze, what is the meaning of counting different things? When we count different things, we want to know if 10 or 20 or whatever we count, obviously, all the things, each one is counted as one. Especially let's say when we count people, every person is counted as one. Makes no difference whether he's a smart person or he's an ignorant person, he's a good person or a bad person, if you're counting, let's say, in the case of Jews, every Jew is considered as one, not more than one, he could be the smartest person, he's still not more than one, he could be the most ignorant person, he's still not less than one. Now, what does that show? That shows that when we're talking about counting, we're dealing with something that they're all equal in. There must be a common denominator why we're counting and each one is one, because if we would be talking about those things which are not common, then why first of all would we put them all into one category and count them as you are 1, 2, 3 if they're different categories? And also, if we're not talking about the the issue in which they're all the same, then why would each one be one? Let's say in the case of the people, if we're not counting the common denominator of every single Jew, but let's say we're counting based on the person's knowledge, then a person who's smarter should be counted as two, a person who is ignorant should be counted as as a half. But we say no, each one is counted as one equally, obviously we're dealing here with something that each thing each person is the same. Everyone is the same as the other and not one more than the other. Now, when we talk about Yidden, what really this refers to is to what we call the etzem, the essence of a Yid, or sometimes it's referred to as the נקודת היהדות, that pintele Yid, that point of Yiddishkeit that every single Yid has, and that is something that is the same in every single Jew. And that is basically the neshamah. Every single Jew has a neshamah. The smartest Jew has a neshamah, and the most ignorant Jew has a neshamah, the best Jew has a neshamah, the worst Jew has a neshamah, everyone has the same neshamah. And in the neshamah itself, the truth is we know that there are different levels of the neshamah. There is נפש, we find in Kabbalah, in Midrash actually also, five levels to the neshamah: נפש, רוח, נשמה, חיה, יחידה. And concerning the first four levels of the neshamah, sometimes we find differences. One person's level of the neshamah is holier, one person's is less. But when we come to the יחידה, which is the fifth level, that is called the עצם הנשמה, the essence of the neshamah, every single Jew is the same. There is no such thing to say that one single one Jew has a better neshamah than somebody else. You could say this person is smarter, this person is more frum, this person is a bigger tzadik, this person God forbid is a rasha, this person has this, this person has these midot, those midot, and there are differences. And the truth is there are no two two people in the world who are the same. The Gemara says that out of all the human beings in the world, אין דעותיהם שוות, there are no two people that have their minds the same way. They're no just The Gemara says, just like כשם שפרצופיהם אינם שווים, just like there are no people two people in the world that look exactly alike, even twins don't look exactly alike, so too there are no two people in the world that have the same mind. So people are different. But when it comes to the essence of a Yid, of what a Yid is, all the Yidden are the same. Moshe Rabbeinu, the greatest tzadik, and the biggest rasha both have the עצם הנשמה, and they're the same. And that's why when we talk about counting, obviously we're dealing here with the עצם הנשמה of a Yid. And that's why every single Yid is considered as one, not less, because every single Yid has a neshamah. The biggest rasha, the Gemara says, ישראל אף על פי שחטא ישראל הוא. A Yid, even if he sins, he's still a Yid, which means if he's a Yid, he has this neshamah that a Yid has. No Yid is ever able to lose his neshamah. It's impossible. You can be the worst Yid, you could be a person that even, God forbid, would convert to another religion, שמד זיך, and you're still a Yid, you can't! So you still have a neshama. So the neshama is always there, it can't get lost, because it's essence. The whole concept of essence is that it cannot be changed. There is a rule in Kabbalah, but it's not a rule like a formula is made up, but the rule is, כל עצם בלתי משתנה, essence cannot be changed. Anything that could be changed are superficial, outward things, like the size could be changed, the color could be changed, but the essence of something, of anything, that's the whole concept of essence, cannot be changed. So the essence of a Yid, which is the essence of this neshama, cannot be changed. And that's the idea of counting. So every Yid has the essence of the neshama. Every Yid has the נפש אלוקית, the Godly soul, which is a חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש, which is part of Hashem, and that could never be taken away. But not always, and not by every single Jew, is this essence of the neshama revealed. It could be hidden. The essence of the neshama is close to Hashem. The essence of the neshama loves Hashem. There's no question about that. But not always is it revealed in a way that a Yid himself feels it. Certainly not always is it revealed that someone else could see it on this person. It could be hidden. Just like it says that every single Yid has what we call the אהבה מסותרת, the hidden love to Hashem. Every single Yid loves Hashem, whether he likes, whether he knows about it or not. Every single Yid wants to do Hashem's will. And this is where the famous Rambam comes in, where the Rambam says that by the case of a get, that if according to halacha a person has to divorce his wife, beit din, the court, will force him to give the get till he says, \"Yes, I agree.\" And the Rambam explains that even though we know that the rule is that you cannot divorce by force, if someone is forced to give a get to divorce to his wife, the get is not valid. Nevertheless, if the beit din forces him because according to the halacha he has to divorce his wife, if the situation is so, beit din could force him, and if he says, \"I agree,\" even though we know for sure he doesn't agree, but he says, \"I agree,\" the get is valid. And the Rambam wonders, why? And the Rambam explains, because in truth he really wants, because every single Yid wants to do what Hashem wants him to do. So if in this case the halacha, the Torah says you have to give a get, see, he really wants to. The fact that he doesn't want is because the yetzer hara, his evil inclination, forces him against his own will. And all the beit din will be doing, they will be forcing away the force of the yetzer hara, which forces him to go against his own true will. And when we force him, we take away the force of the yetzer hara, what comes out? His true will, which is to do the will of Hashem. So here we see that even in halacha we accept such a concept that every Yid wants to do the will. And this refers to the worst person. The worst person really wants to do the will of Hashem. And people, some people when you speak to them, they argue with you. You speak to a non-religious Jew, you tell him, you know, \"I don't believe in God,\" or, \"I don't want to do, I don't want to put on tefillin.\" So instead of telling him, \"Well, I really think you should,\" we tell the person, \"You really do want.\" The guy is screaming, \"What are you talking about? I don't want to!\" No, we're telling him, \"No, you really want.\" \"What do you mean, I know what I want.\" \"No, we're telling you, you don't understand. You think you don't want, but really you want, because you have, your neshama is there. It's just covered up.\" So it's not always revealed. It's there, but it's not always revealed. What has to happen is the the עצם הנשמה has to come out into the open, and has to have an effect on the outward kochos, we call it, on the other attributes a person has. It has to have an effect as in on his understanding, he should understand the right things, should want to understand the right things. It has has to have an effect on his middot, on his emotions, to have the right emotions, the love and the fear, the way he is supposed to, to the right things. So it's supposed to come out into the open. Counting of the Jews meant that by doing that, Hashem would reveal that עצם הנשמה, the essence of the neshama that's in every single Yid, it should come out into the open by counting them, which means effect Effecting, when you count, we're talking about the essence, because we're counting everyone as one, that's something that everyone has the same, which is the essence. By counting, by doing that, Hashem counted each one, and something that is in a revealed way, doing that, it brought out, it revealed within the Yidden the עצם הנשמה. Rashi in one place says, when he talks about counting, he says that counting is להודיע חיבתן, to notify, to publicize the love Hashem has to a Yid, which means to bring it out into the open, and that's what the counting accomplished. According to kabbalah and Chassidus, the fact that Hashem wanted the Yidden to be counted means that Hashem did something by counting to be megaleh, to reveal the essence of the neshama that's there in every single Yid, it should come out into the open, meaning to influence the outward superficial, we call it, kochos of the human being. Based on this, the Rebbe explains an interesting peshat. Rashi says that Hashem counted the יידן כל שעה. כל שעה means every while. Now if we start thinking about it, it wasn't every while. The truth is that the first three times, as I mentioned before, happened to be in the span of time a little bit over a year. To count the whole Jewish nation three times within such a small amount of time is true, that's called כל שעה. But let's think from then on: this is three, and from then on, 40 years later, 39 years later he counted them the fourth time, and from then till Moshiach, there's only six more times. So how is it that he counts them כל שעה, he counts them every while? So the Rebbe says the peshat is different. כל שעה doesn't mean he counts them every time. שעה means a moment, an hour, but it really means a moment. The counting brought out within the Yidden that even a moment is important when it comes to Yiddishkeit, and I'll explain what I mean. When you come to a Yid, and a goy would say to a yid, \"We want you to bow down to an idol,\" so we know that yidden would go on mesirut nefesh, they would give up their lives in order not to convert to another religion or to bow down to an idol, etc., etc. And the question is: Why would a yid do that? Because a yid does not want to be separated from Hashem. By doing this, you cut yourself off from Hashem, and a yid certainly would not want to do that. But every yid knows that you could do teshuvah. You could later do teshuvah. So why not at this moment give in and bow down to the idol, and later on you'll do teshuvah and everything will be fine? Now we also know that האומר אחטא ואשוב אין מספיקין בידו לעשות תשובה, someone says, \"I will sin because I know that I could do teshuvah,\" Hashem doesn't give him the opportunity to do teshuvah. So then maybe that's the reason, because a person knows if he's going to do the aveirah because he knows he could do teshuvah, it ain't going to work. But that's not true. All it means is that it's not going to be easy for him to do teshuvah. But דחק ונכנס, it says, if a person tries very hard, you could do teshuvah even in such a case. So a person knows that no matter what's going to happen, he could always do teshuvah, he'll work a little harder, he'll do teshuvah, and he'll be forgiven by Hashem and everything will be fine. So why is it that we find during Jewish history and many yidden would go on mesirut nefesh in a case like this, and they gave up their lives in order not to convert, not to bow down to an idol? The answer is very simple: because a yid has this essence of his neshamah, which becomes revealed actually at a time when you are confronted in such a situation of a goy or somebody wants you to bow down to an idol, that's when your עצם הנשמה comes out. And because the עצם הנשמה is one with God, is beyond time, so therefore, even for one second, a yid is not ready to cut himself off from Hashem. He knows that he could do teshuvah later, but at this second that he's going to do the aveirah, at that second he cuts himself off, and a yid, because of his עצם הנשמה, which is one with Hashem, would not do it. And that's what Rashi means that he counts them כל שעה, it doesn't mean he counts them every while. He counts them in a way that, as we said before, the counting reveals the עצם of the neshamah, and therefore what does that do? That makes a ייד כל שעה, that constantly, always, every moment a yid wants to be connected to Hashem, and is not ready to give that up even for one second, knowing that later he could fix it. But that one second before he fixed it, he is cut off from Hashem, and the עצם of the neshama doesn't want that, because it's beyond time. If you're beyond time, one second is no difference than a million years, because million years and one second are time, but if we're on a level beyond time, it's all the same. And that's what Rashi says, the counting is להודיע חיבתן, to reveal the love of Hashem. Reveal meaning that the love of Hashem from Hashem to us, but here we're talking about from us to Hashem, is there, but it's not revealed necessarily. So the counting reveals it, and Hashem counts us כל שעה, he reveals it in a way that it comes out that even for a moment, for one second, a person, a Yid does not want to do anything which will cut him off from Hashem.

Now that we're saying that the concept of counting is to reveal the עצם הנפש and to bring it out into the open that it should have an influence on a person's behavior, in his mind, in his heart, in the middot, in the seichel, all the different parts of the person, this will explain the times when there the first three times when Hashem counted the Yidden. We said that there are 10 times he counted, the 10th one will be when Mashiach will come. But the first three are the most important ones, they took place the first little bit over a year from when the Yidden went out of Mitzrayim. So when we start making a cheshbon we'll see the reason why he counted them these three times, because counting means to reveal the עצם of the neshama, and there are three levels in the revelation of the essence of the neshama by a Yid, and these three levels are represented in the three times that the Jews were counted. And let's see, when were the three times that the Jews were counted? Number one, the Jews were counted when they went out of Mitzrayim, when they went out of Egypt. The second time was after they did the עגל, and Hashem told them to make the Mishkan, actually they were even counted with the מחצית השקל, with the half a שקלים that they used for the Mishkan. So when Hashem told them now is the time to make the Mishkan, he counted them again. And then right after the Mishkan was put up, they were counted again. The Mishkan was put up on the first day of Nisan, the second year, close to a year after they left Mitzrayim. A month later, the first day of Iyar, they were counted the third time. Actually, in Parshat Bamidbar, this week's parsha, the first pasuk of the parsha says that Hashem spoke to Moshe the first day of the second month of the second year from the going out of Mitzrayim, and he said to Moshe, \"You and Aharon shall count the Yidden.\" So we have these three times. And we'll see how these three times represent three levels in the revelation of a Yid's עצם הנשמה that comes out, so to speak, into the open. One of the places where we find the concept of the revelation of the נשמה of a Yid is, as I said before, when a Yid is confronted with bowing down to an idol, for instance, you have, as it says in sefarim, that even a קל שבקלים, a Yid who's the lowest of the lowest, meaning a Yid who's not frum, which means he might not keep Shabbos and do other things, would also go on mesirat nefesh, would also sacrifice his life not to bow down to an idol. And the question is why? If this guy is not frum, obviously he doesn't care about Hashem, because it's not a person who doesn't know that Hashem wants him to keep Shabbos or to eat matzah on Pesach, he knows, he just doesn't care. So if he doesn't care, so then why would he bow down to an idol, why would he give his life, give up his life not to bow down to an idol? The answer is because that affects the essence of his connection. Every mitzvah is an individual mitzvah. Bowing down to an idol is the essence of Yiddishkeit, believing in God, in one God, or believing in an idol. So when it comes to the essence, that reveals within the Yid the עצם of the נשמה. So this is a revelation, but it's of a revelation that's very, very general. It doesn't mean that when this person will sacrifice his life, give up his life for this, and Hashem will help him and he'll be saved, he's ready to give up his life, but something happened and he's saved, it doesn't mean that from that moment on he becomes frum. In history it happened that there were people who were ready to give their lives, and they were ready to jump into fire, and then something happened and they were their life was spared, and they continued with their behavior like before, they didn't become frum. So there was a revelation here of the עצם of the נשמה, it was revealed. Before this situation came up it wasn't revealed, they didn't feel anything and didn't feel any connection to Yiddishkeit, they didn't do anything, so it wasn't revealed. Came this situation, it revealed the עצם of the נשמה. When they were pushed to the wall, bow down to the idol, they were ready to give up their lives because their עצם הנשמה was revealed. So it was revealed, but it didn't have an effect, an influence on their daily behavior. It didn't change their thinking and it didn't change their feeling, Because they remained the same way they were before. So here we have a level of revelation of the עצם הנשמה, but in a very, very general way, that they're ready to give up their lives for Hashem. But individual things, like doing mitzvot, learning Torah, feeling to Hashem, that didn't help. So it's a level of revelation, but very general. Then we have another level, a second step, that the נשמה is revealed and it actually has an effect that we start thinking differently, we start behaving differently because of a situation when the עצם הנשמה is revealed and it changes a person. But still it's possible that it changes the person in a way that all the different things he does differently is not because they themselves reach that level, it's because this revelation overpowered them, so to speak. Because there's the revelation of the עצם of the נשמה, so he starts behaving properly and starts thinking the right things, but not because he really really understands that this is what we're supposed to do. But there is, so to speak, a great shine of light that shines, and that transforms you, transforms a person. And what that does is that the person's middot on their own actually, because of the revelation, starts becoming good, not only because there is something from outside that's pushing it. The difference would be the second way, if ever, ever that feeling of the עצם הנשמה would leave, then you're back to where you started. But the third level, it says in Chassidut, is a level that actually it transforms the person, that it shines so much that it makes the person's middot change, the mind change, and he starts becoming a person that does the right things, a person that starts feeling Hashem. In the other way, it's not that he starts, he's just overpowered by that great light of the עצם הנשמה. So again here, we have three levels. The first level is a level when it shines, it's revealed, but doesn't influence the person. The second one, it influences, so to speak, we would call it in Chassidus mil'maalah l'matah, from above down, so there's a light that shines down and overpowers what we have in the lower levels, and we start behaving that way. And the third level is that it's mil'matah l'maalah, because of the עצם הנשמה being revealed, so then the מטה, what's down here, the lower levels, the lower parts of the person actually are transformed and now they on their own are that way. It's like we spoke the other time, the difference between tzaddikim and baalei teshuvah. We spoke, I think, in the shiur of Pesach Sheni, that the baal teshuvah is a person that actually transformed his life. A tzaddik does things right because he was told to do right and he does it right. A baal teshuvah means a person that from within himself now became different. Well anyway, get back to the point here, so there are three levels in how the עצם הנשמה gets revealed. And we Yidden were given the power by Hashem to reach the first level, and even the second, and even the third. And that's why the first three countings took place at those times. When the Yidden went out of Mitzrayim, it was similar to that first level. We know that when the Yidden went out of Mitzrayim, they were not transformed at all in becoming better people. It says when the Yidden were in Mitzrayim before they left, they were so low that they were in the מ\"ט שערי טומאה, they were they were sunk into the 49 gates of tumah. Hashem would not have taken them out that second, they would have fell into the 50th and never gotten out. They were so low. When they went out, it says clearly they didn't change, their personalities didn't change, they didn't become good. That's why it says in Tanya that in pasuk it says they ran away from מצרים, כי ברח העם, and he asks: What did they run from? No one was chasing them. As a matter of fact, Pharaoh wanted them to go! Later he decided to chase them, on the seventh day he decided to chase them, but till then Pharaoh didn't chase. So who are they running away from? It says they escaped from Mitzrayim. They escaped! So in Tanya it says, you know who they escaped from? From themselves! They knew that they were still in a very low level and they were very, very afraid that who knows what's going to happen, they might fall back to the same level that they were in Mitzrayim. So at the time of Mitzrayim, the Yidden were in a level that similar to the first level of the revelation of the עצם הנשמה. So at that time, they ran out of Mitzrayim, but it didn't affect them at all. Then they started working on themselves, till it came to the time when they built the Mishkan, they were going to build the Mishkan, then already Hashem said, ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם, make a מקדש and I will dwell in it, in you. Hashem said, I will dwell amongst the Yidden, that means that you now will have Me within you. Before that That, when they left Mitzrayim, there was a revelation, but not within them. It was over them, so to speak, like it says in the הגדה, נגלה עליהם מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא וגאלם, השם revealed Himself to them, there was a great shine on them, but didn't penetrate, didn't change them. But by the Mishkan already Hashem said ושכנתי בתוכם, I will dwell within you, there was godliness within the Jews already. So this is the second level already, where the עצם הנשמה, which is connected to Hashem, not only shines on the person generally and he's ready to give up his life and that didn't change him at all, but that already is within the person and the person's behavior is changed to do the right thing. But then comes the third time when they were counted, and that is when they put up the Mishkan already. They already worked themselves. The second time was when they were commanded to make the Mishkan. That means it was still not from their own work, it came from Hashem, Hashem commanded them to make the Mishkan, this would reveal within them and bring about, this is going to bring about Hashem resting in them. But after they already made the Mishkan and put the Mishkan up, which means they put in all their work, so then now it penetrated in them that they became people that serve Hashem in the right way. And that's the third level of the revelation of the עצם הנשמה. And that's the concept of counting, the importance of counting, the revelation of the עצם of the נשמה, and why the three times.

This explains some of the details in the differences in the counting. When we look at it we see that the third time, let's start from the beginning. The first time that they were counted, who counted them? Hashem. When they went out of מצרים, no one counted them. The חומש counts them. Hashem says there's 600,000 people went out of מצרים, so Hashem counted them. The second time when they were supposed to be counted, it says in Chumash, Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu: You count the Jews. Now, the second time was just Moshe. The third time, that we're learning in פרשת במדבר, He said: You and Aharon together should count the Jews. Now, there must be a reason why the first time it was just by Hashem, the second time it was Hashem telling Moshe, and the third time it was Hashem telling Moshe and Aharon. And the difference is because of what we just said: The first time it was purely a revelation of Hashem, the revelation of the עצם הנשמה which is part of Hashem, and nothing to do with changing anything that's within them. And therefore, who counted them? Hashem. Hashem counted them. That shows that the revelation, Hashem revealed within them the עצם הנשמה. Moshe Rabbeinu is already a human being. Moshe Rabbeinu, the greatest צדיק, but he's still a human being. But he's a human being that brought the Torah down. He's a human being from down here, but is able to bring godliness into the world. Aharon is already represents not the human being that brings down the Torah, Aharon did not bring down the Torah to the world. Aharon is somebody down here that within, amongst the Yidden, a great צדיק who, it says, had that ability to light up the נשמות of Yidden. It says why did Aharon light the menorah? Because the menorah had seven candles. It says the seven candles represent the seven different categories of Jews. It says Jews are divided into seven based on the seven middot. Aharon, it says בהעלותך את הנרות, you light the candles. And it's not just lighting the candles. בהעלותך comes from the word aliyah, goes up. Aharon, it says, had the power of bringing Jews up. And physically, the Midrash says: How did Aharon work? He used to bring peace between the Jews. He walked from one to the If he knew two people had a machloket, an argument, he would make peace. And he would do it even in not regular ways. He would walk over to one person and say to him: You know, you're in an argument Reuven, he would tell: You're in an argument with Shimon. I heard that Shimon is ready to make peace with you, but he's just embarrassed, he's waiting for you to come to him. And he walked over to Shimon and he said: You know, I heard that Reuven is ready to make peace with you. And they would come together and that's how he made peace. So he worked with, within the Jews. In Kabbalah, if you want to use the terminology of Kabbalah and Chassidus, it says that the difference between Moshe and Aharon, Moshe, it says, is shushvina d'malka and Aharon is shushvina d'matronita. Shushvina really means, in Yiddish we call it the unterfirer. You know, by a chatanah, you have two unterfirers. What do they call them in English, I don't know. Chaperones. Chaperones, they walk you down the chuppah. So each one has a unterfirer, a shushvina. It means somebody who helps, okay, nowadays it's just a formality, they walk you down the chuppah, but originally, olden days, the one that was your shushvina, he took care of you and talked to you and gave you advice, it was your person who was on your side. So it says that the Yidden and Hashem is like a chatan and a kallah. Hashem is the chatan, Yidden are the kallah. And we got married. By מתן תורה, השם married us. When you have a chatan then you have to have unterfirer. You have to have one unterfirer for the chatan's side, one unterfirer for the kallah's side. So it says Moshe Rabbeinu, it says in Zohar and Kabbalah, is שושבינא דמלכא. He's the אונטערפירער, he's the chaperone from the king's side, from Hashem's side. And Aharon, he's considered a chaperone from the Jews' side. Because Moshe Rabbeinu is מלמעלה למטה, he's the one that brought Hashem down to the world. Aharon is the one that brings us up to Hashem. So he is from our side, just like the חתן and the כלה. The חתן comes to the כלה, the חתן, the word חתן actually in Hebrew comes from the word חת, which means goes down. The חתן has to step down, the כלה has to go up, and they meet together, and that's where the שדוך comes. So Moshe is שושבינא דמלכא and Aharon is שושבינא דמטרוניתא, על פי קבלה. And therefore, in the second counting, when the when the idea was that the revelation of the נשמה in the ייד came already that it affected the יידן, so we had to have somebody involved who's a member of the יידן. And that's Moshe Rabbeinu, but still we said the second level is when it didn't really change what's down here, it's still a revelation from above. So who was the one that was involved? Moshe Rabbeinu, because Moshe is the one that comes מלמעלה למטה, he's שושבינא דמלכא. So the very first one was without Moshe and without Aharon, because the very first one is just the revelation of Godliness without affecting the lower parts of the person meaning not affecting the person. So therefore there was no person involved. The second one is already when that revelation comes into a way that it affects the person, but still the way it shines מלמעלה למטה, and therefore it was Hashem telling Moshe. The third one was Hashem telling Moshe and Aharon, we needed Aharon also, because Aharon, who is מלמטה למעלה, had to take place, because this is already the final level where the נשמה the revelation of the נשמה could take place in a way that actually affects the מטה, it affects the person himself completely, and it transforms him milmatah lemaalah, we call it, from down here as it is from down here, not only from up. And that's why this third time was also Aharon. And then we see another difference between the second and the third. The second took place in the month of Nisan. The third no the the I'm sorry, the third took place in the month of Iyar. The second one took place before, the first one was in the month of Nisan. The Mishkan was put up in the month of Nisan a year later, and the third counting was in the month of Iyar. Why was it in the month of Iyar? Now, simple pshat is that after Hashem told that after they put up the Mishkan, right away Hashem said now I want to count you. But if that would be the case, then they put up the Mishkan on the first day of Nisan, they should have been counted the second day of Nisan, as soon as they finished. Why did Hashem tell him count them this first day of the next month of Iyar? So simple pshat again would be he wanted it to be Rosh Chodesh. Rosh Chodesh is a special day, the first day of the month, so he wanted that this special concept of counting should take place on Rosh Chodesh. So ראש חודש ניסן they couldn't do it, because they were too busy, and they were actually very busy on ראש חודש ניסן, the day they put up the Mishkan, if you look into the midrashim, it's that we can't even imagine how they managed to accomplish what they had to do on that day, with and and into that also put in the fact that Nadav va'Avihu died that day and there was a levayah and there was this, was all the things it couldn't be. So at least let it be the second day. But pshuter pshat, so if it couldn't be ראש חודש ניסן, at least the next Rosh Chodesh. But there must be more to it. So Chassidus explains is because of the month of Iyar. We know the difference between the month of Nisan and the month of Iyar is על פי חסידות and Kabbalah, the month of Nisan represents milmaalah lematah, the revelation of Hashem to the Yidden. The month of Iyar, which is the second month, represents already what we do. That's why the second month Iyar is the month of Sefirah. Nisan also has some days of Sefirah, two weeks. Sivan also has a few days of Sefirah till Shavuos. But the month of Sefirah is the month of Iyar. And it says why? Because Sefirah means when we work on ourselves. Counting Sefirah really means that when we work on our midot, we work to purify our midot, to better ourselves, and that's the month of Iyar, that's the second month. One is Hashem. So the first month represents the revelation of Hashem. The second one, who's the second to Hashem? We! So that represents what we do. That's the second month, represents the avodah. So basically, using the terminology of Chassidut, Nisan represents milemaalah lematah, from up down, and Iyar represents milematah lemaalah. Similar, not the same, but similar to what it says the difference between Nisan and Tishrei. And I mentioned that when we spoke about Pesach Sheni. Nisan, it says, is when Hashem revealed Himself to us. Tishrei is when we are supposed to get to Hashem. That's why we know that Elul and Tishrei, Elul is abbreviation of אני לדודי ודודי לי, I am I to be to my beloved and my beloved is to me. Who's the I? The Yidden. We are to Hashem and Hashem is to us, because Elul is a time when we get to Hashem. Nisan, it says, there's another pasuk that says, דודי לי ואני לו, my beloved is to me and I am to him. That says that's the month of Nisan. And we actually see that in the names. The month of Nisan is called אביב, חודש האביב, the month of spring. אביב, the word אביב is א, ב. Starting from the top, from the א which is the first, going down to the ב. Tishrei is ת, ש, ר. ת is the bottom, ש is the one before, you're going up from the ת to the ש and then you're going to the one before which is the ר. So it says the reason is because Elul and Tishrei represents מלמטה למעלה, ניסן represents מלמעלה למטה. Similar to that is the difference between Nisan and Iyar, in a different way, from different angles, but the same similar. So Nisan is the month of מלמעלה למטה, אייר is the month of מלמטה למעלה. And that's the whole idea. Since the counting, the third counting was supposed to be the way that Hashem was supposed to reveal the עצם הנשמה within us in such a way that מלמטה למעלה, that within us already we are changed completely, therefore it was done also through Aharon, and therefore it was done in the second month to represent this idea that it's already מלמטה למעלה. And after we had these three countings, which are three stages in the revelation of the עצם הנשמה, the first counting Yetziat Mitzrayim, the second counting when they were ready to make the Mishkan, the third one after the Mishkan was up, so now we had all three stages of the revelation of the neshamah in a way that it's able to penetrate into the into the details of a person, and it changes a person, that gave the Klal Yisrael the koach throughout all generations to be able to accomplish this inyan of reaching that madreigah. So this was right in the beginning when the Yidden just started as a nation, and from then on, we have that koach. And every time the Yidden were counted again for whatever reason, it again brought about all three madregot that happened in the first three countings. And that's the pshat that when Mashiach will come, we'll have the tenth counting, we will be counted again, and that will be the tenth and final counting. That means then, there will be the true revelation of the essence of the neshamah that will have an effect on us, and it'll transform us completely, that we will be purely all completely like the עצם הנשמה. The עצם will be constantly within us in every detail that we have. And that fits to the fact that when Mashiach will come, there will be the true revelation of Hashem, that every Yid will be close to Hashem in a way that will not be able to be changed, and not be able to to deny it, and it'll be in the highest level. And from that on, from that level, we'll go on to the next level, which is תחיית המתים, when we will reach the ultimate level of connection to Hashem, and we hope that that's going to take place very soon bimheirah beyameinu. Amen. Okay? Yes. Why don't we count Yidden? It's not that, it says that it's an ayin hara. It says if you count the Yidden, that could cause an ayin hara. And therefore we don't count. Even when Hashem counted, He counted through מחצית השקל. Now, why would counting cause an ayin hara? So פשוטע פשט, why would it cause an ayin hara? Because when you count, you know how much you have. Imagine first count, \"Oh, so many.\" So it causes ayin hara. But besides that, זה לעומת זה עשה אלוקים, there is a balance of power. Because counting represents such a very, very high מדרגה, something so special, so we gotta be careful that the eyes of the קליפה should not fall upon it because it's so good, and they're looking for ways to get to grasp, יניקה of them, so therefore we try to avoid that. So how do we avoid it? By not counting or by saying, by the minyan for instance, we say a פסוק, הושיעה את עמך וברך, there are ten words in the pasuk, or by saying not one, not two, not three, so to show that we're not counting. But that is one of the reasons, because this is so great, so m'meila we're afraid of the ayin hara. But when Hashem counted us Yeah, yeah, so we have both מעלות. It's b'foal you're counted, but it's no way that the קליפה should be able to grasp onto it, because sof kol sof it's not counting. So we're trying to count in a way that should not be בגלוי counting, and therefore they they can't חאפ onto it. The Eibershter also counted? I guess so also, yeah. Yeah, the אייבערשטער הייסט משה רבינו מסתמא, מסתמא, yeah. When the 70 souls came down to Mitzrayim, was that a count? That's not one of the חשבונות. That's counting, but that's not one of the 10. The 10 starts only from when the Yidden left Mitzrayim. That's that's because it's before Matan Torah. Now when they left Mitzrayim was also before Matan Torah, but it is already beginning of Matan Torah. So the this is a different category. Yeah. There's an interesting comment in Stone's Chumash, it says that when The Rashi with you? Huh? They gave to lift it up, to say this part of the counting. You first counted 5279, right? The other thing is running is whether No no no, they were both standing there. And they just accepted מחצית השקל. Yeah yeah yeah, but they both had to stand there to accept it. And with with Mashiach or What sound It seems like before. I think it said before. Mashiach will do the counting? Mashiach, sounds techiyat hameitim is with Mashiach, yeah, yeah. It's before techiyat hameitim? Yeah, that's the way I understand it, yeah. Yeah. If Mashiach is coming now, when are we going to have six There was in between. There was already, David Hamelech, there were times in between when there were countings. So so far there were nine already. Yeah. Okay. Can't wait for the new counting. Thank you everybody for coming. Please, there's more