Counting Jews (the prohibition)

Ps 28:9

There is a Jewish prohibition, originally just a custom, and these days not uniformly observed, that  forbids Jewish people from counting other Jewish people.  

This is taken quite literally. Halacha-observant Jews are not supposed to tally up how many are in a room by using numbers - one, two, three.. even for when there is a communal sacred need to determine if there are ten people present for prayer. 

This tradition seems to be a product of some pretty old superstition-style thinking, possibly of biblical origins, as a public form of safekeeping from the evil eye. Or tax collectors?  Keep it vague, just in case..

So how do you count people anyway? Not by counting their heads or bodies, but by pointing at them and reciting the ten Hebrew words that are the last verse of today’s chapter.

It’s something I learned by heart as a kid back in Yeshiva.  You kinda pick it up and don’t question why. The verse is not the only one in the Bible that has ten words and it’s unclear why this became the formula:

הוֹשִׁ֤יעָה ׀ אֶת־עַמֶּ֗ךָ וּבָרֵ֥ךְ אֶת־נַחֲלָתֶ֑ךָ וּֽרְעֵ֥ם וְ֝נַשְּׂאֵ֗ם עַד־הָעוֹלָֽם

Deliver, bless Your people; tend them and sustain them forever.

Ps 28:9

The words are standard supplication, but somehow they were chosen generations ago as the method with which you count to ten to get the minyan going - making sure you got the minimum of ten adults who count as a basic community for the fulfillment of public prayer services.

Do Jews count, and how do we do, or some of us more, or don’t, still count for everyone, or some, and all the awful complicated messes we are living through right now - The current counting of corpses and wounded, missing and mourning, ages and data - all this heartbreaking data is daily in our faces and lives. That’s not what this is about. 

But this curious custom as it shows up in today’s psalm does have to do with some sort of Jewish concern for an overt summation of how many there are of us in one space.

Somebody at some tense moment decided to use this verse as a decoy, as some strange screen of protection. Almost a magic spell that protected the people who are being counted.

Rabbi Prof. Ismar Schorsch wrote this reflection  about this curious concept:

“"Not one, not two, not three, not four.." The custom in Yiddish of counting negatively - nit ein, nit zwei - has deep roots in Jewish culture and consciousness. A fear of numbering prompts us to be circumspect. And I would dare to say that for Jews demography is not a value-free science. Our numbers are too small to be carefree or indifferent. For a vulnerable minority counting is always a matter of gravity. We know our vital statistics all too well... In truth, we never came close to becoming as innumerable as the stars. Exile is a precarious terrain, so despite our secular temperament, we relate to population surveys with foreboding. The paucity in our numbers drives us to take comfort in the profusion of quality, which we should, for never have so few influenced so many.”

Whatever the origins of this lingering tradition, the words themselves carry the weight of its evolution, and the hopes that they string together - despite the odds, the losses and the circumstances - minyan by minyan, quality and quantity, circle by circle of care - a protective ring, a solid safety net where data can’t get in.

May our people, and all people, count, be accountable for, be safe, and deeply matter.

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