Too Many Daves by Dr. Seuss
Did I ever tell you that Mrs. McCave, Had twenty-three sons and she named them all Dave?
Well, she did. And that wasn't a smart thing to do.You see, when she wants one and calls out, "Yoo-Hoo!
Come into the house, Dave!" she doesn't get ONE. All twenty-three Daves of hers come on the run!
This makes things quite difficult at the McCaves' As you can imagine, with so many Daves.
And often she wishes that, when they were born,She had named one of them Bodkin Van Horn,
And one of them Hoos-Foos. And one of them Snimm. And one of them Hot-Shot. And one Sunny Jim.
And one of them Shadrack. And one of them Blinkey. And one of them Stuffy. And one of them Stinkey.
Another one Putt-Putt. Another one Moon Face. Another one Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face. And one of them Ziggy. And one Soggy Muff. One Buffalo Bill. And one Buffalo Buff. And one of them Sneepy. And one Weepy Weed. And one Paris Garters. And one Harris Tweed. And one of them Sir Michael Carmichael Zutt. And one of them Oliver Boliver Butt. And one of them Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate ...
(א) וַיְדַבֵּ֨ר יקוק אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֛ה בְּמִדְבַּ֥ר סִינַ֖י בְּאֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵ֑ד בְּאֶחָד֩ לַחֹ֨דֶשׁ הַשֵּׁנִ֜י בַּשָּׁנָ֣ה הַשֵּׁנִ֗ית לְצֵאתָ֛ם מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם לֵאמֹֽר׃ (ב) שְׂא֗וּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ֙ כָּל־עֲדַ֣ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖ם לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֑ם בְּמִסְפַּ֣ר שֵׁמ֔וֹת כָּל־זָכָ֖ר לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָֽם׃
(1) AND THE LORD spoke unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after the were come out of the land of Egypt, saying: (2) ’Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’houses, according to the number of names, every male, by their polls;
(א) וידבר. במדבר סיני באחד לחדש וגו'. מִתּוֹךְ חִבָּתָן לְפָנָיו מוֹנֶה אוֹתָם כָּל שָׁעָה — כְּשֶׁיָּצְאוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם מְנָאָן, וּכְשֶׁנָּפְלוּ בָּעֵגֶל מְנָאָן לֵידַע מִנְיַן הַנּוֹתָרִים, כְּשֶׁבָּא לְהַשְׁרוֹת שְׁכִינָתוֹ עֲלֵיהֶם מְנָאָם, בְּאֶחָד בְּנִיסָן הוּקַם הַמִּשְׁכָּן וּבְאֶחָד בְּאִיָּר מְנָאָם:
(1) וידבר… במדבר סיני … באחד לחדש וגו׳ AND [THE LORD] SPOKE [UNTO MOSES] IN THE DESERT OF SINAI … ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE [SECOND] MONTH … [TAKE YE THE SUM OF ALL THE CONGREGATION] etc
Because they (the children of Israel) are dear to Him, G-d counts them often. He counted them when they were about to leave Egypt. He counted them after the Golden Calf to establish how many were left. And now that He was about to cause His presence to rest on them (with the inauguration of the sanctuary), He counted them again.
(1)Then G-d said to Moses,
(2)“When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each must give to G-d a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them.
Bamidbar (5774) – Leading a Nation of Individuals, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
Hence the significance of one remarkable feature of Judaism: its principled insistence – like no other civilization before – on the dignity and integrity of the individual. We believe that every human being is in the image and likeness of God. The sages said that every life is like an entire universe.[3] Maimonides says that each of us should see ourselves as if our next act could change the fate of the world.[4] Every dissenting view is carefully recorded in the Mishnah, even if the law is otherwise. Every verse of the Torah is capable, said the sages, of seventy interpretations. No voice, no view, is silenced. Judaism never allows us to lose our individuality in the mass.
There is a wonderful blessing mentioned in the Talmud to be said on seeing 600,000 Israelites together in one place. It is: “Blessed are You, Lord … who discerns secrets.”[5] The Talmud explains that every person is different. We each have different attributes. We all think our own thoughts. Only God can enter the minds of each of us and know what we are thinking, and this is what the blessing refers to. In other words, even in a massive crowd where, to human eyes, faces blur into a mass, God still relates to us as individuals, not as members of a crowd.
That is the meaning of the phrase, “lift the head,” used in the context of a census. God tells Moses that there is a danger, when counting a nation, that each individual will feel insignificant. “What am I? What difference can I make? I am only one of millions, a mere wave in the ocean, a grain of sand on the sea-shore, dust on the surface of infinity.”
Against that, God tells Moses to lift people’s heads by showing that they each count; they matter as individuals. In Judaism taking a census must always be in such a way as to signal that we are valued as individuals. We each have unique gifts. There is a contribution only I can bring. To lift someone's head means to show them favor, to recognize them. It is a gesture of love.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! A Poem By Dr Seuss
"If we didn’t have birthdays, you wouldn’t be you. If you’d never been born, well then what would you do? If you’d never been born, well then what would you be? You might be a fish! Or a toad in a tree! You might be a doorknob! Or three baked potatoes! You might be a bag full of hard green tomatoes."
"Or worse than all that...Why, you might be a WASN’T! A Wasn’t has no fun at all. No, he doesn’t. A Wasn’t just isn’t. He just isn’t present. But you...You ARE YOU! And, now isn’t that pleasant!"
"Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive...
...who is you-er than you!
Shout loud, “I am lucky to be what I am! Thank
goodness I’m not just a clam or a ham Or a dusty old jar
of sour gooseberry jam! I am what I am! That’s a great thing to be! If I say so
myself, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!”
(1) And the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying: (2) ’The children of Israel shall pitch by their fathers’houses; every man with his own standard, according to the ensigns; a good way off shall they pitch round about the tent of meeting.
בשעה שנגלה הקב"ה על הר סיני, ירדו עמו כ"ב רבבות של מלאכים, שנאמר (תהלים סח): רכב אלהים רבותים אלפי שנאן, והיו כולם עשוים דגלים דגלים, שנאמר (שיר ה): דגול מרבבה, כיון שראו אותן ישראל, שהם עשוים דגלים דגלים, התחילו מתאוים לדגלים. אמרו: אלואי כך אנו נעשים דגלים כמותן, לכך נאמר (שם ב): הביאני אל בית היין, זה סיני, שנתנה בו התורה, שנמשלה ביין
At the time that God was revealed on Har Sinai, twenty two thousand chariots of angels, each one decked out with flags, attended the revelation.
When BNei Yisorel saw this, they immediately desired to have flags just like the angels, and God agreed.
This request is described in Song of Songs (2:4) He brought me to the wine house, and his banner over me is of love
"Gold From The Land of Israel", Rav Chanan Morrison based on
Rav Avraham Issac HaKohen Kook
The hebrew word mal'ach literally means "messenger". An angel is essentially a divine messenger meant to fulfill a specific mission. An angel can not perform a task, important though it may be, other than the specific mission for which it was designated.
Now we can better understand the function of the angels' flags. A banner proclaims a distinctive function or trait. Each angel, limited to a very specific area of divine service, carries its own distinguishing flag, These flags may be compared to military uniforms, where the dress and insignia indicate a soldier's unit and assignment.
Human beings, on the other hand, are not limited to serving God in on particular manner...
The Jewish people saw in the angelic banner an inspiring sight that appealed to them. Every person has special talents and interests, based on individual character traits and his soul's inner root. We are not limited serving God in this particular way, but we are certinally more inclined towards those activities for which we have a natural proclivity. for example, a kind-hearted person may concentrate on serving God with acts of compassion and chased; a strong-willed individual, with acts courage and self-sacrifice; and so on.
The Jewish people desired flags like those the angels bore at Sinai. They wanted every individual to be able to choose an aspect of divine service that suits his personality, just as each angel executes a specific function, as defined by his flag.