Census and Plague

When you take the sum of the Children of Israel ... then shall they give a ransom each one for his soul to God ...  that there be no plague among them when you number them.        Exodus 30:12

Thus the Torah introduces the mitzva of the half-sheqel. The Israelites were to be counted by each giving half a sheqel, rather than being counted directly, to avoid bringing a plague upon them.

As Rashi notes, when King David took a direct census (II Samuel 24), the People indeed suffered a plague.

Various explanations have been offered for the connection between census and plague.

Some suggest that taking a census in effect reduces everyone to a number and robs the individual of his uniqueness and hence of his or her personal value.

Malbim suggests the opposite. Taking a census makes each person an individual and destroys the group’s unity. Says Malbim, as long as the nation is united as a single person, the merit of the group is indeed very great. When people are counted, they become individuals, separated from the whole, and the merit of the group cannot protect them. Malbim adds that this is the reason the Torah requires giving half a sheqel, to demonstrate that each person is incomplete. Only in joining with others does the individual achieve completion.

On the face of it, the two explanations are contradictory. The first explanation suggests the problem in a census is its effect on the individual, while Malbim suggests that the problem is the effect on the group.

But we can see the explanations as complementary rather than contradictory.

The individual is of infinite value. This is evidenced by the halacha that prohibits handing anyone over when a Jewish town is surrounded by gentiles, who demand a single Jew be handed over to them for execution, or they will kill the entire community. That neither the greatest leader of the generation nor a common criminal may be handed over is understandable only in light of the value of each person as a person.

On the other hand, what Malbim stresses is that in the case of the Children of Israel, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. As great as the value of the individual is, that value is further enhanced by being part of Klal Yisrael.

The concept of Klal Yisrael being greater than the sum of its parts explains the connection between disunity and the destruction of the Temple (as our Sages taught: the Second Temple was destroyed because of needless hatred among the Jews). When there is disunity, through our own deeds we destroy the added merit of Klal Yisrael and in essence bring destruction upon ourselves.