Taking Heads

When you take the sum (Ki Tissa et rosh, literally: “take up the head”) of the Children of Israel according to their numbered ones …                                         Exodus 30:12

Kli Yakar questions why the singular (rosh, “head”) is used rather than the plural, especially as the verse continues in the plural, “according to their numbers.”

My father suggested that the Torah teaches a valuable lesson through its choice of words. Though the Torah commands that the People of Israel be counted, it is not the total number which is vital, but the individual, since each person is an entire world, and of ultimate worth, as our Sages have taught. Further, it is the realization of the importance and value of the individual which will lift up the heads of the Children of Israel.

It is the quality of the Children of Israel which has value, not the quantity. More exactly, the quantity has value only when it is realized that the quality has primacy.