God Created the World Just for You

Have you ever felt like you don’t matter? Or that what you do simply doesn’t count for anything? Podcast host Yael Eckstein shares another way of understanding God’s command to Moses to count the people of Israel found in this week’s Torah portion and its important message about our true value and power to change the world for the better.

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This week’s Torah portion, the parsha (listen to Episode 1 for more information on this ancient Jewish Bible reading plan), covers Exodus 30:11 through Exodus 34:35. In this episode, Yael focuses on the first verses of the portion, which read, “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the LORD a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them’” (Exodus 30:11-12). While this verse may not seem particularly inspiring at first, Yael reveals deeper layers of meaning that become apparent when the passage is studied in Hebrew, the language in which it was originally written. In exploring what God intended in ordering that the people be counted, Yael reveals a powerful message about the value of each person and how each one of us has the potential to profoundly impact the entire world. In a world of 7 billion people, we often lose sight of our uniqueness and importance. In this episode, Yael shares stories from her own life, as well as Jewish teachings about how much each of us matters and how knowing our true value can — and should — guide our choices and actions every day of our lives.

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