The significance of numbers can never be over-rated.

Did you ever stop to think how reality, in general, and your own life, in particular, would have looked like-without the use of… numbers?

Any grand idea, whether in quality or quantity, would have been ever so limited if it weren’t for the safe confinement of those simple strokes of lines and curves that present the abstract in the clear cut, unassuming symbols we call -numbers.

How does one explain the loss to humanity that was caused by the Holocaust? One way is to relinquish. For whoever was there always ultimately explains that, there are no words in existence fit to describe the horror. The incredibility of cruelty, the hideous atmosphere of those days, are beyond words. Hence, If we choose to pass on the message for the sake of Humanity, we’re left with whatever tools of conveyance we do have -–the abstract coldness of numbers. So here is a taste of it: 60 million people were killed during World War 2.   Approximately 6 million were Jews. Today, out of the approximate 14 million Jews scattered around the world, 6 million reside in Israel.
This means that if demographics would have been allowed to lead its natural course- there would have been approximately 30 million Jews living today.
Beyond the statistics, this to me, as a Jew, means a world of a difference. It entails so many more relatives; a larger family, a wider concept of great uncles and aunts and second cousins once and twice removed. At least I, and almost any other Jew on the face of this planet, would have the OPTION of maintaining this or that relationship or disconnecting with this or that family member. A broader choice of friends and family.

Any way you look at it, there is no doubt that the murderous diminishing of Jews due to Nazi horrors has hindered world progress. Sometimes the cold figures of numbers broadcast the total loss in a much sharper, harsher form than would otherwise be considered in the more dramatic prose of literature.

Another point about numbers:

Any Jew that survived the death camps has a number on her/ his arm. It was tattooed into the flesh in a very orderly way as expected from the German people who ran the camps. Why not do it with lists? There was another underlying reason. Tattooed numbers served to dehumanize the victims; to turn them into mere numbers that are to be handled   and then disposed of.   In Auschwitz, one had no name or identity. One was nothing but a mere number; part of a problem that had to be solved in the final solution of the Germans.

How fortunate that we lived past those dark times of human history.

Still, even today, we have our own shadows of danger lurking to destroy civilization .But the difference is that today, at least from the Jewish point of view, we have a different, much improved stand. There is an army of Jews, small in quantity but enormous in quality. The IDF. Its soldiers work in order. They too have numbers. Not tattooed on their arms but inscribed on their guns. These are my sisters and brothers in the Israeli defense force. Brothers to all Jews, wherever they may be around the globe. Whether in Gaza or Entebbe, it is one for all and all for one. The number I have on my defence weapon is one less than the soldier before me and one more than the one behind me. When we are forced to fight we are bound by a blood covenant as Consecutive numbers in the same unit.
I now stand not only as an individual, but as a meaningful piece of a bigger, extremely noble cause and entity. Joining in this entity magnifies each one of us, giving us more meaning and significance as representatives and defenders of our people. We are no longer counted down to be marched to our death. Rather, we are counted upon to bring life to others. Moreover, this does not only apply to our fellow Jews. As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu recently stated in the U.S, congress, the Jewish-Israeli army stands at the front line against world terrorism that, as hallucinatory (הלוס נ טורי) as it sounds, threatens almost all nations around the globe in our time. How times and howbeit destinies have changed…

I can only conclude with a prayer that the number of those who stand on the Just side of the human spirit will increase, and that at this point of history, the number of those who are eager to spread violence – decrease. And that God- who is One, bless us all with His light of eternity.

Thank you