Reply To: Short & Sweet

Ki Sisa: How דוד המלך Stopped a Deadly Plague

The Parsha opens with an eerily timely warning: if you count Bnei Yisroel, there will be a plague. And indeed the Gemora tells us that in the times of דוד המלך Bnei Yisroel were counted, and a deadly plague began to spread. Interestingly, the plague killed exactly 100 people a day. So to stop the plague, דוד decreed that everybody should make 100 brachos every day. But how does counting brachos counteract counting people?

Why would a king want to count his people? Simple: he wants to assess the might of his kingdom. But that is based on a false worldview. The security and prosperity of a nation is not determined by its population, but rather by Hashem. Counting the people shows a false sense of security, as if we determine our destiny and not the Almighty.

Brachos are the exact opposite. A bracha is an affirmation that this is Hashem’s world, and He controls everything. We acknowledge that all that we have comes only from Hashem.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום