Halakhah su I Samuele 11:78

2. Yet, elsewhere, Yoma 22b, the Germara adduces entirely different sources in establishing a prohibition against a numerical survey of the Jewish population. R. Yitzchak declares that it is forbidden to count Israel "even for the purpose of a mizvah" and derives the prohibition from I Samuel 11:8. Prior to engaging in battle to defend his nation against Nahash the Ammonite, an encounter which clearly constituted a milḥemet mizvah, Saul found it necessary to have an accurate reckoning of the populace. Accordingly, "He counted them be-vazek." R. Yitzchak interprets this phrase, not as identifying the town or village in which the census was taken, viz., Bazek, but as indicating the means by which the count was ascertained. The word "bazek" is interpreted as denoting shards of pottery. Thus Scripture reports that each person delivered a shard of pottery to be counted by the census-takers. The inference drawn by R. Yitzchak is that this cumbersome method was necessary because direct counting is forbidden.

According to Rashi, who views the verses in Genesis as establishing a prohibition against counting the population of Israel, it may perhaps be presumed that the Gemara, Yoma 22b, adduces prophetic verses because the verses in Genesis refer only to the counting of all members of the community of Israel. The prohibition established on the basis of the prophetic verses cited in Yoma 22b, however, clearly applies to the counting of even a segment of the populace. Thus, Scripture records that when Saul took the census prior to his battle against Ammon "The children of Israel were 300,000, and the men of Judah 30,000" (I Samuel 11:8); later, prior to the war against Amalek, Saul counted "200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah" (I Samuel 15:4). The small numbers recorded, as well as the discrepancy between the figures, clearly indicate that the potential warriors counted by Saul constituted only a portion of the populace. Moreover, the Gemara, Yoma 22b, declares that, in the Temple, each priest extended a finger to be counted because it is forbidden to count people.¹⁰Cf., however, Rambam’s novel interpretation recorded in Hilkhot Temedim u-Musafim 4:3. The counting of only the priests in the Temple certainly would not have constituted a census of the entire people. Nevertheless, it was permitted to count only outstretched fingers but not the priests themselves.¹¹R. Meir Dan Plocki, Klei Ḥemdah, Parshat Ki Tissa, explains that although it is forbidden to count individuals directly, the counting of fingers is deemed a permissible form of indirect counting. Translated literally, Exodus 30:12 states “when you count the head of the children of Israel …” The prohibition, explains Klei Ḥemdah, is understood as applying only to the counting of “heads” or of “organs” upon which life is dependent. A similar explanation is advanced by the author of Pe’at ha-Shulḥan and rebutted by Ḥatam Sofer, Koveẓ She’elot u-Teshuvot (Jerusalem, 5733), no 8. Cf., Abarbanel, Exodus 30:12. Thus, according to this analysis, the direct counting of even a portion of the populace is forbidden.¹²As noted earlier Petaḥ Einayim, Sefat Emet and Yeshu’ot Malko independently explain that, in establishing a prohibition against the direct counting of the populace, the Gemara cites the verse describing the census taken by Saul rather than Exodus 30:12 because the latter passage serves to prohibit only the counting of the entire populace while the prophetic verses serve to prohibit the counting of even a portion of the populace.