Musar su Esodo 32:28

Yalkut Shimoni, item 386, quotes Rabbi Yoshia son of Nachman the priest saying that G–d said to Moses: "go and count the Jewish people." Moses replied: "It is written (Hoseah 2,1) that the Jewish people will be as the sand on the beaches of the sea which is not subject to count; so how can You ask me to count the Jewish people?" G–d answered Moses that he had misunderstood the verse he quoted. If he wanted to know the number of Israelites all he had to do was to take the first letter of the name of each tribe, i.e. the ר from ראובן, the ש from שמעון, the ל from לוי, etc., and he would get the number of Israelites. This is to be understood as a parable. A money-changer had a junior assistant whom he told to count a certain number of coins. [These coins were apparently stacked in a number of rows of different denominations. Ed.] The assistant did not know how to go about counting these coins. His employer explained to him that all he had to do was to count the denomination of each row and then he would have no difficulty arriving at the total amount of money in the various rows. This is why G–d said to Moses to take the first letter in the name of each tribe as his point of reference. The letter ר of the name ראובן represents 200,000. The letter נ in נפתלי represents 50,000. The letter ש in שמעון represents 300,000. The letter י in יוסף stands for 10,000, the letter י in יששכר also stands for 10,000. The letter י in יהודה also stands for 10,000. The ז in זבולון stands for 7,000, whereas the ד in דן stands for 4,000. the ג in גד stands for 3000, whereas the ב in בנימין stands for 2000. The letter א in אשר stands for 1000. So far you have a total of 597,000 (from 11 tribes excluding Levi, using Joseph instead of Menashe and Ephrayim). The reason the total does not amount to 600,000 is because 3000 Jews were killed during the episode of the golden calf, when the Levites were instructed to execute those who actively worshipped the calf. G–d wanted Moses to make a fast count, so he would know how many Jews were executed by the Levites (or died at the hand of G–d when there was no evidence upon which a Court could have acted). Thus far the Yalkut Shimoni.

Yalkut Shimoni item 386 at the beginning of our פרשה points out that the last paragraph in the previous פרשה mentions that Aaron used the corners קרנות of the altar to perform the rites of atonement on the Day of Atonement (30,10). The Hebrew word for corners is קרן, horn, the same as the "horn" of the ox. G–d told Moses to use this method of atonement because Israel had sinned with the golden calf. Moses queried that the Torah had stated that this method was effective only "once a year," i.e. on the Day of Atonement (ibid.) G–d replied that Moses should erect it (the altar) immediately, as soon as he had performed the counting of the Children of Israel. Rabbi Joshua son of Nachman said that G–d told Moses: "Go and count the Children of Israel!" Moses replied that we have two verses. In one of them the Israelites are compared to the dust of the earth, and in the other they are compared to the sand on the beaches of the sea. Both verses point out that one cannot count all the Israelites. In view of this, how could he be expected to carry out such a command? G–d told Moses that he was mistaken, that if he wanted to find out the number all he had to do was to use the first letters of each of the tribal heads' names etc., as we pointed out earlier. All G–d had intended was to find out how many of the Israelites had died as a result of the episode of the golden calf. Those who survived were to give a ransom for their souls (lives, 30,11). When Moses heard this he became afraid and said: עור בעד עור וכל אשר לאיש יתן בעד נפשו (Job 2,4), "Skin for skin; all that man has he will give up for his life." [Moses did not yet realise that G–d required only a half-shekel from each person as the ransom for his life. Ed.]