Musar su Osea 2:1

Then Rabbi Elazar spoke up and said, “It is written, ‘And the number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea’ (Hoshea 2:1). What is meant by the ‘sand of the sea’? When the sea hurls up its waves in wrath and anger so that they threaten to inundate the earth, just as soon as they reach the sand of the sea and behold it, they immediately break and retreat, unable to flood the world or to have dominion over it.

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.

Great is repentance, for it brings man near to the Divine Presence, as it is said, "Return, O Israel, unto the Lord thy God" (Hos. 14:2; and see Yoma 86a). And it is said, "Yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Lord God" (Amos 4:6). And it is said, "If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, Yea, return unto Me" (Jer. 4:1), that is to say, "If you will return with repentance, you will cleave to me." Repentance brings near those who are far off. Last night this man was hated before God, Blessed be He, — defiled, far removed, an abomination — but today he is loved and precious and near and dear. And so you find this clearly shown in the language with which the Holy One, Blessed be He, thrusts away the sinners and the language with which He receives those who are repentant, whether it be one person or whether it be many, as it is said, "And it shall come to pass that instead of that which was said, unto them 'Ye are not my people', it shall be said unto them 'Ye are the children of the living God' " (Hos. 2:1).