Do I count?

Weaving Wisdom Paths From The Five Books of Moses, Our Emotional Brain and Our Lives.

Seeking Wisdom:

Suit and tie aside, I could tell he was unsure of himself as he nervously glanced at the evaluator to his right.  This interview would certify him as a psychiatrist, or not, and I had volunteered to act as his patient.  The first words from his mouth were, “Do you count your steps as you walk?”  Even as a stressed History grad student, I knew he was off target.  Counting steps might indicate an obsessive or compulsive diagnosis but his question was a poor way to open our relationship.  The interview regrettably continued with this uncomfortable clinical itemization.

Take a census of the whole Israelite community. Counting is the first action at opening of the fourth of the Five Books of Moses but here counting enhances relationship and fosters connection.  While my nervous interviewer sought a limiting label that crunched a person into a box, the counting of the Israelites moved them toward a new way of living, linking individuals within groups both horizontally in physical space and vertically in social order, and thereby opening their connection to God.  Counting for detail and counting for connection are each valuable, but only when used in tandem, do they increase our wisdom.

The milling mob that had fled Egypt was changed as they received the Ten Commandments at Sinai and cooperated to construct the Tent of Meeting.  They were now ready to be counted.  The first counting ascertained the number of men of military age – it’s good to know your strength.  The next counting organized individuals within their tribe – it’s good to know with whom you belong.  This counting also gave each tribe a specific position in relation to the others and to the Tent of Meeting – it’s good to know where you belong.

This is the line of Aaron and Moses . . . Another counting established a social hierarchy by listing the special place and functions of the priesthood and of the Levites as carriers and caretakers of the Tent of Meeting.  It’s good to know your place and your job.  Defenses, groups, location, and social order, all are established by this seemingly simple counting.  However list counting and relationship counting operate very differently in our brain.

The left hemisphere’s forte is focused attention including specific numbering and detailed listing.¹ This works well when counting men for military duty.  Relationship counting differs both in purpose and brain geography.  Our right relational, contextual hemisphere does most of the work when we count for connection within our tribe (or family or community), and when we assess our relationship physically (where my tribe camps) or socially (what chores or privileges we have).² This counting stretches beyond collecting numbers; it informs us of our place in the invisible social network that links our individual lives to those around us.

Danger looms when we confuse these two types of counting.  Having 603,550 ‘friends’ on Facebook does not indicate their quality or our skill at resolving differences with loved ones.  Having millions in the bank doesn’t make us behave ethically or act nicely to those around us.  The one who dies with the most toys does NOT win.  As both the Five Books and Interpersonal Neurobiology suggest, we win when we encircle the seductiveness of shear numbers within the boundaries of protective relationships and intimate connections.  This wiser counting lifts us higher than we thought we could go, for at the center of the Israelites tribal formation stood the Tent of Meeting, their portal to God.

1. McGilchrist, Iain, The Master and his Emissary, 2009, p. 38.
2. McGilchrist, Iain, The Master and his Emissary, 2009, p. 39.

Quotes from the Five Books of Moses are from Etz Hayim, 1999.