Ka’asher tsiva Hashem et-Moshe vayifkedem bemidbar Sinai, ” As Hashem commanded Moshe, so he counted them in the wilderness of Sinai” (Bamidar 1:19). Behold, the term ויפקדם vayifkedem, (“counted them”) has absolute gematria 240, and surprisingly its gematria atbash is also 240. In the atbash method of gematria, the first letter of the alef-bet – alef – is substituted by the last letter – tav, the second – bet – by the one before last – shin – and so forth and so on, inverting the position of the alef-bet. This method seeks in the term or phrase a “secret message” hidden in the result. Conceptually, the hidden secret in this case is the actual original word itself, meaning that, “to count” is its own Sod – the hidden/intimate level of Torah understanding” – of counting. This is in reality something very profound and at the smae time something that belongs to the nature of numbers. In general, when we think on a number we know that it represents some objetive quantity. To count is the action to find the number of elements in a finite set of objects, to establish a correspondence between the set being counted and a (greater) set of numbers. In another level, to count is “to establish”, in the sense of affirming the existence e identity. As such, the counting of the Bnei Israel identify it in the world in a revealed manner, thus allowing its affirmation as a chosen set/group – its recognition. And regarding the counting, Bamidbar 1:2 uses the expression S’eu et rosh kol adat Bnei Israel, that literally means, “Raise the heads of all children of Israel“. The Shem M’Shmuel in this pasuk comments that, “The census gave strength to the people’s Ego”. That is, the fact that all Jews were counted individually was a manner to emphasize the self-esteem of each Jew that in this way could experience the actual “Raising of his head”.