o the wicked and woe to his neighbor". The other two neighboring tribes were Shimon and Gad (not so surprising looking at the difference in numbers from the first to the second count). This may also show which other tribes were involved in these major events and why, instead of their numbers increasing, they decreased.
If we look today, we can see two different types of counting of Am Israel. We count the number of people who live in Israel and those who live in the diaspora. Thank God, the number in Eretz Israel continues to increase every year and so does the number who make aliya from all over the world. (We hope this number will continue to increase). On the other hand, over the past few decades we are able to see a decrease in the Jewish population of the world. This is not due to the fact that so many Jews are making aliya (which we hope will be the cause in the future) but because of the large number of intermarriages that are, unfortunately, happening.
As we can see, even though there should be an increase in numbers we show a decrease. As many Jews still "wander the desert", our numbers will continue to decrease.
It is up to us to stop wandering and come back home and then, with Hashem's blessing, we will begin to see a real increase in Am Israel.
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