Who has counted the dust of Yaakov, or numbered the stock of Israel? May my soul die the death of the upright, and may my end be like his.
Torah Temimah: Niddah 31a — R. Avahu: Hashem counts the generative moments of Israel; Bilam’s eye was blinded for gazing at that.
English: R. Avahu expounded: What is meant by “Who has counted the dust of Yaakov and the number of the stock of Israel”? It teaches that the Holy One sits and counts the generative unions of Israel — when will come the drop from which a righteous one is formed. And for this matter the eye of the wicked Bilam was blinded.
Homiletic reading of רבע / counting linked to Israel’s future.
Even the hidden moments of Jewish continuity are counted by Heaven; Bilam’s attempt to peer into that sanctity cost him his eye.