derech eretz kadmah la'Torah

Rashi quotes from Chazal that when Hashem told Moshe to go and count the members of sheivet Levi from one month old, Moshe argued that this was impossible -- how could he enter the tents of Klal Yisrael to do that?  Hashem answered not to worry, that He would take care of it.  All Moshe had to do was go up to the door and a bas kol would announce how many people were in each family.

Maharal writes in Gur Aryeh that what bothered Moshe about going into each tent to count each baby was not c"v the amount of work involved.  How can a mitzvah be too much work for Moshe Rabeinu?  Rather, what bothered him, for lack of a better way to put it, es pasht nisht for a talmid chacham to be poking his nose into the privacy of people's tents.  The obvious question: surely Hashem who commanded Moshe to take a count of babies knows what is proper behavior and what is not proper and nonetheless he told Moshe to go and count!

Al korchacha you have to say that when you have a tzivuy that flies in the face of derech eretz, it must mean the tzivuy is not to be understood k'peshuto.  Moshe knew that it cannot be that Hashem is commanding him to violate the norms of derech eretz any more than Hashem could tell him to add 2+2 to make 5. 

The Shabbos before Y"K is Shabbos Shuvah; the Shabbos before Pesach is Shabbos haHagol.  The Kotzker said that the Shabbos before Shavuos is called Shabbos Derech Eretz -- derech eretz kadmah la'Torah.  Derech eretz is the key to unlocking the meaning of all mitzvos, and is a necessary prerequisite for kabbalas haTorah.

Hashem's solution was for Moshe to go to each tent and a bas kol would announce the number of people.  Essentially the bas kol is doing the counting.  Why then, asked R' Mordechai Eliyahu, did Moshe need to do anything?  Why couldn't he sit in his own tent and let a bas kol simply announce the total # of Levi'im?

What we see from Rashi is that the purpose of the count was not simply to come up with a total number, but rather the process was important to.  Moshe Rabeinu showing up at the doorstep of every home, even if just for a moment to hear that bas kol (and was it really just for a moment?  When Moshe Rabeinu is standing on your doorstep who doesn't ask him to come in for a cup of coffee, to come in and give a bracha to the kids and grandkids etc.) is not something to be taken lightly.