1957 Years

 Bereishit 15:5:

ה  וַיּוֹצֵא אֹתוֹ הַחוּצָה, וַיֹּאמֶר הַבֶּט-נָא הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וּסְפֹר הַכּוֹכָבִים--אִם-תּוּכַל, לִסְפֹּר אֹתָם; וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ, כֹּה יִהְיֶה זַרְעֶךָ.

5 And He brought him forth abroad, and said: 'Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if thou be able to count them'; and He said unto him: 'So shall thy seed be.'

Hashem asks Avraham Avinu to count the stars in Shamayim and compares them to his descendants - the Jewish people.

On a deeper level, however, perhaps, we can say that Hashem was asking Avraham Avinu to count the word "הכוכבים" - meaning to count the gematria of הכוכבים, which equals 103.

A couple notes:

1. The word וספר is the first word in the Torah where a word with the Shoresh of ספר - meaning to count - appears in the Torah.  (The word in Bereishit 5:1 doesn't seem to mean "to count".)
2. The word הכוכבים is the first word in the Torah with the gematria of 103.

How is the number 103 significant?

We recently experienced Tish'a Be'av, when we commemorated the destruction of the 2nd Beit Hamikdash, the start of our current Galut.  According to traditional Jewish sources, the destruction occurred in the year 68 CE, כמנין חיים (3828).  (Others put the date 1 or 2 years later, but I'm going with the traditional Jewish sources.)

That means that we have been in Galut for 1957 years.  Many synagogues actually recite the number of years since the destruction at the end of Kinot on the night of Tish'a Be'av.

1957 is a multiple of 19, which we know is a significant number when it comes to counting years.  The מחזור הקטן - the calendrical 19-year cycle is how we reconcile the lunar to solar calendars.

So how many 19-year cycles have we experienced since the חורבן (the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash)?  Exactly 103.

Perhaps, Hashem was asking Avraham Avinu to count הכוכבים - to count 103 19-year cycles of Galut.  אם תוכל לספר אתם - if Avraham Avinu could bear counting such a long period of time of Galut without experiencing sadness due to its length.  And only then, כה יהיה זרעך - will the Jewish people be the powerhouse of a people that we were meant to be.

ו  וְהֶאֱמִן, בַּיהוָה; וַיַּחְשְׁבֶהָ לּוֹ, צְדָקָה.

6 And he believed in the LORD; and He counted it to him for righteousness.

Then, Avraham Avinu not only had the Emuna in Hashem, but והאמן - which is לשון הפעיל - he gave over this Emuna to his descendants to wait these 1957 years, always longing for the Geula.  And as he foresaw that the Jewish people may not be deserving of Geula, ויחשבה לו צדקה - he foresaw that this Geula is considered a Tzedaka - charity from Hashem even though we may not deserve it.  And that the only possible merit we have is due to our Emuna in the Geula, which was bequeathed to us by Avraham.

May we experience it very soon.