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PARASHA NASO
NUMBERS 4:21-7:89
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
"Live Long and Prosper"
Our parasha this week is the longest in all of the Five Books of
Moses, our Chumash. This is due to what looks like at first glance
redundant repetition (which is repetitious redundancy itself) of the offerings
of the heads of the tribes to the priests. Each brings the same thing,
in the same way, in the same quantity, and of the same quality. Or so
it appears. We will discuss this aspect of our parasha later.
Before our tribal leaders bring their offerings, Moses teaches Aaron
and his sons how to bless the children of Israel. We have all heard
these priestly blessings. I invite you to explore their words and meaning
with me from Numbers 6:24 to 6:26.
"May God bless you and safeguard you" is the first of the three
priestly berachoth. What does it mean to wish someone God's blessings? By
doing so we acknowledge that all blessings come from the Almighty. Only
God can assure success, abundance and good health. We insert this very
prayer into our Shemoneh Esrei every day. By praying that God will bless
someone and keep that person is an acceptance of the Oneness and
greatness of God.
This first blessing of the three pertains to
material prosperity. We are asking God to keep His promise. In Deuteronomy
28:1-14, the promise listed here is to have
successful crops and businesses, healthy flocks and increased
possessions. The Mishna teaches in Pirkie Avot 3:15, that, where
there is no flour, there is no Torah. The more prosperous we are, the more
time we can spend studying Torah and sharing our wealth with others.
After the priest asks God to bless us, he then asks God to safeguard
us. Why? Material possessions bring with it the risk of robbery,
jealousy and bodily harm. We are being taught here that while physical gifts
are important, they are not the end-all and be-all of our existence. To
survive, our physical needs should be taken care of, but we need
much more.
We are further taught in the Midrash that the best way to garner
continued blessings for our wealth is use it for mitzvoth. The sages
teach that this is the best way to thank God for His generosity and
ensure continued blessings.
The second blessing reads, "May God illuminate His countenance for
you and be gracious to you." In the book of Proverbs it is written, "the
commandments are a lamp and the Torah is a light" (6:23). We are
being blessed to be able to comprehend the wisdom of the Torah and of
God's gift of creation.
We have already been given wishes for prosperity.
We are now able to go beyond the elementary requirements of survival,
says Rabbi Sforno of sixteenth-century Rome. The second blessing is a
spiritual one based on inspiration and hope from the knowledge of the Torah.
The word "countenance" is literally "face" in Hebrew. God is
incorporeal, and we are taught that only Moses saw God "face to
face." We are being blessed to be able to understand God's purpose for us in
His universe. This is similar, according to Rabbi Raphael Hirsch, to
having the ability to read one's attitudes by the expression on one's face.
When we understand God we will appreciate His gifts as well as truly know
what to do with these gifts. This is the "light" of the Torah. The study
of Torah helps us learn of God's "face."
The concept of being in God's grace is a fascinating one. There are
those who believe that we Jews lost divine favor circa 35 C.E. The Midrash
Sifre states that this means that we wish God will let our fellows
look upon us with grace. It is written that a "person can have a host of
personal attributes, but unless his fellows appreciate and understand him,
his relationship with them will not be positive." The quality of being
liked by others is called grace.
The Or ha Chaim (Rabbi Chaim ben Attar of
eighteenth-century Italy) says that this is a prayer asking for
other nations to like and understand us. The Rambam says that this means Israel,
or we as individuals, should find favor in God's eyes.
The prayer ends with the third blessing, "May God lift his face to
you and establish peace for you." This is a wish for God's compassion,
forgiveness and the granting of shalom. Rashi says that this asks
God to suppress his anger against us even if we have sinned. When one is
angry at a friend, one cannot look at that person. We pray that God will always
look directly at us and not turn his back toward us.
In Talmud Bavli Tractate Rosh Hashanah 17B, the proselytess Bloria asks how God can show mercy
to someone who is undeserving of it. The Kohan Yose answers her that
God mercifully forgives sins committed against Him. He refuses to show
favor to those who sin against their fellow man unless they first placate
and obtain forgiveness from the victim.
This is a major point where Judaism
and Christianity part company. Judaism believes that we are born
into God's grace and can maintain this grace only through repentance to
God and to those that we have hurt. Our grace has to be continually
earned.
The gates for our repentance, our Jewish Spiritual Renewal, the Midrash teaches, are always open.
Christianity says we are born into a state of sin and only by
accepting Jesus are we put into a state of grace, which we keep regardless of
our actions, as long as we still have the belief.
The last phrase of wishing us peace is how the blessing is sealed.
Without peace, internally and externally, we cannot enjoy God's
bounty. In the very last words of the entire Talmud (Bavli Tractate Uktin
3:12), Rabbi Shimon ben Chalefta said, "God could find no container that would
hold Israel's blessings as well as peace." He quoted Psalm 29:11, in
which we end our "Blessing after the Meal": "God will give might to his
people. God will bless his people with peace."
The Or ha Chaim wrote that peace is not just harmony among people.
Peace is the "balance between the needs of the body and the needs of the
soul." Universally, it is the balance between the infinite Holy elements
and the earthbound human, mundane elements.
In traditional synagogues you will not hear the rabbi utter these
words routinely. These words were for Aaron and his priestly sect to use.
The Temple was destroyed. The Kohan cult no longer existed and these
blessings, our sages taught, cannot be pronounced until the Temple's
restoration. Once a year on the High Holy Days at a "duchining"
ceremony one can witness today, in some traditional synagogues, the Levites
washing the feet of the Kohans, and the Kohans giving the
congregation this blessing. The Kohans hold their hands up with their fifth and
fourth fingers together, their third and second fingers together, with a
wide split between the fourth and the third fingers, and the second
fingers and the thumbs. They then put their thumbs close together and raise
their hands high while reciting these priestly blessings. This ceremony is
done during the Mussaf section of the holiday service.
In Israel, many traditional shuls now do this in their everyday morning prayer
service. Some rabbis have posited that this is allowed because they are
living in Israel, and this will hasten the rebuilding of the Temple.
In liberal synagogues the rabbi will bless his congregation each
Shabbat and on holidays. I propose something more radical which I will
expound upon below.
On Shavuot, many of us studied the Book of Ruth. In
chapter 2, verse 4 Boaz (Ruth's future second husband) says to his workers
"The Lord be with you." They answered him, "The Lord bless thee." Each of us
can bestow on another these priestly blessings today. After all, do we
not read in the Torah that we are to be a "nation of priests?" More
important, I challenge myself and you to not only bless each
other but to work toward the fulfillment of these blessings.
We cannot only pray for God to help us prosper and to sustain us,
but we can work actively as a partner with God in this effort. We can
help our friends with their business endeavors. We can feed the hungry.
We can visit the sick. We can do acts of ahavath chesed (loving kindness).
We cannot only pray that God safeguard us, but we can work toward
protecting each other. We can let go of coveting practices and petty
jealousies. We can revel in the success of others.
I have found that there
are two type of philosophies in regard to looking at the success of
others. Some of us think there is a limited amount of "pie" in this
world. "If you have a slice," some think, "that is a slice of pie that I cannot
have." Others think the opposite. They think there is an infinite
amount of pie in this world. If you have a piece, "fantastic." There
is plenty of pie from where that slice came.
The first way of thinking is actually to deny God. Those who are
petty and jealous, who feel threatened by someone else's
achievements, do not believe in the Oneness and Infinity of God. If you truly
believe in God, then you know that there is unlimited "pie." If we all knew
that, we would always be safeguarded, as there would be no jealousy or
theft.
We cannot only pray for God to give us spirituality and grace, but
we can climb the rungs of our own spiritual ladders and be gracious to our
fellows. We can bestow our love and friendship on all people.
We need to remember that the Hebrew
word for speaking and bumble bee are similar. D'var and Devarah.
Our words can be sweet as honey or as mean as a sting of a bee. Let us
try to choose honey.
How can we even be so bold as to ask God for His grace if we cannot
civilly extend it to one another? God may forgive us for our sins
toward Him, but He does not forgive us for our sins toward others unless we
make a sincere apology to the injured party.
We can help extend grace to one another by teaching mussar (ethical
behavior), which is found repeatedly in our great texts. Our lay
leaders can try to behave graciously not only to each other, but to all of
their constituent-congregants. We can treat our rabbis, cantors, and our
teachers with the respect that they deserve.
We are living in strange times where negative behaviors seem to be the norm as they filter
into our homes through television shows and web sites. Our temples and
synagogues need to be places where we can teach proper
person-to-person behaviors. We need to be a counterbalance to the "entitlement," "me
only," "limited amount of pie" philosophies that pervade American
thought (if indeed we label it "thought").
Our sages taught long ago in the Mishna Pirkei Avot that a rich man
is one who is happy with what he has (4:01).
We cannot only pray to God to look directly at us, forgive us and
give us peace, but we all can do the same for each other. We need to be
honest with one another. We need to talk to each other and not at
each other. We need to begin to understand each other and really
communicate.
I wrote of I-Thou and I-It relationships a few
parashat ago. We relate to one another too often as "Its" and not enough as
"Thous."
We are taught that it is a sin to pray to God for something that we
do not need or that we will squander. Our communal prayers are
continually filled with cries for "shalom." When we are sinful to one another, a
barrier is created not only between people, but between God and
people. There is a disruption in the balance of the universe between the
Infinite Holy God and human, mundane elements. The rungs on the spiritual
ladder that we are to climb to elevate ourselves from the mundane to the
Holy get broken. If we truly believed in God, we would do our best to
grant our fellows true peace and not machlokot (strife and petty
arguments).
As mentioned above, parasha Naso is the longest Torah portion
because of the repetition of the tribal leaders' gifts. At a first read it
looks as though the leaders, each one coming on a different day, are bringing
the exact same offerings. The Midrash explains that even though the
twelve offerings were identical, each alluded to the special mission of
each tribe so that each was unique (Mishna Bamidbar Rabba 13:13).
Today each of us comes into our temple or synagogue as a unique
individual even though we all pay the same dues.
Each of us is worthy.
Each of us is important.
Each of us is needed.
We are all needed in the brew that makes up a congregation's life.
We are all each other's "cup of tea."
Each of us brings a unique flavor to the mix. Each of us is
beloved by God.
It would be nice if each of us were beloved by each other.
As Numbers 7:01 to 7:89 shows, we are to bring into a Temple, not distract
from it.
In order to really understand this we need to be familiar with God's
rules of the spiritual universe. Rabbi Chaim of Volozshin in his
book "Nefesh ha Chaim...Soul of Life" explains, "God has a desire to give
man all of the blessings in the world--to cause the Divine abundance
to rain down on man." But in order for this to occur, Rabbi Ari Kahn
teaches, man must create a world that is deserving of such blessing.
In Talmud Bavli Tractate Bava Metziah 30B Rabbi Yochanan taught,
"Jerusalem was destroyed because the people judged with Torah law....They judged
according to the law of the Torah and never went beyond the letter
of the Law."
People then were no different than they are now. Everyone
then stood up firmly for "his rights" to the letter of the Torah law.
There was no real sense of community. People used one another for their
own personal gain. They were not a people or a congregation. They were
individuals and cliques.
The Talmud teaches that God treated them in
an identical manner. He judged them according to the letter of the law,
without mercy. Jerusalem fell, and our 2000-year Diaspora began.
Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sassor pointed out that the priestly blessings,
while told to all of Israel, uses the word "you" in the singular. He says
that this should teach us that while we are all individuals, the greatest
blessing is unity and peace. Rabbi Leib writes that we need to respect
each others uniqueness but at the same time remember our common bonds
that bring about unity. In Kabalistic terms the Hebrew word Ahavah (love)
has the same numerical value (13) as the Hebrew word Echad (one).
If you were asked what is your greatest gift in life, how would you
answer? Would you say your health, your spouse, your children, or
your beach house on Hilton Head Island, SC?
Our greatest blessing, as we are reminded on Shavuot, is Torah.
Without the understanding we get
from Torah, our material goods and social relationships are
worthless. If we do not know how to thank God for our physical blessings, how do
we really appreciate them? We all know of those who are not happy with
what they have, who continually buy new cars, new houses, new toys, yet
are never satisfied. We also know of those who are never happy with
their families and abandon them through divorce, only to start new
families with which they also are not happy.
Without the illumination we get
from Torah we will not know how to appreciate or treat our spouses,
children or friends, or know how to be thankful for our material goods or
health.
Modern Jews have shunned blind ritual in order to do Tikun Olam,
repair of the world. There has been a casting off the God-to-man mitzvoth in order to
concentrate on the man-to-man laws that is espoused. It is said that
Modern Jews will not wait for Jerusalem to have its Third Temple and have declared
that synagogues are the present temples. It has been posited that the tribal
distinctions of Levite and Kohan do not apply today as there is no
priestly cult, and that there will be no preparation for a Temple that may
never come in the future.
If this is all part of Modern Jews doctrines, then we have an
even greater obligation to obey the man-to-man laws. We have an
obligation to act priestly and holy as individuals. We have a greater obligation
to study Torah and mussar (ethics) and walk humbly in God's path. We
need to "engross ourselves in the words of Torah" and taste its sweetness.
For Torah truly "is our life, and the length of our days."
"May God bless you and keep you. May God show His face to you
and be gracious to you. May God lift His face to you and grant you
Shalom." Or as the Star Trek Vulcans, Spock, T'Pol and Tuvack, say as
they raise one hand in the Kohan manner, "Live long and prosper."
Shabbat Shalom,
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL
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