NASO
By Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum
Torah
Haftara: Judges 13:2-25
THE
LONGEST PARSHAH
Parshas NASO, with 176 verses, is the
longest parshah in the whole Torah, and the Midrashic
commentaries, particularly the aggadic Midrash
Rabbah, are also exceptionally lengthy. It is fitting that this parshah is
usually read on the Shabbos after the festival of Shavuos celebrating the Giving of the Torah, when our love
of the Torah is renewed and we receive new vigor and energy to devote ourselves
to our studies. We are now enjoying the longest days of the year, and the long
Summer Shabbos should give us plenty of time to
explore the beautiful mysteries of this Parshah.
* * *
NO
"BEFORE" AND "AFTER" IN THE TORAH
As noted in a number of
previous commentaries, the sequence of parshahs and sections in the Torah is
not always chronological, and Parshas NASO is one of
the prime cases.
The opening of our
parshah, dealing with the census of the Levitical
families, is a direct continuation of the previous parshah, BAMIDBAR, the
closing section of which started the narrative of the Levitical
census. The command to Moses to conduct the census of the people was given
"on the first day of the SECOND month" of the year after the Exodus
(Numbers 1:1) and Moses did so forthwith. After completion in parshas NASO of the account of the census, the Torah JUMPS
BACK chronologically to the first day of the FIRST month of the year after the
Exodus -- the day of the inauguration of the Sanctuary.
The chronological jump is
not obvious immediately. However, the section after the Levitical
census deals with commandments that relate to the newly inaugurated sanctuary:
sending the ritually impure out of the camp, the sacrifices of the SOTAH (the
wife suspected of infidelity), and the NAZIR (who vows not to drink wine, cut
his/her hair or become defiled by the dead), the priestly blessing (which was
given in the courtyard outside the Sanctuary, and was instituted by Aaron on
the day of its inauguration). The lengthy closing section of NASO narrates in
detail the dedications and sacrificial offerings of all the Princes of the
Twelve Tribes of Israel on the twelve inaugural days of the Sanctuary, starting
on the 1st Nissan. Although the date is not written explicitly in our parshah,
it says: "It was on the day of the completion by Moses of the erection of
the Sanctuary." (Numbers 7:1). We are already
familiar with this most auspicious day from our studies in Exodus and
Leviticus.
The Torah continues
dwelling on 1st Nissan and associated themes into the following parshah,
BEHA'ALOSCHA, and there the date is given explicitly: "And G-d spoke to
Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the second year after their going out from
the Land of Egypt IN THE FIRST MONTH" (Numbers 9:1). Rashi (ad loc.) tells
us that this verse indeed is the written proof that there is no
"before" and "after" in the Torah.
In other words, the
various parshahs and sections of the Torah are not necessarily arranged in
chronological sequence but thematically. This indicates that adjacent passages
in the Torah whose subjects may not on the surface appear to be interconnected
do in fact have profound interconnections. This gives rise to the rabbinic
method of interpreting passages in the Torah according to their SEMICHUS,
"proximity" to one another. Our parshah contains a case in point in
the rabbinic comment on why the section about the NAZIR, who vows to abstain
from wine, comes directly after that about the SOTAH, the unfaithful wife.
"Everybody who sees the damage done by and to the Sotah
will want to abstain from wine, which is what brings to fornication"
(Rashi on Numbers 6:2).
* * *
THE
GIVING OF THE TORAH AND INAUGURATION OF THE SANCTUARY
As noted earlier, NASO is
always read on the Shabbos after Shavuos,
anniversary of the Giving of the Torah. Clearly there is a deep link between
the Giving of the Torah and the Inauguration of the Sanctuary/Temple and its
associated commandments, which is the theme of the greater part of NASO. On
this, one of the longest Shabboses at the height of
summer, when the world is in full bloom around us, the Torah keeps our minds focussed on the 1st of Nissan, the "New Year",
time of rebirth, the day of the Consecration of the Sanctuary.
On the day the Sanctuary
was consecrated, the Torah descended from Sinai with its awe, thunder,
lightning and earthquakes and was brought in the golden Ark of the Covenant,
under the wings of the Cherubs, into the ultimate serene tranquillity
of the Holy of Holies. This was the vision of Jacob, the founding father who
built the House of Israel: that the Torah should come down from its lofty
heights and dwell inside the Sanctuary -- not only in the actual, external
Sanctuary, but in the home of every Israelite and the heart of every Israelite.
When we bring the Torah into our homes and our hearts, it becomes the vessel of
peace and blessing that radiates light all around us, just as the blessing of
the priests radiates from the Sanctuary (and today, during the priestly
blessing in the synagogue, from before the Ark, housing the Torah scrolls):
"May the Lord bless you and keep you.". For the study of Torah itself confers blessing. For the entire
Torah is woven of the names of G-d, and "in every place where I shall
cause My name to be mentioned I will come to you and bless you" (Exodus
20:21).
* * *
IN THE
HOME AND IN THE HEART
At the center of parshas NASO are two lengthy sections that bring the Torah
of the Sanctuary directly into our very homes and hearts: these are the
sections dealing with the laws of the SOTAH, the wife suspected of infidelity,
and the NAZIR, who vows to abstain from wine, cutting his/her hair and defilement
from the dead.
At the very center of the
true Torah home is the love between husband and wife, which is the very
foundation of the BINYAN -- the "building" or structure of the
family. True love between husband and wife is very jealous: true love brooks no
outsiders and third parties. The unity of husband and wife must be complete,
face to face, without a trace of a shadow in between.
It is hard even to speak
of the purity of love between husband and wife in a world in which third
parties are accepted as a normal part of life. It is this rampant immorality
that breeds broken homes, broken hearts, children who grow up between one home
and another, knowing little or nothing of family, roots and kinship.
Completely opposite is
the morality emanating from the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy Sanctuary:
"This is the Torah of the Sotah." Strange
as it may seem ithe context of contemporary (im)morality, the ceremony of the Sotah, the wife suspected of marital infidelity, one of the
most awesome rituals of the
In normal everyday life
husbands and wives are constantly coming into contact with all kinds of other
people in various different contexts, and it is only natural that relationships
can form even in societies that are sexually segregated (as in Temple times)
let alone in contemporary mixed society.
The Sotah
ritual -- administering the bitter waters to the wife even as she protests her
innocence in the face of suspicions of infidelity -- was intentionally very
frightening to the woman involved and to all who saw it. Here we see the
The bitter waters are the
truth-tester of the Torah (quite different from lie-detectors). Mixed with the
water was earth from the floor of the Sanctuary (archetype of the Israelite
home as it should be) and the dissolved ink of the letters of Torah verses and curses
written on the scroll of the Sotah, including the
holy name of G-d. What is the truth? Did she or didn't she? Is she lying or is
she telling the truth?
The actual Sotah test in
Today, in the absence of
the
[In the Midrash, the Sotah is the Jewish nation, suspected of infidelity to G-d
because of their dalliance with the nations, tested by the bitter waters of
suffering.]
* * *
THE
NAZIRITE
The Hebrew word NAZIR is
today used for a monk, but the Torah has no place for such celibacy, and only
the prophet Moses and certain true Tzaddikim were permitted to separate
themselves from "the way of the world". The Torah NAZIR was not one
who separated himself from the world as a recluse from normal life. (On the
contrary, the laws of NAZIR are bound up with family life: a man may make his
son a NAZIR, he may invite his wife to take the vow of NAZIR, nullify her vow,
etc.) The Nazirite vow is one that would in
Following on from the
above-quoted Midrash -- "Everybody who sees the damage done by and to the Sotah will want to abstain from wine, which is what brings
to fornication" -- the NAZIR living in the real world full of immorality
wants to set for himself or herself extra personal boundaries against anything
that may even lead to such immorality -- wine and anything connected with wine,
and even fancy hairstyles! The Nazirite may not defile himself with the dead,
for while death exposes the folly of worship of the body, fears of aging and
death often drive people to seek out the pleasures of the body compulsively.
The section dealing with
the NAZIR sets forth the detailed laws of the Nazirite vow, yet implies that
taking on specific vows is not encouraged by the Torah. Among his sacrifices
the Nazirite has to bring a sin-offering for abstaining from permitted
pleasures, as if what the Torah itself prohibits is not enough. When we take on
vows, sometimes the tests become overwhelming, and may cause us to break them
unwittingly (like the Nazirite who becomes unwittingly defiled by contact with
the dead.).
What the Torah wants from
us is the true labor of the heart: commitment. A vow is an explicit verbal
commitment that we make, creating a Torah of our own, something that goes
beyond the letter of the law. It may be in the form of a personal boundary. It
may be in the form of a specific commitment. Jacob, the founding father of
The Nazirite vow is much
more demanding than a one-time sacrifice: it is a commitment to a very strict
discipline -- complete abstinence from grapes and wine, no haircutting to
emphasize the opposite of body-oriented immorality, etc. In the present day
world in which we lead our lives, the actual Nazirite vow is not a practical
possibility, but we certainly all know ways in which it is desirable to hedge
ourselves in with personal boundaries that help separate ourselves from that
which is negative and evil in this world of Good and Evil.
What is asked of us is to
make our personal boundaries and adhere to them without expressing them in the
form of specific vows. The danger of the vow is that during the initial
enthusiasm in which in which it is made, we may not see prospective difficulties
that could make it impossible to adhere to it. What is asked of us is not to
tie ourselves up in verbal commitments that we cannot keep, but rather, to make
an inner commitment -- the commitment of the heart -- to what we know to be
good, and then do everything in our power to adhere to our commitment.
* * *
TWELVE
STYLES
The concluding section of
NASO deals with the sacrifices of the Twelve Princes on the twelve inaugural
days of the Sanctuary. It is striking that these were one-time sacrifices, yet
we read these portions of the Torah several times during the year: they are
publicly read in the Synagogue during Chanukah, and in some Synagogues they are
read from a Torah scroll on the first twelve days of Nissan.
In last week's commentary
discussing the names of the Princes and numbers of the tribes of Israel in the
Wilderness, I made reference to the fact that in the Hebrew Torah, all of these
are ciphers, codes and letter-permutations that bring entire worlds upon worlds
into being. The same is true of the portions dealing with the sacrifices of the
Twelve Princes, each of whom brought identical offerings on twelve successive
days.
One of the reasons why
the Midrash Rabbah on NASO is so lengthy is because not only does it contain
extensive drashos on the SOTAH and NAZIR, etc. It
also contains very lengthy drashos showing that
although each of the Twelve Princes brought identical offerings, in each case
they had an entirely different meaning and intention, each wondrous, each
amazing.
And so too each Israelite
dons the same Tallis and Tefilin,
abstains from the same forbidden labors on Shabbos,
gives Tzedakah, does Chessed.
But in each case the meaning and intention of each act is entirely different. The hidden intentions in the heart of each one. the hidden efforts.
And G-d has joy from them
all. All are His children. All are members of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the
House of Jacob.
Shabbat Shalom!!! Chag Sameach!!!
Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua
Greenbaum