Bamidbar 4:21 – 7:89
Blessing with Love
Each month, I write a Dvar Torah to present at my Caring Committee meeting for my synagogue. On those months, the focus of my Dvar will be centered around what we do. This Dvar is written pending our meeting Sunday morning.
Parsha Naso is the longest parsha in the five books of Torah. Most of the first half deals with circumstances when one’s place in the community is in question for unusual behavior while the second half deals with offerings brought by each tribe as the dedication of the sanctuary begins.
In this parsha, the census continues, counting the Merarites, Gershonites, Kohathites, all the Levites. Duties are assigned here as well as leadership for different tasks. The word Naso itself means “raise their heads” in other words to count them. It’s a verb though with many meanings including to lift, to carry, and to forgive. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory asks, why this verb, as there are other ways to say “count.” He suggests that if we are each in the image of G_d, then every one of us has infinite value. Even identical twins share only 50% of their attributes. This usage seems to support the perspective of each as individuals.
In Chapter 5, they are instructed to remove from camp any with an eruption, discharge, or any defiled by a corpse. We learn about retribution if someone commits a wrong to a person. We talk about the Sotah ritual. Talmud tells us it only worked in an age when people believed in its power, and it was no longer practiced by the second temple era per Mishnah Sota 9.9. My personal perspective is that it placed all on the shoulders of the women and for its departure, good riddance. Chapter 6 is all about the laws regarding the Nazirites. There has been lots of debate regarding the nature of the Nazir as well. Then in 6:22-27, we find the familiar priestly blessing.
Finally in Chapter 7, Moshe finished setting up the Tabernacle and the chieftains one per day, brought gifts to the Sanctuary. While each brought essentially the same gifts, each was named individually, not as a group but rather instead to recognize their individual humanity. The chieftains were chosen by Moshe as they were foremen in Egypt over each tribe who rather than implicate those under them, submitted to beatings by their Egyptian overlords themselves when a task was not completed on time. After the 12 days of gift giving, per midrash Numbers Rabba 12:6, on that day the Shekinah descended to dwell among us. Moshe entered the tent and heard the holy voice from above the cover that was on the top of the Arc of the Pact between the cherubim.
As I reflected on this parsha, two distinct topics came to mind. First was the reason for the Tabernacle to begin with. The other was the priestly blessing.
Looking back, the Tabernacle was envisioned for a reason. We had been a people in servitude for a very long time. Our experience had been of household idols and our lives were so completely regulated as slaves, that in many respects we were like children who needed to learn to be independent thinkers. It is no accident I think that Torah finds the generation of former slaves pass on before entering the new land, with a people who only knew freedom. So it was, in our relationship with Hashem, there needed to be a tangible location, and as important, a way that everyone could be involved in this new relationship. People gave of their wealth, labor, and time to build the tabernacle and then be active participants in achieving holiness. Indeed, we find remnants of that still today, in our synagogues and in our ritual life. We are individuals, yet work for our common good, our shared humanity. Like the tribes in ancient Israelite society, we have various functions working for our common good. Certainly, our Caring Committee and our many volunteers reflect that.
Then we have the Birkat Kohanim. No other blessing over a command specifies that it be done with love. It is not the priest blessing the people, rather Hashem through the priest offering the blessing. In conjunction with the Sotah ritual, Talmud argues whether one ritual can be done for two cases of suspected infidelity. The answer is a clear no. We do not bundle mitzvot, rather paying attention to each one individually, rather according to Rabbi Aviva Richman of Hadar, we focus not only to avoid bundling mitzvot, but also our attention should be directed to the individual person. She says, “Rather, love and care for each mitzvah can- and must be fully intertwined with bringing our attention more fully towards love and care of the individual people and their stories.”
When we reach out to help that person whether they be dealing with illness, death, any of a host of hardships of this humanity that we all share, how important it is to, just as with the Birkat Kohanim, reach out with love and compassion. The blessing comes from Hashem, but we each play our role, as we try to build that better world we are called to do. Blessings come not from only priests anymore. Through chesed, loving kindness, we can offer blessings daily, through our Caring Committee but also as individuals. Where do we access this chesed, this loving kindness? It comes from our own pain, our own loss, our own struggle. In its own strange way, a gift of our shared humanity.
An excerpt from a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye:
Kindness
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
A final quote by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: “I believe that Birkat Kohanim contains a vital message for us today: a society whose members seek one another’s welfare is holy and blessed.” Baruch Hashem!
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