Naso 5757

Bar Mitzvah of Steven

This week we read the portion of Naso, as you are well aware, Steven -- since you’ve been studying it for a number of months. Once again, the book of number does not disappoint, and gives us an accounting of the census of some of the Children of Israel...

Yet, between the lists of names and numbers we find some great teachings well worth learning. Let me draw your attention to one, in chapter four, verse six to eight, "When a man or a woman wrongs another, breaking faith with the Lord, that person incurs guilt and shall confess the sin that has been committed. The person shall make full restitution for the wrong, adding one fifth to it, and giving it to the one who was wronged. If the injured party has no next of kin to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution for wrong shall go to the Lord for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement with which atonement is made for the guilty party."

This is a very important lesson, particularly because most people are taught that our Torah teaches, “You shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” [Ex.21:23-25] They are not taught the fact that this passage is taught as maximum penalty, not as the only penalty.

Well, Steven, it does teach that, but the interpreters of the Torah explain that you have to understand the Torah with compassion and pity. Therefore, today's passage about making retribution for wrong done teaches us that what the Torah really means is that we shall exact a restitution in kind, a price exacted for the deed -- and the passage concerning eye for eye and tooth for tooth means merely that one may not ask for retribution beyond the value of the offense.

Nowadays you wonder about the wisdom of this passage, with so many people suing anybody and everybody for damages, for mental anguish, physical pain that cannot be proven, for malpractice in medicine, law, even in pastoral counseling in synagogues or churches... The Torah, that great book of wisdom that is our blueprint for a better life, teaches us that the way to behave is with compassion and understanding.

You have spent a great deal of time and effort to prepare for this Shabbat -- it is my hope and prayer that you will keep in mind the lesson of the passage we have here -- to serve you as a guideline in your own life as an adult. May you always live by Torah and be blessed by its wisdom.

Amen

5758

The portion we read in the Torah this Shabbat eve of your graduation contains the Priestly Benediction, as it is called. I would like to use it to bless you as you move from students to 'young adults' in our community. You all know the text, I'm sure: “May the Lord bless you, and keep you; may the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious unto you: may the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.” However, I would like you to hear the entire passage for once, because you will note that there is more to the passage than just a priestly blessing: “And the Lord spoke unto Moses , saying, speak unto Aaron and unto his sons , saying , Thus ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace, And they shall put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.” [Num. 6:22 - 27]

Now, the first question that we may ask is, “What is the purpose of having the priests speak these benedictions to the people?” Surely it is God Almighty who blesses the people, as we read in the text, “and I will bless them.” What is gained or added when the priests bless the people so? Is it really up to them to assist Him?

Actually, some commentators ask if the order addressed to the priests “thus ye shall bless,” is not a formula that needs to be followed by the priests so that God will follow suite with the divine statement “And I will bless them” — meaning the priests. We have learned regarding the blessing of Israel; but regarding a blessing for the priests themselves we have not learned. The additional phrase in the text, “And I will bless them” will therefore mean: The priests bless Israel and the Holy One blessed be He blesses the priests. However, most of our sages and commentators have not accepted this interpretation. The sages underline the point that it is not the function of the priests which is all - important. They wish to avoid any suggestion of some kind of magical efficacy of the priestly blessing.

“Blessing” is a noun with two or more different meanings. It can “the good emanating from God to His creatures as in “And the Lord blessed Abraham with all” (Genesis 24) — and the blessing proceeding from man to God above in the sense of praise, as in “And David blessed the Lord” (I Chronicles 29). Then there is the blessing given by one person to another which is neither to be compared to the abundance of grace emanating from God nor to the praise proceeding from His creatures, but rather constitutes a supplication by the author calling on God to bless the person concerned. Into this category falls the priestly blessing. . . They merely invoke the divine blessing on Israel. Accordingly only the phrase “and I will bless them“ and “the Lord bless thee” in the first section come under the category of divine blessing in the sense of an outpouring of His goodness unto man, whilst the “blessing“ of human beings is nothing more than a prayer, an invocation and not a real gift. The Torah wished to rule out any hint or suggestion that the priests were endowed with any special power of blessing. This is why the text says, “thus shall ye bless the Children of Israel” -- only thus, and no deviation whatsoever is permitted – and when you do, “And I will bless them.” After being summoned by the priests by the formula given by God, the congregation was ready to receive the blessing of God.

The exact formula for the benediction is laid down in the Torah and is not left to the priests to adapt or change by their inclination. If we think of it as “Birkat Kohanim,” which is to say, one blessing of the priests, then we find that the blessing is divided into three parts, each one containing two verbs and the name of God in the middle. In the Hebrew we read:

Yevarekhekha Adona’y veyishmerekha

Yaer Adonay Panav elekha vikhunekha

Yisa Adona’y panav elekha veyasem lekha shalom

““May the Lord bless thee”- implies the blessing appropriate to each person; to the student of Torah success in his studies; the businessman - in his business, to the farmer, a good crop, etc. ““And keep thee” - The Holy One blessed be does not ‘bless and run,’ He gives blessing and stands guard.

““May the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee.” This is the light of Torah and the light of His presence, Shekhina, that He should enlighten your eyes and heart in Torah and grant you continuity — which is to say children learned in Torah – this second section of the benediction refers to spiritual blessing and we may take the phrase “be gracious unto thee” to imply the good will and respect inspired by the one who engages in the study of Torah.

“The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” Beyond the blessing of success in endeavor, God’s protection, and spirituality, which is spoken of in the first two blessings, this third blessing guarantees a normal human life – God will ‘lift up his countenance’ – not to be overbearing upon man, and at the same time grant that most valued aspect of human need – peace. Peace in the home and peace in the marketplace, peace in relation to family and friends, peace in relationship to God Himself.

the three sections of the priestly benedictions illustrate an ascending order, starting with a blessing concerned with man’s material needs and then dealing with his spiritual wants, and finally reaching a climax combining both these factors together, crowning them with the blessing of peace. This ascending order and increasing surge of blessing is reflected in the language and rhythm. The first phrase consists of three words, the second of five, and the third of seven. All these numbers have a special place in Judaism: Three is the parts of the Jewish people – Cohen, Levi and Israel. Three are the Patriarchs, Abraham, Yitzkhak and Ya’akov, and three are the parts of our Scriptures, Torah Neviim and Ketuvim. Five are the books of the Torah. Seven are the days of the week, the seventh of which is Shabbat. The architecture of the Priestly benediction is thus a lesson of its purpose -- it is a bima, a high place, to which we ascend on three steps. May we always endeavor to scale the steps of blessing on our path to loftier living. Amen

5760 - Fathers’ Day

This week’s Torah portion is from the book of Bamidbar, Numbers, from 4:21 to the end of chapter seven. Most of the portion deals with the census of the Israelites in the desert, and is not greatly exciting, as you can well imagine. It does contain a few little pearls that we should note, such as the “Priestly Blessing or benediction.” We are all familiar with the text, “ The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” I like to take a different view of the “teaching of the Shabbat,” because we are celebrating Fathers’ day this coming Sunday.

The Haftarah for this Shabbat is from Judges, 13:2-25. It is the story of the origin of a great hero of the struggle of Israel to attain autonomy in their land after arriving there from Egypt with Joshua. The hero’s name is Samson. A smile comes to your faces at the mention of that name... Yes, Samson is the archetype super hero. He is a brute, a womanizer, single-handedly fighting the battle of his oppressed people against an enemy that is strong and unyielding, spreading fear among them and embarrassing them to the point where they turn to subterfuge to bring him down. The pressure his lover, Delilah, to betray him and place him in their hands.

But I am getting ahead of this week’s reading. This week’s Haftarah tells us the story of his origin, which is a legend, too. There was a Dannite man from Tzor’a, in the foot-hills of the Hills of Judea, whose name was Mano’akh, whose wife was barren. There seems to be a pattern in the history of the seed of Abraham that women who are barren, beginning with the matriarch Sarah, end up giving birth through the intervention of God, to give birth to significant sons. Sarah bore Yitz’khak, and Mano’akh’s wife bore Shimshon Hagibor, Samson the strong man whose life was special from before conception - as we read, “. For, behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” [Judges 13:5]

The commentators speak of the opening of our reading and say that the wife was a woman of deep religious spirit worthy to be the mother of a deliverer of Israel. The fact that she was barren is not counted against her, but is a sign that the child she will be blessed with at the right time by the grace of God will be a special gift to the parents and the people, a boy marked out for a special mission.

This week-end we celebrate Fathers’ day. Judaism gives plenty of honor to our fathers, from Avinu Shebashama’yim - our Father who created us, our Father, our King - to “avoteinu” - our fathers Avraham Yitzkhak v’Ya’akov. Yet, somehow you get the idea that they were titular heads of the clan, and the power was wielded by Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. The Gmara says that a man should not follow a woman, even if she is his own wife. Abraham was sore upset when his wife asked him to remove Hagar and Yishma’el from his habitation, and was only consoled when God instructed him to do as Sarah said. Rebecca resorted to subterfuge to contradict her husband’s plan to bless his son Esav, and Ya’akov had no control what so ever over his wives, their maids and his many children.

On Rosh Hashanah we read the Haftarah from First Samuel about the origin of the great seer Samuel, which begins like our portion this Shabbat with a barren woman and her husband, with pleading with God for a miracle, and with a special birth of a gift-child from God who becomes a man with a mission. In this story we are told that the woman, Khannah, spoke to God in Shiloh, and God chose to grace her with a child, “And they rose up in the morning early, and worshiped before the Lord, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah; and Elkanah knew Hanna his wife; and the Lord remembered her. And it came to pass, in due course, that Hanna conceived and bore a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him from the Lord.” [Sam. 1:19,20] Commentary says that Elkanah, Khannah’s husband, was a prophet, and that therefore the Gmara rule about not following the woman did not apply to him. The same is true with our patriarchs - they were all blessed with a direct knowledge of the Lord. Our sages say that the same applies to Mano’akh, Samson’s father, to whom God’s angel did not appear directly, and who did not quite understand what to make of it when he was told about the miracle that was about to take place in his life.

Man originates from the dust and he is destined to return to the dust, so the Torah teaches us. Between the beginning and the end, his life is full of trials and travail. Man labors hard and brings home his daily bread by the sweat of his brow. If he is lucky, he sees a reward for his labor in the family that he establishes. He is blessed with a woman who loves him and is willing to share his life. He is blessed and blistered, pleased and pressured by children whose needs can never be completely satisfied. The father, by the nature of his being, spends much of his time away from home and hearth. All too often he is a stranger to his children - and yet he is their provider and protector. The mother influences the children and gives them her faith - but the father sets the example for their fidelity.

From Av harakhamim, the Father of mercy, to av u’moreh, the father and teacher that the Talmud obliged Jewish men to be, the male progenitor of Jewish children has always been a source of strength and comfort, safety and love. We bless Him, and rejoice in them. We live in their shadow and seek to acquire their attributes. May we have the wisdom to live by their example, to impart to our own children the prophetic qualities that they taught us, to be a blessing and an inspiration.

5761

This weeks portion in the Torah is the second portion in the book of Bmidbar - Numbers. You are aware that this whole book deals mostly with the census - the counting of the People of Israel. But here and there in the text we read another important lesson - as in this week’s case with the Nazirite. The text tells us, "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel, and say to them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazirite, to separate themselves for the Lord; He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, nor shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is produced from the grape vine, from the seeds to the grape skin. All the days of the vow of his separation no razor shall come upon his head; until the days are fulfilled, during which he separates himself for the Lord, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. All the days that he separates himself for the Lord he shall not come near a dead body. He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die; because the consecration of his God is upon his head." [Num. 6:1-7] What is this ""Nazirite?" A person who makes a vow to dedicate his life to God and the People Israel. It is something like a monk in Christianity, except that we don’t have monks in Judaism, and the "Nazirite way" was not very accepted or common in Judaism. But neither was it unknown. In fact, Samuel was one such "" - and so was the "famous strong man," Samson. When a person makes a vow, which Judaism teaches us not to do, one is obligated to live up to the vow, anyhow. The reason for this is that our words should be as good as our deeds - or in other words, we need to measure what we say before we say it, and not after. We can’t have respect if we don’t stand behind our words. Our word should be the same as a most solemn vow. If we choose poorly, and make a commitment to do something, or behave in some way, then we need to be as good as our word. God is that way, faithful to His word, and we should be, too. That is what it means to be faithful to God.

Once we understand the meaning of making a commitment and sticking to it, the Torah teaches us of God’s commitment to Israel. God instructs Moshe to teach Aharon and his sons, the priests of the Lord God of the Universe, how to invoke His blessing upon the people Israel. This is what the text says, "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, On this wise you shall bless the people of Israel, saying to them, The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. And they shall put my name upon the people of Israel; and I will bless them." [Num. 6:22-27] The preists, who are Nazirites, dedicated to God, will make a commitment that is very specific and prescribed for them. They will not bless the people in any old way that they may wish - they will recite the words, " The Lord bless you, and keep you," words that raise the sensitivity - " The Lord make his face shine upon you," it is a sensitivity of the people toward their God. They will increase and elevate the awareness of the people, " The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace" - and make them ready for the revelation of the spirit of God, "they shall put my name upon the people of Israel," and it is then, in this raised state of religious awareness that "I will bless them" – God Himself will make them aware of His love and guidance, of His way and His care, by which they will be blessed.

Amen

Naso 5762