Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah continues with the census taken at Sinai, and completes the counting of 8,580 Levite men between the ages of 30 and 50. The Levites have been separated out from the other tribes to do the work of transporting the Mishkan, and are therefore exempt from the military service required of the men from the other tribes. Moses is then given instructions for purifying the camp which requires certain individuals who have become tamai (ritually unfit) to temporarily leave the camp.
Laws are then given for bringing offerings to atone for certain kinds of theft. Moses is then given the law of the sotah, the situation of a husband suspecting his wife of unfaithfulness. Next, he receives the law of the Nazir. The Nazir is one who has taken on the temporary spiritual practice of renouncing wine and contact with the dead. The Nazir also grows out his or her hair. Aaron and his descendants, the kohanim, are then instructed on how to bless the people with the formula known as the Birkat HaKohanim. The parshah then concludes with an elaborate ceremony for the inauguration of the altar in which leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel each bring a set of identical gifts, each on their own day.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
צַ֚ו אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וִֽישַׁלְּחוּ֙ מִן־הַֽמַּחֲנֶ֔ה כׇּל־צָר֖וּעַ וְכׇל־זָ֑ב וְכֹ֖ל טָמֵ֥א לָנָֽפֶשׁ׃
Command the Children of Israel to send out from the camp every tzarua (one with a particular skin affliction), every zav (one with a bodily discharge) and all who have become tamei (ritually unfit) from a (dead) person… - Bamidbar (Numbers) 5:2, Parshat Naso
Like many Hasidic rebbes, Rabbi Yehudah Zvi of Rozdol was hated by the mainstream rabbis of his day. Once, his wife asked him: “Why don’t you speak out against those who are trying to hurt you? And why is it that you even do them favors when you could be bringing down punishment upon them through the power of your prayer?”
He answered, “Did you ever wonder why people bring the tzaddikim gifts? It is because every building must have a foundation, and without it, the structure cannot stand. Now the structure of the world stands because of the tzaddik, as it is written: וְצַדִּיק יְסוֹד עוֹלָֽם The tzaddik is the foundation of the world – Mishlei (Proverbs) 10:25 And so, it is only right that everybody should support the one who supports everyone. But why should people bring me gifts as well, even though I am no tzaddik? I have thought about this for a long time. Then it occurred to me that the world requires still another foundation. For it is written: תֹּלֶה אֶרֶץ עַל־בְּלִי־מָֽה – The earth hangs upon Nothingness… – Iyov (Job) 26:7 And the Talmud comments on this: The world endures only in the merit of one who restrains oneself during conflict, as it is stated: “The earth hangs upon Nothingness.” (Talmud, Hullin 89a) “So you see,” said Rabbi Yehudah, “It is because people need Nothingness just as much as they need the tzaddik that they support me.” True spiritual strength is not the force of ego defending itself, but the capacity to rest in openness without needing to become the reaction, the argument, the craving, or the story. This is also the essence of meditation. The mind wants to grasp something solid as its foundation — an opinion, an agenda, a self-image. But beneath all of that is a much more reliable source of support: the silence within which it’s all happening. צָר֖וּעַ Tzaru’a means someone with a particular skin affliction, and is associated with lashon hara – gossip and slander. Since the skin is the boundary of a person, but also the place of intimate connection with others, this mythic disease is an expression of relationships getting tarnished through destructive speech, which has its root in negative thinking. זָ֑ב Zav means a person who has had a bodily emission, and is associated with sexuality. Metaphorically, it represents the way sexual thoughts can sometimes be a kind of “reaching” or “grasping” for gratification, which causes a loss of vital energy and Presence. These two represent the polarity of unconsciousness: tzaru’a is negativity (anger, malevolence), and Zav is craving, wanting, grasping, neediness. Both of these lead to an absence of Presence in the body, which brings us to the third: וְכֹ֖ל טָמֵ֥א לָנָֽפֶשׁ -…and all who have become ritually unfit from a (dead) person… To the degree that we become seduced by the energies of “I hate” and “I want,” our bodies become temporarily “dead” to the Divine Presence – that is, the Presence of Being that is not separate from our own innermost being. In order for the body to become a “sanctuary” once again, these forces and the thoughts they produce must be “expelled from the camp” in a sense – we must let go of our addictions to the inner noise and rest upon the Foundation of Silence.
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