Parshah Summary – P’sha
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 laws of the Nazir – one who has taken on the temporary practice of renouncing wine, hair grooming and contact with the dead. 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
דַּבֵּר֙ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וְאָמַרְתָּ֖ אֲלֵהֶ֑ם אִ֣ישׁ אֽוֹ־אִשָּׁ֗ה כִּ֤י יַפְלִא֙ לִנְדֹּר֙ נֶ֣דֶר נָזִ֔יר לְהַזִּ֖יר לַֽיהוָֽה׃ מִיַּ֤יִן וְשֵׁכָר֙ יַזִּ֔יר... Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: If anyone, man or woman, sets oneself apart by vowing the vow of the Nazir, to be a renunciate for the Divine, they shall renounce wine and intoxicants… - Bamidbar (Numbers) 6:2-3, Parshat Naso
If you look back in time through your family photos, you will eventually find pictures of people not smiling. It is an interesting thing – why didn’t people smile back then when posing for pictures? And why and when did people start smiling as we do now? Today a person could be grumpy, yet when someone comes along to take a photo, they seem to instantly become joyful. The old paradigm is certainly more honest; if we want to take a snapshot of life, the practice of always smiling gives a false impression – that life is constantly light and happy, when we know that is not.
מִֽי־יִ֝שְׁכֹּ֗ן בְּהַ֣ר קָדְשֶֽׁךָ...דֹבֵ֥ר אֱ֝מֶ֗ת בִּלְבָבֽוֹ – Who can dwell on Your holy mountain?... One who speaks Truth from their heart… - Psalm 15 Truth is a basic middah (spiritual quality), necessary for “dwelling” on the “holy mountain” – meaning, transcending the ordinary self-sense which tends to be identified with thought and feeling, and awakening into the spaciousness of pure consciousness. This is because attachment to falsehood involves creating an inner separation between perception and assertion; it is a state of denial, which keeps one trapped in the self-apparatus that has a stake in the falsehood, that is, the “ego.” And yet, the deliberate self-generation of joy is also a middah: שַׁמַּאי אוֹמֵר...וֶהֱוֵי מְקַבֵּל אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם בְּסֵבֶר פָּנִים יָפוֹת – Shamai says, receive every person with a cheerful face. - Pirkei Avot 1:15 And further on we read: הֱוֵי מְקַבֵּל אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם בְּשִׂמְחָה רַבִּי יִשְׁמָעֵאל אוֹמֵר... – Rabbi Yishmael said, Receive every person with joy! - 3:16 So, which is it? Is it best to be honest about our feelings, or should we “put on a happy face?” A disciple once asked the Hassidic master, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev, which is the true path – the path of sorrow or the path of joy. He answered that there are two kinds of sorrow, and two kinds of joy. The wrong kind of sorrow is when you become negative, think of yourself as a victim and complain about your life. The right kind of sorrow is when you simply feel your suffering and the suffering of others in an honest way, without embellishment, without getting caught by the negativity. The wrong kind of joy is when you only become happy about things you like, when things are going your way, when you get what you want. The right kind of joy, on the other hand, is like when a person’s house burns down, and as they rebuild their destroyed home, they rejoice over each and every brick. It’s a remarkable image – the right kind of joy is like when your house burns down! The genius of this teaching is that the right kind of joy and the right kind of sorrow are really the same thing; they are merged in the truth of our experience, that everything we love and enjoy will eventually burn down. If our happiness is based on gratification alone, then we are slaves to our experience. But there is a deeper joy that arises from the depths of who we are, beneath our temporary experience, beneath the fragile “house” of our thoughts and feelings. That is the simple joy of being, which becomes available when we let the “house” of ego “burn down” and intentionally open ourselves to the truth of our experience without resistance – even, paradoxically, the experience of pain and suffering – this is meditation, particularly meditation on the Path of נ Nun. And in that openness, we begin this moment anew, rejoicing over each and every “brick” – over every word and action offered in service of building a home for the Divine during this brief life we are given. This deep openness of consciousness to whatever arises is very simple, but it is not easy, because the complexities of life can easily distract. That is the function of spiritual practice – to help us remember our intention in the midst of life. כִּ֤י יַפְלִא֙ לִנְדֹּר֙ נֶ֣דֶר נָזִ֔יר לְהַזִּ֖יר לַֽיהוָֽה׃ מִיַּ֤יִן וְשֵׁכָר֙ יַזִּ֔יר... – If anyone sets oneself apart by vowing the vow of the Nazir, to be a renunciate for the Divine, they shall renounce wine and intoxicants… The Nazir is someone who feels they have become disconnected from Hashem, wishes to return, and they do by abstaining from alcohol and haircuts. Why? Alcohol is a way of altering our inner state, while grooming our hair is a way of altering our outer state. In other words, they are examples of manipulating our experience toward our liking. By abstaining from both, one can get in touch with that deeper level of awareness that simply receives the moment as it is, that “lets the house burn down,” so to speak. This level of awareness experientially knows the Oneness of the Divine as the basic condition of Reality, prior to the impulse to do something about it. Through this practice, the Nazir could find their way back to Wholeness, back to their deepest nature, and then return to ordinary life from this higher place. On the festival of Shavuot, the Book of Ruth is chanted. The story begins with Naomi’s house “burning down” as tragedy befalls her: first, her husband dies, and then both of her sons die. She tells her daughters-in-law to go back to their families, but Ruth swears allegiance to Naomi, and they return to Naomi’s hometown of Bethlehem, penniless. Someone says, “Could this be Naomi?” but she says that Naomi is no longer her name: וַתֹּ֣אמֶר אֲלֵיהֶ֔ן אַל־תִּקְרֶ֥אנָה לִ֖י נָעֳמִ֑י קְרֶ֤אןָ לִי֙ מָרָ֔א כִּי־הֵמַ֥ר שַׁדַּ֛י לִ֖י מְאֹֽד׃ – Do not call me Naomi (pleasantness),” she replied. “Call me Mara (bitterness), for Shaddai has made my lot very bitter.” But after that, their luck begins to change. Ruth serendipitously meets the wealthy Boaz, a relative of Naomi, marries him, and they have a son who turns out to be an ancestor of King David – who, according to tradition, will be the progenitor of Moshiakh, the future salvation of all humanity. Meaning: their salvation begins to sprout when Naomi expresses her bitterness: “Call me Mara (bitterness) for Shaddai has made my lot very bitter…” She is not complaining about her lot, she is receiving it from the hands of the Divine. She is speaking Truth from the heart – her experience isn’t pleasant, it is bitter – but from that honesty, her fortune begins to change and will lead to ultimately to world salvation. In other words, it is from the openness to the bitter that a deeper, transcendent sweetness can arise. And so it is for us; may we open to the truth of our experience with simplicity and without resistance, receiving everything from the Divine, and may we merit to feel the deeper joy that arises from that openness. And may we learn to share that joy with everyone we encounter: וֶהֱוֵי מְקַבֵּל אֶת כָּל הָאָדָם בְּשִׂמְחָה – Receive every person with joy… May true peace and salvation sprout for this world, speedily in our day!
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