Naso

Numbers 4:21−7:89

By Rabbi Avraham Fischer. The following article is reprinted with permission from the Orthodox Union.

The Service Of Song

The duty of the Levites to accompany the Tabernacle service with music and song reminds us to serve God with joy.

The G-d-centric, Torah-centric, Mishkan (Tabernacle)-centric Israelite camp described in the opening section of the Book of B'midbar [Numbers] is ordered, sanctified and serene.

A census of the population is taken. The tribe of Levi is counted separately, and their holy tasks in the Mishkan are assigned:

All those that were numbered, whom Moshe and Aharon and the princes of Israel counted of the Levites according to their families and according to their fathers’ houses; from thirty years old and upward, until fifty years old, all those who come to perform service to a service (avodat avodah) and the service of carrying in the Tent of Meeting. Their accounts were 8,580. According to the word of Hashem through Moshe did he appoint them, each one to his service and to his burden, and those that were numbered constituted that which Hashem had commanded Moshe (Bamidbar 4:46-49).

Two Categories of Service

The Levites’ duties fall into two distinct categories of service. The service of carrying is obviously the transporting of the parts of the Mishkan from place to place in the desert, a responsibility that would become superfluous once the people would enter the land of Israel. But, what is service to a service (avodat avodah)?

This is not the first time such a dichotomy has been employed by the Torah. Verse 24 speaks of the service of the families of the Gershon-division of the tribe of Levi: to serve (la’avod) and to carry (l’masah).

Continue reading.

B'midbar

Numbers 1:1−4:20

Questioning Chronology

The lack of chronological order in Parashat B'midbar allows expressions of God's love for Israel to precede the trials and tribulations of desert wandering.

By Rabbi Avraham Fischer. The following article is reprinted with permission from the Orthodox Union.
It is surprising that the sometimes tumultuous book of B'midbar commences with such a prosaic passage as the taking of a census:

And Hashem spoke to Moshe in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year of their coming out from the land of Egypt, saying: Take a census of all the congregation of the Children of Israel by their families, by their fathers' houses, with the number of names, every male by their head count (B'midbar 1:1-2).

Censuses, here and later (chapter 26), give this book its Rabbinic name Pekudim (accounts), and its English name (based on the Septuagint), Numbers.

Nevertheless, when we look ahead to what will transpire in this book--the conflicts, the rebellions, the instabilities and the crushing disappointments--we are struck by the uncharacteristic placidity of its opening section, discussing the census and the careful ordering of the encampments.

Continue reading.
Love Israel? Check out our      page.

B'chukotai

B'chukotai, Leviticus 26:3-27:34

Stubbornness And Chance

The two interpretations of the word keri illustrate different understandings of the reasons for the punishments listed in parashat B'hukotai.

By Rabbi Avraham Fischer. The following article is reprinted with permission from the Orthodox Union.

As the Book of Vayikra, the book of sanctity, draws to a close, the Torah delineates the consequences of obedience and disobedience to Hashem's will.

This is the Tochechah, the passage of admonition (chapter 26) that concludes the covenant of Sinai.

If the people embrace Hashem's commands, the land will be blessed with prosperity, security and peace (verses 3-13). Conversely, rejecting Hashem's edicts will result in the curses of disease (verses 16-17), famine (verses 18-20), wild beasts (verses 21-22), war (verses 23-26), destruction and exile (verses 27-39).

The purpose of these warnings is to stir the people to repentance. If the people do not heed the warnings, then the disasters become increasingly more dire.

Unique to this chapter is the word keri, appearing a significant seven times--and nowhere else in Tanach (Scriptures)--at transition points in this passage:

And if you walk with Me keri, and you will not desire to listen to Me, then I will add against you a plague, seven times your sins (26:21).

Malbim (Rabbi Meir Leibush, 19th century commentator) notes that keri is first mentioned after the two warnings of disease and famine. Upon the determining third occasion of disregarding Hashem's punishment, there follows the plague of wild beasts:

And if despite these you will not be chastised towards Me, and you walk with me keri; then I, too, shall walk with you b’keri, and so I will strike you seven times your sins (23-24).

Then follows war:

Continue reading.

B'har

Leviticus 25:1-26:2

A New World

The reinterpretation of the term 'forever' encourages us to strive for new realities within our own lifetimes.

By Rabbi Asher Brander. The following article is reprinted with permission from the Orthodox Union.

The primacy of the Oral Law has always been the bedrock of our belief system.

Torah Shebichtav (Written Law) without Torah Sheba’al Peh (Oral Law) is likened to a body without a soul. Thus, when Oral Law seems to contradict the Written Law our sense of textual loyalty seems violated.

Our parshah is home to one of the classic examples of this apparent incongruity. The Torah states, “You shall sanctify the 50th year and proclaim freedom throughout the land for all of its inhabitants; it shall be the Jubilee year (Yovel) for you.”

What are the implications of this freedom?

The Torah teaches that a Jewish servant works a six-year period of service. At the seventh year, “if the servant shall say, ‘I love my master...I don’t [want to] go free,’ then his master shall bring him to the court…and he shall serve him forever (le’olam).”

The Torah Sheba’al Peh, however, clarifies that the term “forever--le’olam” means until Yovel. How so? Ibn Ezra (12th century Spanish commentator), cites a verse from Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) which implies that the world olam can mean a period of time. Since Yovel is the longest block of time in the Jewish calendar, the word olam, taken in the sense of “a long time” is appropriate.

But even if Ibn Ezra is technically correct, we must still ask why the Torah opts for the more ambiguous “olam” when it could simply say, “Yovel.” Why create confusion in the first place?

Continue reading.