Naso

Numbers 4:21−7:89

By Rabbi Avraham Fischer, provided by the Orthodox Union, the central coordinating agency for North American Orthodox Congregations for MyJewishLearning.com

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).

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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, provided by the Orthodox Union, the central coordinating agency for North American Orthodox Congregations for MyJewishLearning.com

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.

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B'har/B'chukotai

Leviticus 25:1-26:2 / 26:3-27:34

A New World

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

By Rabbi Asher Brander, provided by the Orthodox Union, the central coordinating agency for North American Orthodox Congregations for MyJewishLearning.com

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?

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Emor

Leviticus 21:1−24:23

Sanctifiers Of Time

The commandment to proclaim the festivals includes concepts of communal responsibility and imitating God.

By Rabbi Avraham Fischer, provided by the Orthodox Union, the central coordinating agency for North American Orthodox Congregations for MyJewishLearning.com

In the midst of a book devoted to kedusha (sanctity), the apex of the Torah’s value system, we revisit the subject of the festivals:

And Hashem spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: The festivals of Hashem which you will proclaim (tikr’u otam) as holy convocations, these are My festivals.

For six days shall work be done, and on the seventh day is the Shabbat of complete rest, a holy convocation, all work shall you not do, it is Shabbat to Hashem in all your dwellings.

These are the festivals of Hashem, the holy convocations which you will proclaim (tirkr’u otam) at their occasion. (Vayikra 23:1-4)

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