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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Acharei Mot / K’doshim

Leviticus 16:1-20:27

The Limits Of Spirituality

Nadav and Avihu died in an act of sanctification; our goal should be to sanctify God through our lives, not our deaths.

By Rabbi Moshe Morduchowitzprovided by the Orthodox Union, the central coordinating agency for North American Orthodox Congregations for MyJewishLearning.com

Nadav and Avihu, two of Aaron‘s four sons, were killed, the Torah states, "when they came close before God." The Torah then goes on to describe the service performed by Aaron on Yom Kippur.

Who were Nadav and Avihu, and what do their deaths have to do with Yom Kippur?

Furthermore, why were they killed? Is it not the duty of every Jew to strive to come close to God?

Nadav and Avihu died during the sanctification of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). "They offered before the Lord an alien fire, which He had not commanded… and a fire came forth and consumed them."

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Tazria/Metzora

Leviticus 12:1-15:33

By Rabbi Joseph Ozarowski, provided by the Orthodox Union, the central coordinating agency for North American Orthodox Congregations for MyJewishLearning.com
The opening verses of Tazria deal with the various rituals a woman undergoes after childbirth. After the birth of a child she brings two offerings: a year-old lamb or a turtledove or a pigeon as an olah, a burnt offering; and a turtledove or a pigeon as a chatas, a sin offering.

The Talmud questions the order of the offerings as they are described in the Torah, pointing out that when these two offerings are brought as a pair, the chatas is always offered first. Yet in these verses about childbirth, the olah is listed first.

Raba maintains that, in fact, the chatas is brought first. Why, then, is it listed second?

The late Rabbi Menachem Sacks of Chicago, in his wonderful homiletic work, Menachem Tzion, views this sequence as a message on how we ought to view our children’s future.

Parents continually sacrifice for their offspring, with their efforts, funds and time spread out on the altar of child development. The olah and the chatas symbolize the dual nature of parenting.

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Shemini

Leviticus 9:1-11:47

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

The Role Of The Elders

Several commentators discuss the relationship of the elders to the priests, the people, Moses, and God.

The great day has finally arrived! All that preceded this day--the Exodus from Egypt, the Revelation at Sinai, and the building and dedication of the Mishkan (Tabernacle)--was a process designed to bring Hashem’s uninterrupted Presence into the camp of Israel.

 The shameful sin of the golden calf nearly brought about the destruction of the people of Israel.

However, after much painful soul-searching, Hashem and His people are reconciled. For seven days, Aaron and his sons have trained to serve as the Kohanim (priests); now, on the eighth day, nearly one year since the Exodus on the first of the month of Nisan, the moment of Divine union is here:

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