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Parshat Naso

By: SFW Students & Alumna
Chavi Barr, SFW ’04-‘05

In this weeks Parsha, the Kohanim are commanded to bless the Jewish people.

It is interesting to note that the first of these three Brachos, “yivarechicha Hashem v’yishmirecha” speaks of blessing us in a material way.

Rashi explains that yivarechicha is a request from Hashem to “bless our possessions”. Yishmirecha is asking of Hashem to protect us from robbers in an attempt to steal our property. Hashem is both giver and guardian of our possessions. Rashi makes a similar point in Parshas Bereishis, where he states that Shabbos was blessed and made holy through the giving of the man. Again we see that the bracha is a giving of physical substance, not spiritual.

The Netziv, in his HaEmek Davar expounds on this. He explains that the bracha asks that Hashem should add and increase to what has already been given to us. He agrees with Rashi that yishmirecha is a form of protection. However, he views it as a spiritual protection, that we should not come to use our possessions for bad and that they should not be the source of our tzaar.

Seforno also feels that this is a blessing of physical. However, the ultimate end is the spiritual, for as we are told “im ein kemach ein Torah”.

However, this idea of using the physical and elevating it to the spiritual level appears to be contradicted by an earlier idea in this week’s parsha, that of nazir. The nazir is considered to be on a holier level than the rest of klal yisrael through his abstaining from certain physical pleasures of this world, like the drinking of wine and cutting of his hair. By denying himself physical pleasures, he is gaining spiritual heights, and is elevated to be on a similar level as a kohen. Yet, it should be noted that at the end of his nezirus, the nazir is required to bring a karban chatas. Rambam explains that the reason for this is due to the fact that he has denied himself the physical pleasures which Hashem allowed for him to partake in.

Perhaps, we can learn from this that it is our job to find a balance between the physical and the spiritual. Mesilas Yesharim explains in the chapter dealing with perishus that indeed we must separate ourselves in some way from mundane that surrounds us. At the same time, we are warned by Shlomo HaMelech not to be overly righteous. So, we are warned, that with all the pleasures of this world, also comes the fear of sin. In order to protect ourselves from falling into this trap, we must only take that which we feel necessary to live with. This is based according to the individual. Bava Kama explains that since the Torah cannot ask of the entire population to be saintly, there were no clear limits set out for us.

The lesson to be learned is that one must come to embrace shvil hazahav, and constantly balance the contradictions which the Torah seems to present to us. This week’s parsha seems to be telling us to strive for two opposing ideals: The first, that we should enjoy the world which Hashem created, both for our own pleasure and to use it for the sake of keeping Torah V’mitzvos. As Rav S.R. Hirsch explains, on our yom hadin we will be accountable for not taking advantage for all that this world has to offer.  Alternatively, it is only through our refraining from these physical pleasures, that we will be able to reach the highest of spiritual heights, as we avoid the temptations that this world presents us. It is possible that the kohen is the representation of the shvil hazahav. He is at the same saintly level as the nazir, while still being able to partake in this world. Perhaps, it is because of his being at this state, that he is able to give Bnai Yisrael the bracha of having and enjoying material goods.

Shabbat Shalom.