My Little Naso D'var

Shabbat Shalom.

Many of you know that in my younger days I was a math major.  So it won't be a surprise to you that I am thrilled that our Parashah, Naso, is heavily concerned with data gathering, setting limits and establishing boundaries.  But fewer of you know that I have always had a keen interest in anthropology and this was my humanities concentration in college.  So my lens is colored by my understanding of people and cultures from around the world and I look at the role of religion in society, in politics, and in family.  Specifically, when I read Naso, I understand it in terms of the relationships that are identified and defined.  We learn that the Torah is all about three kinds of relationships; the relationship between man and God, or Bein Adam l'Makom; the relationship between man and fellow man, or Bein Adam l'haveiro; and lastly, the relationship between man and self, or Bein Adam l'atzmo.  So when I read a parashah, I always ask myself:  What is the point of this parashah?  What are the enduring lessons and values, and to which relationships do these lessons apply? Today I want to focus on one relationship in particular, and that is of the relationship between man and fellow man, or what I would loosely translate as the relationship that we as individuals have with our family and our community.

To me, Parashat Naso highlights the importance of the individual by naming each tribe and counting each male from the ages of 30 to 50.  While these days we have a more egalitarian approach to our census, the point is the same:  That each individual is worth taking into account.  This is kind of like attendance or roll call; if you don't show up, people are going to notice.

(Written May 31, 2014 for a group adult B'not Mitzvah handout)

The importance of being present was taught to me also in sixth grade, when my favorite teacher Mr. LaRocca taught us the danger of assuming that somebody else was going to take care of things.  He showed us a film about a woman who was assaulted just outside of an apartment building at night, but nobody came to her rescue when she cried for help.  The film showed interviews of all the tenants of the apartment building and every one of them was home, every one of them heard the cries for help but they just assumed that somebody else would take care of it.  One of the women even described the cries as follows, "It sounded like somebody was going to lose her karma."  I learned two lessons that day in sixth grade.  I learned what a karma is, but I also learned that a lot of people could have saved that woman, could have called the police, could have looked out the window.  But they just assumed that somebody else would take care of it.  They were unwilling to act.  My sixth grade teacher, Mr. LaRocca, told us that we cannot assume that other people will take care of things. And this lesson stays with me to this day.

But let us return to the text of Parashat Naso. Will somebody get hurt if they don't perform the tasks that are given them? I don't think so.  Thankfully, nobody is crying for help in this parashah. The responsibilities have to do with caring for the Tent of Meeting, the ohel moed. If we look closely, we see that each individual is counted, yes, but then each clan is given a very specific role in the holy task of caring for the structure of the ohel moed.  They are being counted - they should stand and be present and be counted.  But they should also stand ready to receive a specific responsibility.  The tasks that each clan is given are an important component to the successful construction of God's dwelling house.  When all of the Israelites work together, they build a complete structure.  The structure in this case is a physical structure, but it is also a figurative structure - that is, when they work together, they construct the structure of a society bound together by their shared values and their work.  I think that this phenomenon of working together as a community to build the figurative structure of our society applies today.  It applies to Temple Emunah, it applies to the town of where we live, and it applies to our country.  Sometimes there is tension between the individual and the community. But I only see consistency between standing and being counted as an individual and taking on our particular responsibility in our community.

Sometimes people remark that I work so hard at Temple Emunah in my volunteer role.  But I have noted that there are many people at Temple Emunah who work hard.  And quite frankly, when I see that something needs to be done, I think about the lesson I learned from Mr. LaRocca.  I also think about Rabbi Hillel's famous quote in Pirkei Avot: "If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?"  When I first read this quote it was not a revelation but a reminder of what I have learned throughout my life.  So it is only consistent that I should work towards gaining prayer-leading skills that are necessary in order to complete a bat mitzvah.  I am gaining the skills that I as an individual need to help contribute to the smooth running of this community. It is a great gift and privilege to be a part of it.

Shabbat Shalom.