Sheddng Light on the Levites

Last week's parsha ends with the נשיאים, n'siim (the princes or leaders) of each of the twelve tribes bringing a daily sacrifice as their contribution to the dedication of the tabernacle.

Just to review--there are actually thirteen tribes when we include the tribe of Levi. We ended up with an 'extra' tribe when Yaakov effectively makes Yosef into two tribes by giving each of his sons (Efraim and Menashe) a portion in his inheritance.

In any event, all of the n'siim bring their dedication sacrifice except for Aharon who was the nasi of the tribe of Levi. Rashi brings a midrash here at the beginning of the parsha which indicates that Aharon was crestfallen to not be included in the lineup of his fellow n'siim but God comforts him by telling him that he has the mitzva of lighting the menorah which is even greater than what the other n'siim did. The Ramban expounds on that midrash and tells us that it is an allusion to a time in the future when the Hashmonaim, who were priests (descendants of Aharon from the tribe of Levi, of course) will rededicate the Temple through the miracle of lighting the menorah for eight days, as we remember on Hanukah.

However, it occurs to me that something else may also be at play here. Just after the first verses in the parsha deal with the lighting of the menorah, Moshe is commanded to prepare the Levites for their service in the tabernacle.

The process for the preparation was to entirely shave the bodies of the Levites, to prepare a sacrifice to bring with them and then it says:

במדבר פרק ח (ט) וְהִקְרַבְתָּ אֶת הַלְוִיִּם לִפְנֵי אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד וְהִקְהַלְתָּ אֶת כָּל עֲדַת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל:
(י) וְהִקְרַבְתָּ אֶת הַלְוִיִּם לִפְנֵי יְקֹוָק וְסָמְכוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת יְדֵיהֶם עַל הַלְוִיִּם:
(יא) וְהֵנִיף אַהֲרֹן אֶת הַלְוִיִּם תְּנוּפָה לִפְנֵי יְקֹוָק מֵאֵת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְהָיוּ לַעֲבֹד אֶת עֲבֹדַת יְקֹוָק:

Bamidbar Chapter 8 (9) And you shall bring forth the Levites before the Tent of Meeting (a.ka. the Tabernacle or the Mishkan) and you shall gather together all of the congregation of the children of Israel. (10) And you shall bring close the Levites before God and the children of Israel will lean their hands upon the Levites (11) and Aharon will wave the Levites (in a) waving before God from the children of Israel and they will be to do the service of God.

What is happening here is really nothing less than the Levites being offered up as a kind of live sacrifice to God; i.e. the process they are going through (having other lean their hands upon them, being waved not to mention the fact that the verse says literally they are 'being offered').

So in fact it would seem the main reason that the Levites do not offer a sacrifice of dedication to the Tabernacle is that they themselves are the sacrifice-their service in the Temple is an ongoing sacrifice/dedication to the Tabernacle and to God. 

The interlude about the menorah, then could be understood more simply than the Ramban's expansion on the midrash. It just means that the lighting of the menorah is a unique and integral part of the service which is the Levites' offering. 

Why the emphasis on the menorah? Perhaps more than any other aspect of the service, the lighting of the menorah illustrates the notion of the light of the Torah being brought into this world but I will have to leave that for another posting. 

Shabbat shalom!

Learning, Inspiration, Genius in a Post Shavuot World

I was most privileged to make the acquaintance of one Nava when I brought in a Pitum Haktoret piece I did for framing into her shop a few days ago. She made a great impression on me in many ways but especially when she said that while she has been involved in framing for decades, even now she feels that her 'talent' in framing is not from her at all but rather just a sense she has from somewhere or something outside of her.

I pointed out that this sense has been noticed in many cultures including ancient ones and, in fact, including our own Jewish one. Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love (which admittedly I haven't read), has a great TED talk about this same idea.

This notion is alluded to in a midrash apropos of Shavuot which, of course, has just passed. The midrash states:

שמות רבה (וילנא) פרשת כי תשא פרשה מא

אמר ר' אבהו כל מ' יום שעשה משה למעלה היה למד תורה ושוכח, א"ל רבון העולם יש לי מ' יום ואיני יודע דבר, מה עשה הקב"ה משהשלים מ' יום נתן לו הקב"ה את התורה מתנה שנאמר ויתן אל משה

Shmot Rabbah (ed. Vilna) Parshat Ki Tissa 41

Rabbi Avahu said: Throughout the entire forty days which Moshe spent above, he would learn Torah and then forget [what he learned]! He said to God, "Sovereign of the Universe! I have forty days and I don't know a thing! What did the Holy One Blessed Be He do? As soon as [Moshe] completed the forty days, the Holy One Blessed Be He gave him the Torah [as a] gift. As it says, (Shmot 31:18) and He gave to Moshe.

The full verse there says: And He gave to Moshe, when he finished speaking with him on Mt. Sinai, two tablets of testament, tablets of stone written with the finger of God.

While the plain understanding of the verse is simply that God handed over the tablets that He wrote, the midrash picks up on the word ויתן vayiten (and He gave). The verse could have stated that Moshe took the tablets or that Moshe brought the tablets or some such. The fact that it says that God gave the tablets implies that it was only by God giving them could Moshe 'receive' or comprehend them. 

The 'giving' here implies that God simply implanted the knowledge of the Torah in Moshe's brain a la The Matrix, meaning that Moshe, in the end, received the entire Torah not through intellectual struggle and mastery but through Divine Grace in some way.

One obvious question is: If God had to give the Torah in this manner to Moshe, why didn't He just do it on the first day? Why shlep the whole process out for forty days? 

There is a hint, I believe, in the words of the midrash: As soon as [Moshe] completed the forty days. This implies that Moshe had to do his part by showing up for forty days. For many reasons, Moshe was the one whom God wished to bring the Torah from the heavens and down to mankind. The Torah was/is the culmination of Divine Wisdom, something which is arguably beyond mortal comprehension. In short, no person could really bring it from the heavens to the earth by his or her abilities alone. Divine help was clearly needed.

But in order to deserve that help, in order to be able to receive that which the Divine is offering, Moshe had to be there, to make the effort, to show up. 

So it is with all learning. We need to understand that while creativity and learning are things which are granted to us by the Divine, we need to make the effort to receive that gift. 

May we all learn to show up!

Not Exactly the Parsha, but....

I just posted a new video: My new, improved version of the History of Halacha. Check it out and let me know what you think  Special thanks to my son, Shmaya, for the videography and effects and all that good stuff.

Shabbat shalom!

Seeds of Doubt--What Does This Tazria Word Mean Anyway???

Hi Y'all,

Okay, it has been way too long since my last posting, but that's what eating a lot of matza will do to you. No more excuses now, though--at least not until I think up something original.

As usual, I start to fret about what I should write about and, as usual, I can barely get past the first words of the parsha and I need to say something. These are the opening verses:

ויקרא יב:א וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר.  ב דַּבֵּר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר אִשָּׁה כִּי תַזְרִיעַ וְיָלְדָה זָכָר וְטָמְאָה שִׁבְעַת יָמִים, כִּימֵי נִדַּת דְּו‍ֹתָהּ תִּטְמָא.  ג וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁמִינִי יִמּוֹל בְּשַׂר עָרְלָתוֹ. 

Vayikra 12:1 And God spoke to Moshe saying:2 Speak to the children of Israel saying, "A woman when she will cause to sow and give birth to a male, she will be ritually impure for seven days; as the days of the infirmity of her menstrual cycle she will be ritually impure. 3 And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin will be circumcised.

A bit of context: The Torah here is talking here about issues regarding ritual purity and impurity, tumah and taharah (טומאה וטהרה). This parsha in fact mainly deals with special issues of tumah and taharah which are associated specifically with the woman who gives birth. 

However, I am not interested in that bit -- at least not yet. I just want to understand two basic things:

1) What does the word tazria תזריע mean? (I translated it literally as cause to sow --awkward but we'll deal with it soon)

2) Why does the Torah need to mention the phrase ki tazria כי תזריע at all? 

To clarify this second question first: If we read the second verse without the phrase ki tazria at all, it would seem to give us the same basic information, namely that if a woman gives birth to a male child she will become ritually impure and that he will need a bris in eight days. 

What does this ki tazria tell us, add for us, that it was so important  for the Torah to mention it? 

To try to answer the first question, let's look at what I believe is the only other instance of the word form tazria תזריע in Tanach. 

Tazria derives from the same root as zera זרע , meaning seed--the verb form zara means to sow. Tazria is a hif'il form which, for all you Hebrew grammar buffs, and even those of you who aren't, is a causative form. What that means is that given the basic root means to sow, the hif'il form of the word would mean 'to cause to sow.' Or at least it could mean that. It implies at minimum that this woman is causing something to happen to seed which in this context would likely be sperm. 

So now that I realize that I did not pay attention to may time management and it is nearly shabbat, I will leave you to figure out where else we see this causative form in the Tanach. BIG HINT: If you start at the beginning of the Torah you won't have to look very far. 

Shabbat shalom!!!!!!!

Yikes! It's Almost Shabbat And I Haven't Posted Since Last Week!

Okay, I won't go into my litany of lame excuses (like trying to make a living and get ready for Pessach) for why I haven't posted since the beginning of last week. All I know is that I have a bunch of things I want to talk about beginning with last week's parsha.

However, because of the lateness of the hour and because I will be removing from my oven the last challot  I will bake before Pessach any minute now, I will just prattle a bit, if you'll bear with me.

Sefer Vayikra, aka Leviticus, is also known by the Sages as Torat Cohanim or the Priestly Teaching. The most obvious reason for the appellation is that much of the book deals directly with laws that applied directly, and sometimes solely, with the cohanim, the priests. The opening chapters, for example, describe the various sacrifices that were brought in the Tabernacle. The commissioning of Aharon and his sons to the priesthood will be an important story which will also include much detail of that process. Laws about ritual purity will be dealt with as well as the service in the Tabernacle for Yom Kippur and other holidays.

I will just remind you all, in case you weren't paying attention, that all of the Children of Israel were/are supposed to be cohanim, priests:

שמות יט ה וְעַתָּה, אִם-שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמְעוּ בְּקֹלִי, וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם, אֶת-בְּרִיתִי--וִהְיִיתֶם לִי סְגֻלָּה מִכָּל-הָעַמִּים, כִּי-לִי כָּל-הָאָרֶץ.  ו וְאַתֶּם תִּהְיוּ-לִי מַמְלֶכֶת כֹּהֲנִים, וְגוֹי קָדוֹשׁ:  אֵלֶּה, הַדְּבָרִים, אֲשֶׁר תְּדַבֵּר, אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל. 

Exodus 19 5 And now if you will surely listen to My voice and you will keep my covenant then you will be special for me from all the nations, for all the earth is mine 6 and you will be for me a kingdom of priests and  holy nation. These are the things you should speak to the children of Israel.

So what did that mean? We know from later on in Vayikra that only duly ordained priests or their progeny are even allowed into certain areas of the Tabernacle, much less allowed to actually perform much of the service there. Surely the children of Israel weren't all meant to really be priests!? 

Or maybe it is the other way: All of the children of Israel were/are really supposed to be priests. The question is, what exactly is a priest? If we define the term narrowly, it refers to Aharon and his sons and their offspring and those among them who were not otherwise disqualified to do service in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple. 

However, we spoke earlier  about how the building of the Tabernacle, okay, the mishcan (sorry, I find some of these English translations really annoying) was itself parallel to the creation of the universe. 

When God appoints the children of Israel to be a kingdom of priests He is saying that they should go out in the world to be His representatives. That is what makes them 'special.' Not that they have special privileges as much as they have special responsibilities. 

Aharon and his sons are appointed for work in the mishcan, in the microcosm of this universe. The service they do there was in some way supposed to reflect a universal reality and universal aspirations, those realities and aspirations that we, as the children of Israel are supposed to bring into the wider world. 

Have a shabbat shalom! My challah is finished!

Interlude--Is the Torah Really Telling Me to Do Stuff That I Don't Wanna?

Short answer--hmmm, maybe!

NEWS FLASH:

CHECK OUT THIS INCREDIBLY FUN VIDEO
Here's some things to consider:

1) Unlike a lot of other books, the Torah comes with no title page, frontispiece, preface or introduction! In principle, we are left to our own devices to understand what it is saying. If you take the Talmudic point of view, you can take advantage of millenia' worth of considered and deep analysis and understanding coupled with long standing oral traditions.

2) That said, one of the things which distinguishes Jewish tradition vis a vis the Tanach from, say certain Christian traditions, is the lack of dogmatic understanding. Even the most orthodox of Orthodox Jews would not, if he/she were educated, make the claim that there is a single understanding of everything in the Torah. Perhaps the great strength of the Torah in Jewish tradition is that it can and does bear a multiplicity of interpretations.

Nonetheless, the Torah doesn't 'speak' to everyone. However, maybe it is more the case that not everyone 'listens.'

Again, I am not here to push a specific (read: Orthodox) agenda neither in regards to personal observance and practice nor in regard to biblical interpretation. However, I firmly believe that the Torah, as part of the Jewish collective subconscious, has something to say to us all. Certainly this book has resonated for thousands of years with not only Jews but other significant religions and their adherents.

As Jews, this book is the basis for a consciousness which carries its power to this day. Each of us will make of that what we will.

We can also ignore the book. But, to my mind, this is like ignoring who your parents, grandparents and all prior generations were. You may choose not to recognize how these people contributed to your existence, but that doesn't mean they didn't. Likewise the Torah.

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On a related note, Maimonides writes in the Sefer Hamitzvot (the Book of Commandments--Maimonides' count of the 613 eternal commandments of the Torah):

ספר המצוות לרמב"ם מצות עשה ד והמצוה הרביעית היא שצונו להאמין יראתו יתעלה ולהפחד ממנו ולא נהיה ככופרים ההולכים בקרי אבל נירא ביאת ענשו בכל עת והוא אמרו יתעלה (ואתחנן ו) את י"י אלהיך תירא. 

Maimonides' Sefer Hamitzvot Positive Commandment 4 The fourth commandment is that we are commanded to believe (in) His fear, may He be esteemed, and to be afraid of Him so that we will not be like the deniers who attribute things to mere chance; rather we should fear the coming of His punishment at any time. This is what The Esteemed One meant when He said (Deuteronomy 6) You shall fear God Your Lord.

Maimonides goes on a bit more to demonstrate that this should indeed take its place as one of the 613 commandments. 

Bottom line here: Be afraid--be very afraid! 

Of course, there is also a commandment to love God which is a complement and contrast to this. But we are still left with the feeling that underneath it all we have to watch our step or risk being the target of Divine retribution. 

While I am not here to say whether or not such retribution exists and, if it does, what form or forms it takes, I want to point out that later in life, Maimonides shifted his understanding of this mitzvah. When he was older and writing the Mishneh Torah, his comprehensive halachic work, he described this mitzvah as follows:

רמב"ם הלכות יסודי התורה פרק ב הלכה ב והיאך היא הדרך לאהבתו ויראתו, בשעה שיתבונן האדם במעשיו וברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים ויראה מהן חכמתו שאין לה ערך ולא קץ מיד הוא אוהב ומשבח ומפאר ומתאוה תאוה גדולה לידע השם הגדול א כמו שאמר דוד צמאה נפשי לאלהים לאל חי, 

וכשמחשב בדברים האלו עצמן מיד הוא נרתע לאחוריו ויפחד ויודע שהוא בריה קטנה שפלה אפלה עומדת בדעת קלה מעוטה לפני תמים דעות, כמו שאמר דוד כי אראה שמיך מעשה אצבעותיך מה אנוש כי תזכרנו, ולפי הדברים האלו אני מבאר כללים גדולים ממעשה רבון העולמים כדי שיהיו פתח למבין לאהוב את השם, כמו שאמרו חכמים בענין אהבה שמתוך כך אתה מכיר את מי שאמר והיה העולם. 

Maimonides, Laws of the Foundations of the Torah 20:20: And what is the way to His love and to His awe (יראה yirah--the same word Maimonides used in the Sefer Hamitzvot rendered as 'fear')? At a time when a person will consider His doings and His wonderful, great creations and he will be in awe of them--His boundless, infinite wisdom--he will immediately love and praise and glorify and desire a great desire to know The Great Lord as David said, "My soul thirsts for the Lord, for the living God (Psalms 42:3)." 

And when he will think about these things themselves, he will immediately be taken aback and will be afraid and know that he is a small, lowly, dark creature, standing with slight, insignificant knowledge before The One Of Perfect Knowledge, as David said, "When I see Your Heavens, the work of your fingers: What is man that You should remember him(Psalms 8:4)?"

And according to these things, I explain major rules from the doing of the Sovereign of the World in order that this should be an opening for the one who (comes to) understand (how to) love God, as the sages said, "Because of this, you come to know the One Who Spoke and the universe came into existence."

You know, once I translated that, I realized that to fully understand all the basic things Maimonides is trying to say, I would have to write a whole bunch more. 

But, note that Maimonides in this passage combines love of God (אהבת ה') with the mitzvah of יראת ה' yirat Hashem which now we will render in this context as 'awe' of God. 

That is, there is a close tie between these two mitzvot--in order to do one  you really have to do the other. And now the other, the yirah, is not a fear that God will punish you if you don't do his commandments; rather, it is a reflection of the deep sense of awe you will achieve once you ponder the depths if His creation. 

I'll close today by pointing out that we live in a time when, for all kinds of reasons, many if not most of us are not really afraid of Divine punishment. That notion doesn't seem to fit into our 'modern' take on the way the world works. 

However, people everywhere and in all walks of life, artists, musicians, mathematicians, scientists, cake bakers and fabrication makers can be, and sometimes are overwhelmed with the profundity of creation. 

While there are virtually no Jewish courts to mete out halachic punishments, and so we don't generally have to be afraid of that sort of thing, and, as we noted, we tend to be less afraid of Divine punishments, this reality in a way frees us up to all the more so appreciate the depths of creation not from a place of fear, but from utter awe and respect. 

So, bottom line, maybe our relationship to Torah has now become much more up to us and less up to an external force like fear of punishment (Divine or otherwise) and is a step along the way for our individual and collective spiritual maturity. 

More M'lacha

Sophie, bless her, posed the following:

You're not off the hook yet, my dear Shel. Let me sharpen my argument a bit and say - not sewing fashion bags for sale, but rather some mind cleansing cross stitching or sketching, done more to help the mind relax than for any earthly purpose.

You raise a sort of classic question about the nature of Shabbat observance. I will point out from the very outset that it is not my intention here to push people into Shabbat observance as understood by the rabbinic law. Mainly, I have been trying to point out a certain systematic and careful reading of the text. I draw my basic approach from the rabbinic approach both because it is, to my mind, very deep and well thought out and also because I happen to have devoted most of my life to understanding it.

What we have observed is that the term m'lacha in the context of Shabbat refers to some type or types of creative activity. On a deeper level we see that refraining from doing those types of activities on Shabbat is, in some way, to imitate God in the story of creation.

Just to highlight this point: God does not complete creation until he refrains from m'lacha on Shabbat. So Shabbat becomes not just a negative or an absence of activity; rather the resting is in itself an integral part of the creation. It is like the pauses in music, or the empty space of a picture--the absence of a thing is a thing itself, even a very important thing! Every artist understands this inherently. 

The rabbis understood a couple of things: 

1) The word m'lacha does not refer to some general or arbitrary activity or activities; rather it refers specifically to the 39 basic activities which were necessary for the building of the mishcan. While some Talmudic sources point to a verse which hints at that particular number, thirty nine, it is more likely that the rabbis saw the number and the specific activities as part of a tradition which traced back to what Moshe received as part of the oral Torah at Sinai. 

Therefore, they say, these acts are prohibited on Shabbat provided that they are done with intent, i.e. the specific intent to accomplish that specific act. For example, if you kick a stone by accident while walking and that action causes sparks to fly and the sparks catch on tinder and start a fire, according to Torah law you would not be held culpable for lighting a fire on Shabbat. If you took matches and lit one with the intent of lighting a fire that would be seen as a violation. This would be true even if your house had gone dark and you needed the light to feel comfortable and safe. Of course, if it is a matter of saving a life then these laws are pushed aside (based on an understanding of other verses later in Vayikra).

2) There are other aspects to Shabbat which were clearly part of the ancient tradition even though they are not mentioned specifically in the Torah. Thus, for instance, we find in Yishaya:

ישעיה נח:יג  אִם-תָּשִׁיב מִשַּׁבָּת רַגְלֶךָ, עֲשׂוֹת חֲפָצֶךָ בְּיוֹם קָדְשִׁי; וְקָרָאתָ לַשַּׁבָּת עֹנֶג, לִקְדוֹשׁ יְהוָה מְכֻבָּד, וְכִבַּדְתּוֹ מֵעֲשׂוֹת דְּרָכֶיךָ, מִמְּצוֹא חֶפְצְךָ וְדַבֵּר דָּבָר. יד  אָז, תִּתְעַנַּג עַל-יְהוָה, וְהִרְכַּבְתִּיךָ, עַל-במותי (בָּמֳתֵי) אָרֶץ; וְהַאֲכַלְתִּיךָ, נַחֲלַת יַעֲקֹב אָבִיךָ--כִּי פִּי יְהוָה, דִּבֵּר.

Isaiah 58:13 If thou turn away thy foot because of the sabbath, from pursuing thy business on My holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy of the LORD honourable; and shalt honour it, not doing thy wonted ways, nor pursuing thy business, nor speaking thereof; 14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD, and I will make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. (Not my translation!! JPS 1917--sorry in a bit of a rush today)

The Torah does not explicitly forbid doing business, for example, on Shabbat. But the prophet understood that refraining from such activities constitute עונג oneg, a sort of delight or pleasure. So Shabbat observance is not just a matter of refraining from m'lacha as such but assuming a kind of mood or ambience which comes in the wake of leaving behind our daily pursuits.  

Sophie is probably saying right now, "That's exactly my point! I would do my cross-stitch or my sketching as a way of getting away from my regular daily pursuits!"

Who am I to disagree? Again, I am just pointing out that from the rabbinic point of view, the Torah forbids all m'lacha and does not make exceptions except in life threatening situations. Moreover, cessation from m'lacha coupled with a sense of the ambience of Shabbat is what creates oneg which seems to be one of the points and even gifts of Shabbat. 

From a parshanut perspective, this understanding has the advantage of producing a consistent reading of the text of the Torah in the context of Shabbat, the  mishcan and the creation. 

It is not the only way to read the Torah. I think, ultimately, we need to each find our place in the Torah and the Torah's place in us. There is a certain inevitability of us imposing ourselves on the text but the less we push our own agenda on the Torah and the more we  try to figure out the Torah's agenda perhaps the wiser we will be and perhaps the better.

But, as they used to say in ancient Babylonia נהרא נהרא ופשטיה each river runs its own course--in more modern parlance: different strokes for different folks!

Shabbat shalom and ziggi, I hope your challah came out well!