I hope everybody had a good Shavuot; that you are well rested and energized from hearing Divinity speaking to us.

And this is a bit of what he had to say…

This week’s parsha (weekly Torah portion) is called Naso which comes from the verb to lift up or to carry. The parsha begins with haShem (god) telling Moshe (Moses) to lift up the head of the children of Garshon who are one of the Levite families.  It is really a continuation from the previous parsha where we started to read about what part of the mishcan (tabernacle) each Levite family was responsible for.  This parsha finishes that accounting.

After this accounting is done, god tells Moshe that anyone afflicted with Tzaraat (see earlier discussion for what this is – it is not leprosy), has a discharge, or is tamae (mixed) to a nephesh (soul) is not allowed in the camp because those kinds of tamae states cannot be in the camp with god.  This is done and god again talks to Moshe saying that any child of Yisrael that acts in betrayal of haShem needs to confess and pay the principle plus 1/5 to the victim.  If the victim has no relatives, then the payment shall go to god who gives it to the priest.

We next read of the sotah ritual, which is the ritual that occurs when a man is jealous that his wife might have been with another man and there are no witnesses.  For brevity, I will leave the details for you to read.  After reading about the sotah ritual, we read about a nazir.  Again, for brevity’s sake, I will leave the details for you to read.

And now we come to the place where god tells Moshe to tell Aharon and his sons how to bless the people with the reminder that they are only putting god’s name on the people and that god is really the one doing the blessing.

Next, we read how after Moshe set up the mishcan and inaugurated it, the tribal leaders came forward with offerings:  six full wagons and twelve oxen, all of which were given to the Levis for service of the mishcan.  We read that each day, for twelve days, a different tribal leader brought an offering (which is spelled out in detail).  I won’t go into the detail.  Suffice it to say that what is amazing about this is that each tribal leader brought exactly the same offering.   The parsha ends with us learning that when Moshe would go into the tent of meeting to speak with god, god would speak to him from between the two cherubim that were on the ark cover.

Last year I looked at the big, flowing picture of this parsha.  Today, I want to look at one small aspect.  Specifically I am looking at the B’midbar (Number) verses 5:5-8.  In these verses we read that if a person does a sin of, “Ha-adam (the human),” an act of betrayal against haShem, he must confess and pay the victim the principle plus a fifth.  At first glance, this seems confusing.  Did the person act against god, or against another person?

The answer to this requires us to remember who ha-adam is.  If we go way back to Breisheit (Genesis), back to the creation stories, we see that ha-adam was created from the earth AND only came alive when god blew into its nostrils.  Now, in our family tradition, we have three common words for soul.  One of them is neshama which means breath.  So, our soul, the soul of ha-adam, which we all come from, is really the breath of god.  Hence, for us to be alive, we need to always have a part of god within us.  Otherwise we are nothing more then inanimate clay.

Now, getting back to the verses.  How is it that a person can do a sin against a person such that he has to pay, and have it an act of betrayal against god?  Well, if an essential part of ha-adam is this breath of god, then to sin against a child of ha-adam, who also have as an essential part, a part of god, has to be a sin against god.

And if we have agreed to follow in god’s ways (which we did this past Wednesday, on Shavuot), and one of these things that we agreed to do was not to do a sin against each other, then when we do, we are betraying god.

Now when we do that, what does god ask of us?  Well, if we acted as a traitor to a country, we could get killed, or thrown in jail forever, or thrown out of the county.  All that god asks is that we take responsibility for our actions.  How?  By admitting to what we did, and by paying for what we did, plus a little bit more.  And to whom?  To the part of god that we acted poorly to in the first place:  the part inside the person we sinned against  I must admit, this sounds like a very merciful way of paying for the act of treason.  What do you think?

If you care to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.