(Dvar Torah on Parashat Naso [Num. 5:1 - 7:89] given on Shabbat evening Friday 5/21/21)
Broadly speaking, the first ten chapters of the Book of Numbers deals with various efforts to organize the Israelite encampment and to prepare it for leaving Mt. Sinai on its journey to the Promised Land.
In last week’s Torah portion, Parashat Bemidbar, a military readiness census was taken and the various tribes were organized in terms of their positions around the tabernacle.
In this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Naso, a census of the Levites, begun towards the end of last week’s parasha, is concluded.
After that, the text turns to questions of preserving the holiness and ritual purity of the camp. In other words, last week’s parasha was about building up our defenses against potential external foes. And this week’s portion is about building up our defenses against internal threats.
What types of internal threats?
First, in Numbers 5: 1-4, there is a provision about temporary isolation of anyone who is ritually impure because of proximity to a corpse or because of abnormal bodily discharges.
Next, in Numbers 5: 5-10, we have a provision about restitution requirements when one person has wronged another in a monetary dispute.
Next in Numbers 5: 11-31, we have the (admittedly problematic) case of the “Sotah” – a wife suspected by her husband of having committed adultery. However, many commentators both classical and modern see this case as being about providing a ritual method for promoting reconciliation between feuding spouses. So, in that respect, it’s a third example in our parasha about how to heal division within the Israelite community that could weaken the community’s ability to move forward towards the Promised Land.
And finally, in Numbers, chapter 6, we have the ritual of the Nazirite vow. And this can be seen as a method for channeling the religious enthusiasm of individuals who, because they were not among the descendants of Aaron, could not become Kohanim or Priests.
What did it mean to take a Nazirite vow? There are some conflicting details about Nazirite vows in other parts of the Bible, but, at least here in Parashat Naso, it’s about an individual who takes it upon himself or herself to do the following:
1) Refrain from wine or strong drink.
2) Refrain from cutting their hair
3) Refrain from being in the proximity of a corpse – even if this means not taking part in the burial of one’s own next of kin
And, in general, to set oneself apart from one’s neighbors so as to be focused on devotion to God.
We can see this as a method for channeling the religious enthusiasm of individuals who, because they were not among the descendants of Aaron, could not become Kohanim or Priests. In that way, it promotes community stability.
Still, Jewish tradition is ambivalent about such an undertaking. Indeed, when the term of the person’s Nazirite vow is completed they are supposed to bring a sin offering to the Kohen. Why a sin offering? Rashi says it’s because he or she had sinned against God by refusing to enjoy pleasures of this world that God had permitted to us – drinking wine being the paradigmatic example of such pleasures.
All things being equal, we’re not supposed to be torturing ourselves for the sake of God. Rather, we are supposed to enjoy the blessings of life, though, to be sure, within moderation.
Why does the law of the Nazirite immediately follow the passage that deals with the “sotah”, the wife suspected of adultery? In Tractate Sotah of the Talmud, Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi is cited for the explanation:
שכל הרואה סוטה בקלקולה יזיר עצמו מן היין [1
“that anyone who sees a sotah in her disgrace as she undergoes the rite of the bitter water should renounce wine, as wine is one of the causes of sexual transgression, as it loosens inhibitions.”
Well, the sotah ritual is problematic, and the Talmud says it was abolished during the period of the second Temple. But this idea that one ought to restrict oneself from certain behaviors if one fears they would get out of control – maybe that’s a bit closer to home.
I dunno. I must have been thinking subconsciously about this week’s Torah portion yesterday because yesterday I made a spur of the moment decision not to buy wine for kiddush this week and instead to buy grape juice (That’s what I have in my cup here.).
No, I’m not deciding to abstain from alcohol permanently, or even temporarily, but it did occur to me that I don’t really need to go through a whole bottle of wine on my own every week.
Like many of us, I’ve realized that I’ve consumed rather more alcohol during this past pandemic year than I did pre-Covid.
And, like many of us, maybe the underlying stresses of the events of the past year have led me to indulge in fattening foods more this year than pre-pandemic.
For each of us, maybe a year of disruption from our regular communal interactions has led to some undesirable shifts in some of our behaviors.
And so, as we move towards the end of the pandemic, as we emerge from our isolated, Zoom cocoons back fully into the world of normal in-person gatherings, maybe the Torah of the Nazir can prompt us to consider thoughtfully what adjustments in our lives might be useful for us to consider as we reenter the world.
Shabbat shalom.
© Rabbi David Steinberg 5781/2021
[1] Sotah 2a
