Thoughts
on The Parsha
Parshas
Nasso
Pure
Versus Holy
By:
Daniel Listhaus
וַיְדַבֵּר
ה'
אֶל
משֶׁה לֵּאמֹר:
דַּבֵּר
אֶל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ
אֲלֵהֶם אִישׁ אוֹ אִשָּׁה כִּי יַפְלִא
לִנְדֹּר נֶדֶר נָזִיר לְהַזִּיר לַה':
מִיַּיִן
וְשֵׁכָר יַזִּיר חֹמֶץ יַיִן וְחֹמֶץ
שֵׁכָר לֹא יִשְׁתֶּה וְכָל מִשְׁרַת
עֲנָבִים לֹא יִשְׁתֶּה וַעֲנָבִים
לַחִים וִיבֵשִׁים לֹא יֹאכֵל
“Hashem
spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the Children of Israel and say to
them: A man or woman who shall set apart by taking a nazarite
vow,...from wine... shall he abstain....”
-Nasso
6:1-3
v'כֹּל
יְמֵי נִזְרוֹ קָדשׁ הוּא לַה
“All
the days of his status as a nazir
he is holy to Hashem.”
-Nasso
6:8
וְעָשָׂה
הַכֹּהֵן אֶחָד לְחַטָּאת וְאֶחָד לְעֹלָה
וְכִפֶּר עָלָיו מֵאֲשֶׁר חָטָא עַל
הַנָּפֶשׁ וְקִדַּשׁ אֶת רֹאשׁוֹ בַּיּוֹם
הַהוּא
“...and
he shall make one as a sin offering...for having sinned against his
soul....”
-Nasso
6:11
Rashi1
explains that the reason why the Torah puts the subject of nazir
immediately
following the passage of sotah
is
to teach us that one who saw a sotah
in
her state of disgrace should take upon himself to abstain from wine
by becoming a nazir.
In other words, the Torah is telling us that when we see something we
should act on it. The sotah
sinned
through wine. Therefore, one is expected to realize the dangers of
wine and act upon that realization by refraining from wine.
The
problem with this explanation, though, is that a few passukim
(verses)
later2,
the Torah describes that after the nazir's
term
is up he must bring a karbon
chatas (a
sin offering) for having sinned against his soul. Rashi3
there cites two opinions, one of which is Rabbi Elazar who holds that
the nazir's
sin
was that he pained himself by abstaining from wine.
What
in the world is going on here? Is the Torah offering bad advice? At
first the Torah recommends one becoming a nazir
and
act upon lessons learned, then the Torah turns around and terms it a
sin! How could following the advice of the Torah lead to sin?
To
make this question even stronger, consider the following. The Orchos
Tzaddikim4,
when
discussing the various aspects of haughtiness, explains that a person
who is trying to stay from haughtiness should not think to stop
eating meat, refrain from drinking wine, live in a dilapidated shack,
dress disgustingly, and not wash oneself; as a matter of fact, one
who would do so would be called a sinner. The Orchos
Tzaddikim then
proves this from our parsha,
where we see that a nazir
is
called a sinner even though he pained himself only
from wine, so imagine how much more so would he be called a sinner
for refraining from even more things. The Gemara5
also
concurs to this idea, as it exclaims, “Is it not enough what the
Torah made forbidden for you that you have to add more?”.
With
this in mind, let us re-ask our question: Is being a nazir
a
good thing or a bad thing? How do we resolve the contradiction that
the Torah recommends one to become a nazir,
yet at the same time calls such a person a sinner?
The
Mesillas
Yesharim6
in its last chapter describes the level of kedusha
(holiness)
a person could achieve. While doing so, he makes the following
distinction. Amongst the highest levels of a relationship a person
could have with Hashem are the levels of tahara
(purity)
and kedusha
(holiness).
Tahara,
explains the Mesillas
Yesharim,
is the level one reaches when one looks around the world and realizes
that this cannot be what life is all about. He thinks to himself,
“How could the whole point of life be for physical pleasures if
these pleasures are so short-lived within a short-lived life span?”.
So, this person separates himself as much as possible from worldly
matters and pleasures, except for when absolutely necessary. With
this approach to life, such a person achieves great heights within
the level of tahara;
however, he has not yet reached the ultimate level of kedusha.
Kedusha,
as the Mesillas
Yesharim explains,
is a level where a person could take any mundane thing, and turn it
into a something holy. Just as it is possible to take an animal and
sanctify it in order to offer it as a karbon
(sacrifice),
so too the person who achieves a level of kedusha
– whatever
he does, uses, or eats, automatically becomes holy. This is the type
of life that Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov led, which was why
Hashem's presence rested upon them and they were blessed. They came
to the realization that everything in this world, as mundane as it
may seem, could, and should be used as a means of becoming closer to
Hashem. Because they lived with this axiom, what they ate and drink
were sanctified as if brought on the mizbeach
(alter)
in the Beis
HaMikdash7.
Perhaps
now we can understand how the nazir
could
simultaneously be doing the right thing and be called a sinner. After
seeing the sotah
and
the dangers of wine, the best action one could take is in fact to
adopt a lifestyle of tahara.
However, this is not the highest level which could be achieved and
therefore one is still called a sinner; but it is the only option we
have. As Tosfos8
explain:
There is no question that one who refrains from partaking in the
pleasures of this world is called a sinner - we learn that from
nazir.
However, the necessity to do so outweighs the aveirah
(sin)
that one will inevitably get from doing so. To jump immediately into
a lifestyle of kedusha
is
impossible, and one who is convinced he could do so is fooling no one
but himself. First, one must work towards the level of tahara
and
recognize that the point of living is not to delve into the pleasures
of this world. Then, using that as a spring-board, one could
ultimately understand that the point of living in this world is to
turn everything – even the things which seem so mundane – into
kedusha.
We could eat to live instead of living to eat; we could realize that
sleep is a means to be able to achieve a purpose, and not that sleep
itself is a purpose to achieve. Only in this way could one come to
lead a life like Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya'akov.
In
the push-button world that we live in, it is sometimes hard to
remember that some things take hard work. A person must strive to
reach the level of kedusha,
but it is impossible to just materialize at that stratum. One first
has to achieve the level of tahara
before
reaching the level of kedusha;
and
even though there is a sin attached to it, it remains the only way.
This is why the nazir
must
bring the karbon
chatas (sin-offering)
– in order to fill the gap between the levels of tahara
and
kedusha.
The
Torah is, of course, offering the best advice by telling anyone who
has witnessed the disgrace of the sotah
to
take a lesson from it and become a nazir.
That
is the best course of action to take, because one cannot simply jump
to a level of kedusha.
At the same time, however, the Torah mandates that the nazir
bring
a karbon
chatas at
the end of his term to fill in that inevitable gap which exists and
remind the nazir
that
his ultimate goal in life has not yet been fulfilled. He is still
called a sinner, dependent on his karbon
as a crutch, so to speak, to fill in the gap that stands between
tahara
and
kedusha9.
With
this idea in mind, may we all achieve the ultimate goal of kedusha
in the way Mishlei10
describes,
“In all your ways know Him and He will straighten your paths”.
1Bamidbar
6:2
2Bamidbar
6:11
3Ibid.
5Yerushalmi
Nedarim 9:1
6Perek
26
7The
Mesillas Yesharim uses this
concept to explain why each of the stones that Ya'akov placed around
him (Beraishis 28:11)
were fighting over which one would get to be under Ya'akov's head –
because everything a tzaddik
uses is sanctified and is considered as if offered to Hashem.
As
a matter of fact, as the Torah writes a few verses later, “Ya'akov
arose early in the morning and took the stone that he had placed
around his head”. The Torah switches from “stones” (plural)
to “stone” (singular) to demonstrate that the wish of the rocks
was fulfilled and they became one stone under Ya'akov's head. Then,
as that verse continues, “...and he set [the stone] as a pillar
and he poured oil on its top...”.
8Ta'anis
11a
9According
to this entire explanation it is difficult to understand why the
verse also describes the nazir as
kadosh (holy)
(Bamidbar 6:8). It
would have been better if the Torah had used the word “tahor”.
I asked my Rebbe, Rabbi Einstadter, and he pointed out that the
Torah also does this in Parshas
Kedoshim where Rashi
and the Ramban explain “Kedoshim”
to refrain from worldly matters. He explained that following our
explanation and the way the Tosfos
in Ta'anis seems to
be learning, it must be that the Torah uses the term kedusha
because when we are reaching
these levels of tahara,
we should be doing so with the intention to ultimately reach the
level of kedusha.
10Mishlei
3:6
Photo Credit: edited picture based on http://www.ifood.tv/blog/every-ceramic-water-filter-has-a-silver-lining
Rabbi Lishaus - you are producing beautiful Torah!
ReplyDeleteWonderful and thank you