2022/5782

Parashat Nasso is a story of opposite levels of Kedushah. The Torah talks about the ultimate way for a servant of Hashem to live his life, then transitions to how one level of Tumah leads to an Aveirah and how that Aveirah leads to another Aveirah. Then, a solution is provided to stop any more degeneration and regain the original level of Kedushah for Avodat Hashem.

The Parashah starts out with the counting of the Levi’im, the role models for all of Bnei Yisrael. The fact that the Levi’im are supposed to be leaders could help explain the weird language of נשא. The word נשא is used for when Hashem commands Moshe Rabbeinu to count בני גרשון and בני קהת but for the rest of Bnei Yisrael the word שאו is used. נשא has the same root as the Hebrew word for leader, נשיא. This small change exemplifies the leadership of the Levi’im. They are the holiest group in Bnei Yisrael, but even they are not invincible. 

Moshe is commanded by Hashem: “צַ֚ו אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וִֽישַׁלְּחוּ֙ מִן־הַֽמַּחֲנֶ֔ה כׇּל־צָר֖וּעַ וְכׇל־זָ֑ב וְכֹ֖ל טָמֵ֥א לָנָֽפֶשׁ,” “Instruct the Israelites to remove from camp anyone with an eruption or a discharge and anyone defiled by a corpse” (BeMidbar 5:2). This commandment applied to everyone, including the Levi’im (ibid. Rashi s.v. וישלחו מן המחנה). Because this applies equally to the Levi’im, it shows that they are vulnerable to becoming Tamei. That is not good news: if the leaders/role models of Bnei Yisrael can become Tamei, the rest of Bnei Yisrael will surely fare worse. Additionally, these people need to be sent out of the camp because the Shechinah is in the camp, and the Shechinah is incompatible with Tumah (ibid. Ibn Ezra s.v. כל צרוע וכל זב). This is the first step in the degradation of society from ultimate holiness, and leads to the next section. 

The next topic in the Parashah is Me’ilah, or stealing from what was designated for Hashem. Chizkuni says that a Zav or Tzaru’a is compared to someone who steals from Hashem (ibid. 6 s.v. כי יעשו מכל חטאת האדם). At first glance it seems hard to compare the involuntary contamination of those people to someone who steals from Hashem, but it can be reconciled with the concept of Aveirah Goreret Aveirah. The Zav and Tzaru’a cause Tumah which in turn leads to worsening morals and in turn stealing from Hashem. This slippery slope eventually leads to one of the worst situations possible in society: couples accusing each other of infidelity.

The Sotah process is one of the hardest parts ot the Torah to understand, but what matters is that when a man is cheated on, the Torah describes the situation as “וּמָעֲלָ֥ה ב֖וֹ מָֽעַל,” “broken faith with him” (ibid. 12). Rashi comments that this is the same man who stole from Hashem and did Me’ilah, and now Me’ilah is used to describe what happened to him (ibid. s.v. איש איש כי תשטה אשתו). Rashi does put the blame squarely on the wife (ibid. s.v. איש איש), but because Rashi talks about how the man did Me’ilah which led to this, it is impossible to say that Rashi would give the husband a clean slate. He stole from Hashem, his wife saw him doing so, so she took the Aveirah a step further and wasn’t loyal to her relationship. What started as some people being Tamei ultimately led to a complete breakdown of society.

There is only one way to save everything: the fabled Nazir. Ramban writes that the Nazir sees everything falling apart around him or her and decides that he or she can’t be a part of society at large or its temptations anymore (ibid. 6 s.v. מכל חטאת האדם). The Nazir goes to the opposite extreme of society’s values because that is the only way to fix society. In fact, when the Nazir refrains from wine, they avoid what led to the downfall of many people in the Torah. Most pertinent to this conversation are Nadav and Avihu who died after entering the Mishkan while intoxicated. The Nazir acts to fix what they did wrong and serve Hashem completely free of wine. Fixing what Nadav and Avihu messed up on immediately leads into the Birkat Kohanim. Birkat Kohanim and alcohol are incompatible, illustrated by the popular custom to not do Birkat Kohanim during Mussaf on Simchat Torah because of the high likelihood that the Kohanim are drunk. The Nazir reminds the Kohanim that the best way and only to do Avodat Hashem is by refraining from wine. The Nazir is instrumental in getting the Kohanim and Levi’im on the Derech so they can be role models for Bnei Yisrael.

Nasso begins with the Levi’im being guides for everyone, but at the first site of Tumah society abandons the values of the Levi’im. Only when a Nazir comes along and sacrifices many of his temptations to focus solely on serving HaShem can society right its slide. This shows how any person can have an outsize influence for either good or bad; it is all up to you.