Parshat Naso  7 Sivan 5763, 7 June 2003

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel - The two opening portions of the Book of Numbers (Bamidbar) deal with a census or count of the male members of each of the tribes who are eligible to serve in the armed forces of the Israelites and/or to function in the operation and movement of the Sanctuary. What is strange, however, is that the verb form naso, which is the most frequent verb in this sequence and is even the name of our portion, is usually translated as "count," but literally means to uplift. What is uplifting about a census, a mere head -count?

I would like to arrive at the real contextual meaning of the word naso by means of a fascinating halakhic issue with which we've dealt before and which we experienced just last week when we celebrated Shavuot, or the Feast of Weeks. As everyone knows, the Jewish calendar marks one day for the Festival of Shavuot in Israel, and two days for the very same Festival in the diaspora (as is the case with regard to Pesach and Sukkot as well). Why this difference?

Rabbi Abraham Gumbiner, the eighteenth century decisor - commentary on the Shulhan Arukh known as the Magen Avraham, boldly suggests in his glosses on the laws of sefirah (the count of the days between Pesach and Shavuot) that, at least in the case of Shavuot, Moses (Moshe Rabbenu) himself added the second day of the Festival from its very inception. What leads him to this rather startling conclusion is a study of the calendar itself according to most midrashim. Consider that the paschal lamb was taken on the tenth of Nissan, a Sabbath according to our tradition (indeed, Shabbat Hagadol), so that when the Israelites went out of Egypt on the fifteenth day of Nissan it had to have fallen out on Thursday. If then they began the omer count of each day until Shavuot or Friday, then the fifteenth day - the day of Shavuot on Friday, then the fiftieth day - the day of Shavuot - must have likewise fallen out on Friday. But all of the midrashim with which we are acquainted insist that the Torah was given on the Shabbat, which would have been the 51st day of the count?! Hence, logically concludes the Magen Avraham, Moshe must have added the second day to the Festival - since Mt. Sinai was considered to have been outside of the promised borders of the Land of Israel. Shavuot thereby became the initial harbinger of - and precedent for - the second day of the Festival in the diaspora.

Many are the reasons offered as to why Moses would have established this additional day - and inaugurated the first day of the Festival as the day prior to the Revelation at Sinai. Rav Samson Rafael Hirsch brilliantly suggests that since the sefirah - count are days of anxious anticipation for the gift of Torah, and since anticipation always engenders greater excitement than does realization - the period leading up to a major acquisition or life-cycle event is generally one of high and heady expectation, whereas the period following the achievement often brings "let-down" in its wake - the Torah initially celebrates and eternalizes the uplifting good-will of the "day before."

I have previously brought another explanation to your attention, that of Rav Shaya Levi Horowitz, in his classical halakhic - mystical work Shnei Luhot HaBrit (Shelah) where he suggests that it is doubly difficult to feel the gift of the Torah - or the gifts of freedom (Passover) and Divine protection (Sukkot) as well - outside of the Land of Israel, which is the nuptial homestead, as it were, for the sacred marriage between G-d and Israel.

After all, in the Land of Israel whose produce is subject to the laws of tithes and whose very soil must lie fallow each Sabbatical year, the very earth is hallowed ground. Indeed, we have pointed out Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook's explanation as to why we may, may/must, reap the barley grain sacrifice even on Shabbat if the sixteenth day of Nissan falls out on Shabbat: just as prohibited Sabbath activities may be performed for the sake of ritual sacrifices on Shabbat in the Holy Temple, so may the grain be harvested for the sake of the omer on Shabbat in the Land of Israel. The entire Land of Israel may be considered an extension of our Holy Temple!

Let us now return to our initial question. Naso primarily means to uplift, to ennoble, to elevate. Nisuin means marriage - not merely a physical lifting up of the bride into her new husband's home (carrying her over the threshold, as it were), but rather a spiritual ennobling and uplifting of two individuals united in body and spirit with each other, with their nation and with their G-d. King Solomon's Song of Songs expresses this profound truth.

The Biblical census numbering the individuals serving as protectors of the nation of Israel, the Sanctuary of Israel and the Torah of Israel is at the same time a record of the courageous and sacred individuals, placing their lives on the line and dedicating their very selves to the well - being of our people. Similarly, in our fateful period of the beginning of the sprouting of our redemption, when we are in the midst of a war for our very survival, the Israeli Defense Forces are involved in the uplifting, ennobling and sacred task of guarding over Israel, past present and future!

Shabbat Shalom!

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