While many good sites concentrate on health issues like appetite suppressant, here at MessianicMusings, we concentrate on searching the L-RD’s word for truth. Here’s my commentary on B’midbar. Or listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
Our parashah for today is B’midbar or “In the wilderness” and covers Numbers chapter 1 through verse 20 of chapter 4. This week’s reading largely concerns the taking of a census of the children of Israel. We read about this in:
Numbers 1:1-3
The L-RD spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said: “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one. You and Aaron are to number by their divisions all the men in Israel twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army.
At its most basic level, this census seems to be a military census, since the count only includes men of military age. The results show that at this time, Israel consists of over 600,000 men of military age … 603,550, to be exact, according to verse 46. Now, one might wonder about the significance of a book that concerns the counting of the people in various ways. Why is it important?
Well, for one thing, although the numbers seem in most places to be rounded up to the nearest fifty, they generally are not the nice, round numbers that one might expect if critics of the Bible were correct and the story of the Exodus were a parable and everything in it was symbolic. Instead, the numbers found here are irregular and seem to be random, as one might expect if a large number of people were actually counted. So the very existence of this book and the record of those counted testify to the historical nature of the book. It is a book that confounds skeptics.
But certainly confounding skeptics was not foremost in the mind of the L-RD when he inspired Moses to write the book of Numbers. There must be a deeper meaning, a purpose beyond a mere historical record. And we get a hint of what that is from this tradition from the sage:
Rashi
Because God felt a deep love for Israel, He constantly counted them. When they left Egypt He counted them (Exodus 12:37); after many were punished because of the sin of the Golden Calf He counted them once again (Exodus 33:11ff); and now that He had caused His presence to dwell among them, He counted them once more.
This is an idea I can relate to. You see, when I was young, I became an enthusiastic collector of comic books. Whether it was Spider-Man, Batman, Fantastic Four, Teen Titans or the X Men, I simply enjoyed the exciting mixture of dynamic visual art and compelling storytelling. And since I was not a person who cast aside any type of book or reading material, I soon needed storage boxes and, ultimately, an inventory system.
I can still remember buying packs of hundreds of index cards, rolling them one at a time into my Smith-Corona electric typewriter, and spending hours typing out an index card for each comic I bought, being careful to note not only the series and issue number, but the story title, writer, artists, cover price and so on. I spent almost as much time inventorying and counting my collection of comic books as I did actually reading it. I continued my collection through most of my teenage years before finally selling it around the time I entered college, making just enough in the sale to help pay for a Commodore-64 computer I needed to help me write papers at college.
What explains such behavior? Well, as with any collector, whether it is stamps, rare coins, model vehicles, or, as in my case, comic books … this is an example of what one does when they develop an affection for a treasured possession. I would count and sort and preserve and store so that I could easily find and re-read any issue I wanted to find, at any time; the system helped me also make sure I hadn’t lost anything, as well as track what I had and what I needed.
The key, there, is the concept of a treasured possession. That is a phrase that pops up between the L-RD and his chosen people, as we remember from:
Exodus 19:5-6a
Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
It is easy to overlook that simple turn of phrase, “treasured possession,” and take it for granted, but it has a significant meaning. The word used here is actually:
Strong’s H5459 ceg-ul-lah
* AV – peculiar treasure 3, special 1, jewel 1
* 1a) valued property, peculiar treasure
So we can see this is a word that implies a very special relationship between the L-RD and his chosen people. They are not just a common possession – as He says, the whole earth belongs to Him – but because of his relationship to the people of Israel because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, when they hear His voice and obey his instructions, they are a people he values above all else in creation.
Is this value God places here based purely on heritage and birth? It would appear not, because this declaration is made in connection to what? To hearing the voice of the L-RD and obeying all that He commands. As Rabbi Stan has pointed out in his recent sermons, the phrase “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” does not reappear in the Bible until I Peter, when it resurfaces in light of the followers of Yeshua receiving the Holy Spirit and once again being able to hear the voice of the L-RD. If you can’t hear His voice, you can’t be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Yet even though the Hebrew people passed up the opportunity to hear God’s voice, to speak to Him directly, they remained His treasured possession. Can we who are not by heritage Jewish share in this status? We read this in:
I Peter 2:9-10
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Other translations render verse nine as “a peculiar people,” while the NIV renders it as “a people belonging to God.” The Greek word used there comes to us from the Strong’s entry:
G4047 peripoiesis
* AV – purchased possession, obtaining, saving, peculiar
* 2) possession, one’s own property
This is nearly the same meaning, the same expression, as the Hebrew word cegulah. Although not identical, it expresses a very similar sentiment, that of a possession, even a special possession. Peter’s statement is directed to believers in Messiah Yeshua, so as long as we listen to His voice and obey all of His commands, I think it’s reasonable to draw the conclusion that we are grafted in to that statement of being a treasured possession of the L-RD, on the same basis … meaning, so long as we hear His voice and obey all that He commands.
So what kinds of love are expressed by the L-RD when He counts those He loves and who love Him? We get this clue from a tradition recorded in:
The Weekly Midrash, page 690
When they left Egypt He counted them and said Israel is my first-born son, for he loved them with the love that a father bears a son. The second form of love was that of a person to his righteous friend. Israel repented after they were punished because of the sin of the Golden Calf. Moshe and the tribe of Levi killed those who had worshipped it, and although the people numbered 600,000, no one had raised a hand against them. It is therefore obvious that they had repented. For this reason, God loved them and counted them. The third kind of love was expressed when He wished to rest His presence among them, and take Israel as His people, and so He counted them.
The counting also gives us a ballpark figure of how many the children of Israel numbered at this time. If there were 603,550 males of military age, as a starting point, you can at least double that number to account for the number of women of the same age, bringing the total to over 1.2 million at least. Then, if you add in at least another twenty-five percent for those who were younger than that – from newborns through teenagers – a reasonable estimate of the group gathered there at Sinai is about 1.5 million; it would be hard to imagine, under even the worst circumstances, that the group was less than one million, just based on the number of men age 20 and up. And that’s not even including the Levites, who were not counted since they are dedicated to God and not required to serve in the military.
Now, the Bible at times takes a dim view of census-taking. For example, in the book of II Samuel, David repents for taking a census of the people against the will of the L-RD and the judgment against him was so harsh it led to the deaths of 70,000 Israelites by plague.
In the gospel of Luke, a census of the people by a Roman governor, Caesar Augustus, is linked to the birth of Yeshua, but the census is cast in a negative light. Even Exodus contains instructions on how to avoid suffering a plague as a result of census-taking.
Yet there are differences. David’s census was inspired because, in his old age, he began trusting in his military might, rather than in the L-RD. The Roman census was linked to taxation, which included hefty taxes even on the poor.
That’s not the kind of census the L-RD is engaging in here; He is asking for a count of his people because He loves them and they are a treasured possession. Just as a collector of stamps, coins, sports cards or comic books will periodically devote time simply to sort through and count their collection, so too does the L-RD here desire to sort through and count those hearts who are devoted to Him by hearing and by obedience.
As we journey through this book of Numbers, let us keep in mind that every time the L-RD is counting His people, be it men of military age, or the number of first-borns, or whatever … it is, at its most basic, a way in which the L-RD is expressing His love for those who love, listen to, and obey Him.
Shabbat Shalom.
My Nasso Commentary
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
Not much to say today about other kinds of content. I just want to get to the portion. Here’s my commentary on Nasso. Or listen to it!
Shabbat Shalom.
Our parashah for today is Nasso or “Elevate” and covers Numbers chapter 4:21 through chapter 7. This week’s reading is rich and wide-ranging, with several topics one could explore in a Torah commentary. There is a census of all the Levites who serve in the Tent of Meeting. Chapter five concerns community rules for various types of impurity, restitution, and jealousy between husband and wife. Chapter six primarily explains the Nazirite vow. And chapter seven explains all the offerings presented at the dedication of the Tent of Meeting, by each of the twelve tribes. However, what I kept being drawn back to is an element of this week’s Torah portion that we hear every week, but which, I suspect, many of us take for granted: the Aaronic benediction.
The relevant passage comes to us in:
Now, many people take this little homily for granted. They consider it part of a liturgy or simply a nice thought or prayer at the end of a service. Yet there is a surprising amount we can learn from this blessing. Here at Beth Yeshua, we often hear this blessing sung in its original Hebrew language before reciting it in English. Those of you who are somewhat new here and have not heard much Hebrew before might not know what it means; if it’s your first time here, you might not even have heard it in Hebrew before, so let me share this with you now:
Yeva re-khe-kha Adonai, veyish merekha
Ya’er Adonai pa-nav elay-kha vi-chun-neka
Yi-sa Adonai Pa-nev eley-kha
Ve-yasem lekha Shalom
And, of course, this means: May the L-RD bless thee and keep thee; may the L-RD make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee; may the L-RD turn his countenance toward thee, and grant thee peace.
Now that you hear it in English, it probably sounds more familiar to you, doesn’t it? A lot of churches use a variation on this prayer in their service, with the differences depending primarily on from which translation of the Bible they are taking their reading.
While the words of this four-line blessing seem simple, there is a richness of meaning hidden beneath their surface, so what I’d like to do today is break this blessing down, phrase by phrase, and explore the deeper meaning of this blessing.
First, let’s discuss the importance of blessings. As Stan mentioned recently, there are studies that have been done which seem to indicate a higher degree of intelligence and achievement among Jewish people. Certainly, as Charles Murray has observed, there is an “over-representation, relative to their numbers, in the top ranks of the arts, sciences, law, medicine, finance, entrepreneurship and the media.”
While scholars wrestle to find genetic markers or some other scientific explanation for this sort of over-achievement, I believe the real answer is far simpler: the Jewish people pray blessings over their children regularly. It’s part of their culture to pray blessings over their children.
Of course, the motive for blessings should never be to gain earthly blessings or advantages; they are recited first, foremost, and ideally only because the L-RD has commanded us to do so.
So, what sort of blessing are Aaron and his sons commanded by the L-RD to pray over the people? Let’s start with the first phrase:
THE L-RD BLESS THEE AND KEEP THEE.
Now, some translations vary the wording on the second part of this phrase, and use “guard thee,” rather than “keep thee.” The word used for bless here is “barak” in the Hebrew. According to Strongs entry:
The Strong’s entry for “keep” here is “shamar,” which means, according to entry:
So, another way of phrasing this, to capture some of these additional levels of meaning, would be, “May the L-RD salute, praise and congratulate you, causing you to kneel before Him, and may He observe, keep watch over, guard, protect and save you from all the attacks of the enemy.
How have the Sages interpreted this verse? We get the following from:
This tradition follows logically with what we know of God and His good intentions toward us. Everything that we possess comes from God, and his purpose for whatever He gives us, whether it is a little or a lot, is to use those resources to pass blessings on to others, that His name may be glorified. Yet is this all? Yet another Sage takes issue with this simple interpretation and adds some insight of his own:
The evil inclination mentioned here by R. Isaac is evil personified, an expression that indicates the Evil One, the Adversary of the L-RD, who does indeed desire our destruction, which is one way to “drive us out of the world,” as R. Isaac phrased it.
Let’s turn now to the next phrase in the priestly blessing:
THE L-RD MAKE HIS FACE SHINE ON THEE AND BE GRACIOUS UNTO THEE
What does this mean? How could the L-RD’s face “shine upon us?” We find that the Hebrew word from the Strongs is entry:
While this is of some value, I actually prefer the midrashic interpretation of this phrase, as follows:
Certainly the Torah is the written revelation the L-RD has given us about who He is, so it would be a natural conclusion that the Torah is the light of the L-RD, because only through the Torah can we see the L-RD for who He is, rather than who we might prefer Him to be.
So what about the second half of this phrase, “And be gracious unto thee?” Well, for this, I think it’s important to keep in mind our understanding of the Torah as God’s minimum standard, a document that reveals at what point we fall short of the least we can do to keep from offending The L-RD by our actions. The purpose of the Torah is to reveal our inadequacies so that we can recognize a need for a Messiah. So this phrase in the priestly blessing balances the potential condemnation that comes from the face of the L-RD – the Torah – shining its light of the truth of our sinfulness upon us, by asking the L-RD for His gracious mercy at the same time, thus, “And be gracious unto Thee.” A similar sentiment is expressed in this passage from the:
This fits with Messiah Yeshua’s teaching, in the L-RD’s prayer, that we ought to be forgiven by the same measure that we forgive others.
In fact, it is through this graciousness phrase that the blessing alludes to the promised Messiah, as we see in this passage from the:
Let’s take a closer look at that passage from Isaiah, because that is where we’ll trace the thread from this blessing that leads to the Messiah. Here’s the full verse from:
Now, the Hebrew word used in this verse is Y’shua, which of course means “salvation.” So an alternate reading of this verse could easily go like this:
Now let’s turn our attention to the final phrase of the blessing, which reads:
MAY THE L-RD LIFT UP HIS COUNTENANCE UPON YOU AND GRANT YOU PEACE.
The big word here to struggle with is, of course, “countenance.” But this is actually Strong’s H6440, panayim, which merely means “presence” or “face.” The midrashic tradition offers this insight:
In light of this, it seems that this is simply a re-expression or re-affirmation of the sentiment of the previous line in the blessing. An alternative reading of this passage is “The L-RD turn his face toward you,” which is favorable, as one Sage has pointed out, to the L-RD disregarding you to the point where He would not turn His face to look at you at all, so it can be read as an expression of God’s kindness and favor, as well.
Finally, we turn our attention to the closing phrase, “And grant thee peace.” Here’s what the Sages have said in:
Certainly, anyone who is part of a community of any size, be it as small as a family, or a church, or a village, a state, or a nation, can recognize that peace is always preferable to conflict, that arguments and disagreements and evil speech tear apart while peace leads to unity in the L-RD. The value of peace is even expressed by Yeshua in the Beatitudes. We read this in:
That is what we all desire as followers of Yeshua, isn’t it? To be called sons of the L-RD? If so, this blessing is an encouragement to go forth each week seeking to be at peace with everyone, rather than to be the source of conflict; to be guided by the light of God’s Torah and hold on to the promise of his Messiah. That’s the meaning of the Aaronic benediction.
Shabbat Shalom.
Tags: Nasso, Torah commentary
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