Short Topics 4

TORAH PORTION: Nasso, Numbers 4:21-7:89

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Mat 10:40. He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward, and he who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.

  TORAH PORTION: Nasso

Bamidbar/Numbers 4:21-7:89    Judges 13:2-25

Yahweh said to Moses, "Tell Aaron and his sons, 'This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:  "Yahweh bless you and keep you;  Yahweh make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;  Yahweh turn his face toward you and give you peace."  So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."

What is the meaning of the blessings?  "Yahweh bless you and protect you."

Blessing in the Mosaic books always means material blessing:  So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today - to love Yahweh your Elohim and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul - then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

But material blessings can sometimes dull our sensitivities toward Elohim. The great irony is that when we have most to thank Elohim for, often we thank Him least. We tend to remember Elohim in times of crisis rather than in eras of prosperity and peace:

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise Yahweh your Elohim for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget Yahweh your Elohim, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget Yahweh your Elohim, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery . . . You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me."

In other words, "May Yahweh protect you," means: May He protect you from the blessing turning into a curse .

"May Yahweh make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you." What is grace?

The book of Proverbs tell us  "Let kindness and truth not leave you. Bind them around your throat, inscribe them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will find grace and good intellect in the eyes of Yahweh and man."  Grace is that quality which sees the best in others and seeks the best for others. It is a combination of gentleness and generosity.  May Elohim "make His face shine on you," meaning, may His presence be evident in you. May He leave a visible trace of His being on the face you show to others. How is that presence to be recognized? Not in severity, remoteness or austerity but in the gentle smile that speaks to what Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature." That is grace.

"May Yahweh turn his face toward you and give you peace." ' To make peace in the world we must be at peace with ourselves. To be at peace with ourselves we must know that we are unconditionally valued. That does not often happen. People value us for what we can give them. That is conditional value, what the sages called "love that is dependent on a cause". Elohim values us unconditionally. We are here because He wanted us to be. Our very existence testifies to His love. Unlike others, Elohim never gives up on us. He rejects no one. He never loses faith, however many times we fail. When we fall, He lifts us. He believes in us more than we believe in ourselves.

The most profound element of the blessing, however, lies in the concluding sentence: "So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them."

Nothing arouses the ridicule of the Bible more than self-importance. In the story of Balaam, the prophet is made to see that his own donkey has greater powers of spiritual insight than he does. It is not the person who has power over Elohim; it is Elohim who has the power to reveal Himself to the person - and if He so chooses, He can give it to a donkey rather than to an esteemed religious figure.

Holiness is not importance. True holiness is transparency to the Divine.

This is the meaning of "So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them." It is not the priests who bless the people, but Elohim. In themselves, they have no power. They are intermediaries, channels through which Elohim's blessing flows.