This week’s reading Naso, continues the theme of the first three weeks of the Book of Bamidbar. Everything is being prepared for the invasion of the Land of Israel. The tribes are counted and given their positions. The leadership is primed, the flags are raised and they are getting ready to march. But as we know, it all ends in…
Sefer BaMidbar
The Sotah
If a man suspected his wife of infidelity and had warned her not to go with a certain man, and she refused and went somewhere together with him, yet the husband had no actual proof she was unfaithful because in Jewish law we never usually accept circumstantial evidence. He could bring her to the Priest who then would question her.…
Nazirite
Immediately after the Sotah, comes the law of the Nazirite. The Nazirite is someone who chooses to be extra religious and take upon himself a solemn vow to do something more than is commanded. The Torah gives as an example, letting one’s hair grow long and not drinking wine or spirts. We all do this sort of thing. ‘If I…
Blessing of the Priests
The Torah then goes on give us the famous blessing the Priests would give the people in the Temple, a blessing for closeness to God and peace. May God bless you and protect you May God’s presence brighten your life and be kind to you May God look favorably upon you and give you Peace. The Torah specifies that they…
Silence
The fourth book of the Torah, Bamidbar, literally means “desert.” It covers the main events of the forty-year period of wandering through Sinai and the Arava into what is Jordan today, before reaching the East Bank of the River Jordan. In mystical terms words have significance on many different levels. The most obvious example is the Hebrew root SFR which…
Numbers
It seems strange that a crucial book of the Torah should be called BaMidbar, in the desert. The simple answer is that the books of the Torah were not originally given names and when somewhere some two thousand years ago, the rabbis decided to do so, they simply used the first Hebrew noun of the book as an easy handle.…