Numbers - 0421-0789 - Naso - Cycle 2

What is a blessing?

We are all the blessed and doing the blessing. We bless to serve. We bless that which enables us to serve, no matter how seemingly irrelevant.

A blessing travels. It carries itself to a given destination, expanding, contracting, exploding like the winter snow melt, separating into rivulets over rocks and through gullies, whirling into waterfalls, merging in calm pools. If focused, if surging from the start… it travels farther, holds within its pulse the glow and laughter that can heal the thirsty multitudes.

So, a blessing travels and streams through a series of gateways, the crevices in hard rock, the faces of letters carved into each rock, the worlds within the faces. Then, given our readiness to feel the pain and open our vessels, the blessing can rush in waves into our one heart. As Moses shows us it’s all about lifting our heads, our eyes, our souls beyond the grasp of the mundane to receive the sphere of light through our crown (4:21‐22).

What is a blessing? I’ve been thinking about this a lot. If a prayer is the love carried from man to Hashem…then a blessing is the mirror image reflecting the billions of prayers back to all people with exponential force.

A blessing is a glorified counting and naming. If the action of discernment is holy…and it is…a blessing, through its singularity, merges all numbers names and people as one.

A blessing carries within itself the roots of messianic consciousness.

The word naso from the parasha Naso contains the essence of blessing. It reflects purification, dedication and the painful openings. It manifests the rush of waves, the whispers and song that flow through our bones, our veins. Finally, it brings us into a lit‐up world of equal gifting and the voice of God.

In context (4:22), naso refers to the taking of a census, a survey. Once finished, then there can be the action of counting (fakad). The census is general. It enables the specific. We see this later with the offering of the Nazarite ( 6:19). The offering consists of the cooked foreleg of the ram, a loaf of matzoh and one single wafer. Once again, we are traveling from the larger to the more focused, in our hearts as well as in our numbers and in the palms of our hands.

Naso though actually means to lift or carry. In line 4:21, what is commanded is the lifting of the heads of the sons of Gershom. When we lift heads, we raise eyes. We peer into the heavens. Sight is shared. Heads merge. So while the census creates the holy beginning of discernment and counting the carrying manifests the final merging. Naso in this context therefore includes both infinite poles of consciousness.

How does naso reflect purification? Look at the letters. The nun is the 50 kabalistic gates to God. The aleph is the breath, the eternal silence. The sin is fire. So, the sin is fed by the aleph to flow through the nun. The fire is fed by the breath to flow through the gateways. The fire is cleansing, opening all paths of the heart. There’s immediacy, direct address, a rush. There’s pain here. But the cleansing of doubt and fear must be done to allow space for the vow of love.

How does Naso reflect dedication? In Naso more than half the commandments concern the Nazirite. The Nazirite is the embodiment and metaphor of microscopic and universal purification. He or she is the fire that opens the paths that allows the space to receive the love. There isn’t a specific number of days. The vow is timeless…and needs only to be fulfilled.

This brings us to the priestly blessing. Here, as each line reaches out a bit more, we can see the carrying of light deeper into the malchut. It’s as if one line carries the next on its shoulders…as the Levites carry the arc on their shoulders…and gives it the support to expand beyond its very form. In this way, by recognizing that our boundaries create openings for each other and Torah, we can carry or lift each other beyond all limitations with support and the vow of love.

Let’s look at meaning. Because we are in the you form singular, we each carry. Therefore, we are each our own blessing. The imperfect tense, while it can mean may, can also be a direct statement… in other words…God will always bless and keep watch over you. The word may is not necessary to bless, just the idea of action and flow… the carrying of Gods light.

In all, Naso shows us that the idea of carrying and lifting is crucial to the blessing, God to man (directly) and God through man to man. If we look at VaYechi. Jacob’s blessings (for his sons) are much more specific. Here, the details carry the expansion in Naso. They lead to all men carrying all men with compassion. It’s the idea of many specific blessings being so distinct that they can merge as one. It’s about the lifting of all men and all who are blessed lifting Jacob’s coffin and carrying it to the burial place, lifting ourselves from death to life, to a place where we can hear the still quiet voice.

In Psalms 18:11 we read….and He rode upon a cherub and did fly: yea He did swoop down upon the wings of the wind…At the brightness before Him there passed thick clouds, hailstones and coals of fire. And he sent out his arrows and scattered them and he sent forth lightnings…He sent from on high. He took me, He drew me out of many waters.

So may we do the work to be drawn out of many waters. May we understand that blessing is not based on words but on the vow of love and expansion heart to heart. May we move beyond the words into the form of light, the healing radiant powerful gift transmitted from God to Jacob to us. May we lift our heads and welcome the flow through our crown into the earth so we can hear the voice and manifest God’s radiance with peace. May we be the blessing.