Numbers Cycle Four Nasso 4:21 to 7:89

Nasso

The sages say that in Numbers 7: 89 when Moses speaks to God from between the two cherubim… that Israel has now outgrown the infancy of nationhood. They say that God speaks to Moses face to face in Deuteronomy 5:4. Then…when the Israelites receive Torah in Exodus 24:7 they communicate to Him (all God has spoken we will do and obey). Finally (according to the sages) God no longer needs to converse in the open so He builds the mishkan and Moses speaks to Him there. In my opinion, this ability of Moses opens the gates for us all, for all of our vocal and soul offerings.

This teaching on communication is compared to a parent and a child. The parent doesn’t need to instruct the child in the open once the child is older. It can best be done…best be understood…in private.

The question one might ask though is why Nasso? How does Nasso show the spiritual maturity of the Israelites? Do we/they do something that merits this action…this concealed and holy communication… that refines the message, deepens the reach of the holy within our hearts? After all, we all know that such profound exchanges tend to take on more exact vibrations. Announcements to or from the general public, as holy as they might be…never seem to cut as deep as the one-to-one. Prayer (in congregations) for example, is seen as a collection of one-to-one experiences. This is why private prayer in public settings is so powerful.

But why Nasso? Here is a parasha in which the Levites are counted and assigned their service as to paternal line, in which we are to clean the camp of disease or contact with the deceased, in which a woman is to undergo some primal guttural ritual if she is at all suspected of infidelity (and if her husband is at all jealous). Here, we get the many mitzvoth concerning the Nazir…one not of priestly blood who vows to serve God. And we are introduced to the priestly blessing… said daily to the Israelites. Then, all of the families (except the Levites) bring an equal offering to God.

This is all great stuff. But all of Torah has great stuff. What is it about Nasso that finally exhibits the maturity of the Israelites…the ability of Moses to actively hear God from between the two cherubim?

Let’s look at line 4:47. Here, the root word for avodah is repeated four times. The translation doesn’t give it credit. The Levites are instructed here to do the work of service. But in Torah, while one root is sometimes repeated twice for emphasis, four repetitions is emphasis to the tenth degree. It’s saying…look here. Look well. And, in my opinion (here) in raising up heads (which we often do when we count men in Torah) these four repetitions show we are also moving through the four kabbalistic worlds, through the many tiny steps that bring us to Hashem. And when we look at the steps, yes, turn and look, we might get vertigo and see one blur…but there is more than one blurred boundary here. There are a myriad of letters, sounds, vibrations, steps, tiny increments that need to be peeled from the center to see the core truth. There are four types of Israelites...the Levite, the Sotah, the Nazir and the Kohen…and all the subsets within each. There are a million levels of emotions…of the one feeling of jealousy… a million ways to eat or not eat grapes. Even the word Amen (according to Deuteronomy Rabbah 7:1) refers to oath, consent and confirmation and these three words themselves also have multiple shades, currents, feelings, translations, interpretations, tendencies and inferences.

Therefore, as we get closer to the core we peel away more and more. We recognize the complexities of that boundary between holy and unholy action. We realize that it’s a boundary that we not only dare not cross but must dive into in order to embrace and know God. That’s because spiritual maturity is not about knowing how to avoid crossing from holy to unholy. It’s about accepting that God is all of this. It’s about understanding that God is not only at some great height beyond this earth…but is seen and known within the tiniest most delicate wave-length of the boundary itself.

And that’s what we do in Nasso. We receive (or send) filament after filament of God’s light (in the priestly blessing) so we can peer and maybe catch a glimpse of that sacred wave-length. We do the work of service…recognize the boundary created by words alone…and as Belvati says (Bab Talmud Arakhin 11a) we hear the many notes and tones of the Levites intimate song. And we honor the great sages who analyze and dissect this section with books of Talmud like Sotah and Nazir so that we can maybe find our way through the many layers. So we can maybe weave our way to the tight consolidated core-center where we sense and become the voice of God.

How to bring this to today? Pray. Study. See study as the action of peeling. Pray a lot. Don’t take the actions of anyone personally but see the holy even in the lack of holiness. Peel away the increments. And if you can finally offer your compassion and kindness to the world (no matter the exact situation you may find yourself in) then recognize the cherubim and honor the amazing radiance all around you.

How to bring this to meditation? Don’t just jump into the holy state. First watch as your thoughts and feelings shed off of your being. Honor these dim sparks. Find the solid center in a slow graceful manner without self-judgment. Be patient. Feel the energy at the center become so bright that you can almost materialize the process. Love that center. Know this is a continual action…one of spiritual maturity…and the manifestation of who you really are.