Naso 2015

Naso

The question is one of responsibility, before ourselves and our God.  In order to find truth we may need to pull back and abstain from wine (or weed) or we may need to imbibe some ungodly poison to see how we may react. In the long run, it’s all about the same thing though. Responsibility. Accountability.

A quick note. This parashah…if taken literally and out of context…is  upsetting.   The section with the Sotah has caused even the most conventional rabbis to stand back in dismay.  If we look at Winter’s Tale by Shakespeare however we get a good dose of what might happen if jealousy is not treated like an illness. In other words, if we don’t pounce on jealousy at the start many people are harmed and killed.  If it’s a disease…and it is…it needs to receive the appropriate antibiotic immediatey.

In this parasha as well it is clear that in order to protect the mishkan and to protect the Levites who administer to the service of the mishkan there’s a hierarchy of actions beginning with maseh (work) and moving to avodah (service) and finally  finding their highest form in pekudeh (accountability and visitation).  In other words, we fail in our responsibility if we belittle or avoid any of these terms in our day to day actions.

Not only that but it’s on us to prove ourselves when doubted.   Why? Because doubt is an illness. The healthy must prove their health to the ill in order to heal them.  If it seems unfair, it is. If anyone has ever known someone mentally ill though...well that's the best comparison. We must treat extreme jealousy like mental illness. We need to prove according to modern methods the actuality of our reality.  If you know of a better way, please tell me.  Our hocus pocus might seem kind. The hocus pocus of two thousand years ago might seem chauvinist and horrific. Who knows what they will think (of our present methods) in another thousand years.

But I want to shake things up a bit more.  I want to reveal a conversation I had with a friend just today.

It started with the subject of accountability.
 

 I conceded to my friend that the legalization of weed is well deserved. I mean (I said) look at this world that our grandparents and great grandparents have created and the one that we have not stopped. Look at the cycles of war, poverty, trashing of the earth.  Kids, I said, need to get stoned.  Life (if lived with such destructive values) has become an illness The only sure way  for everyone to get out of all past cycles, structures, thought systems and habits....is to allow extreme measures.

My friend argued with me. His contention was that his family had not at all contributed to the state of the world today. He said that the whole scene…war, pollution, poverty… was caused by wealthy industrialists and politicians…not by us.  He said he was Jewish (like myself). He said that his ancestors were serfs and didn’t do a thing to wreck the earth. He said that no one could do a thing at the outset of the Holocaust. We have been victimized. Period.

I guess I should not have been shocked given the fact that I live in a town where most people believe in the conspiracy theory and chem trails.

However, I tried. I brought up the case of Hannah Arendt who claims that evil is within the mediocrity of society…not the powerful. I brought up the case of Ghandi and passive resistance.

My friend though refused to  climb out of the self-imposed victimization.

What if we all went through the ultimate ancient and horrific test though?  What if our unified relationship with God had to be tested because our love has seemingly become focused elsewhere? I can see it now. Millions of people…male and female…like the Sotah. Or  better, one collective Sotah imbibing the poison of radioactive toxins . Gee,  in this unified in-gathering, in this one giant inhale of poison, do you think our collective thighs would collapse and our belly would distend? Do you think our fertility might be stopped? Do you think that the jealousy of God (proven correct and not an illness anymore but a sad reality) would destroy humanity for good?

It’s just a question.

My guess is that we’re better off repeating our offerings of healthy gifts a million times and counting. Let us carry thing after thing to God.:  Healthy and solid things.

And let one of us…one who does not inhale the poison or the weed…just approach God naked and real and speak to Him from between the cherubim.  

This isn’t a huge production with many tones or even genres. It doesn't take a great playwright to see the construct. It’s a simple one…very simple…and clear.  Accountability catapults healthy approach in our most  sacred and authentic form.