פרשת נשא
This week’s Parsha contains the laws of the Nazarite, – one who takes upon himself a vow to abstain from wine and haircuts, and to not defile himself by visiting the cemetery, even for his closest of relatives. He must maintain this conduct for a minimum of 30 days and may continue as long as he likes. If we examine the verses which instruct him what to do and the end of his term, we notice a very interesting point. The Torah commands “The Nazir” to bring certain sin offerings and then says that the “Nazir” may go ahead and drink wine and do the things that were previously forbidden to him. It is interesting to note that the Torah still refers to him as a Nazir, even though his vow was completed.
The Alshich Hakadosh explains that the Torah is teaching us that it is proper for the Nazir to take the lessons he learned during his Nezirus term of holiness and abstinence, and continue conducting himself with this praiseworthy conduct even after his oath is completed. In other words, he shouldn’t allow the admirable traits which he acquired to go to waste shortly after his Nezirus is finished by drinking large amounts of wine and acting gluttonously as he may have in the past before his vow. Similarly, the Sefer Hachinuch asks, “Why is the Nazir’s holiness even greater then the Cohen’s” – (in that the Cohen can defile himself for his close relatives whereas the Nazir may not)? He answers by saying that although the Nazir’s holiness seems short-lived, he is expected to carry on with the commendable character traits that he picked up for the rest of his life whereas the Cohen was only born with these traits and remains static.
It is also interesting to note that the Nazir brings a sin offering at the end of his term. This seems strange. Shouldn’t his vow of Nezirus be lauded by the Torah and not denigrated with a sin offering? The Ramban answers that although it is certainly praiseworthy that he desired to abstain from the worldly pleasures, the Torah is showing him that it would have been appropriate when he saw how much he grew spiritually from his vow that he continue the vow and become a permanent Nazir. We see again from this Ramban how a person is expected to not be satisfied by a little bit of growth, but rather is required to always continue growing and never remain stagnant. Similarly, if a person notices a certain strength or gift that he has, he will be asked to defend himself if he did not fully develop that gift and do everything in his power to continue using that gift to grow toward Hashem.
I once heard in the name of R’ Chaim Kamil Z”TL an interesting explanation of the Gemorah in Yevamos (48). The Gemorah says that the converts to Judaism will suffer afflictions after their successful conversion. The reason for this, the Gemorah says, is because he delayed in converting and that warranted punishment. R’ Chaim used to ask, was there any obligation on the non-Jew to convert that he now deserves punishment for his delay? R’ Chaim explains that generally speaking, there is a gap between the time that a person comes to the intellectual realization of the truth of Torah, and the time that he decides to implement that realization into a practical action. It is precisely for this delay that a person needs to be punished. We see from this Gemorah to what extent we are expected to follow through on our beliefs and never cease from growing.
The verse in Iyov says, “Man was created for work”. Chazal explain in Sanhedrin that this verse is referring to all aspects of Torah, and to all spiritual endeavors therein. The Maharal explains that this word in the verse “work” is referring to constant work and that Iyov is telling us that we must be on constant vigil and constantly moving forward and that this is the obligation of every Jew.
The Maharal adds that when a person is born, the first thing done to him is circumcision. The Midrash asks, if Hashem believed that circumcision completes a human being, why didn’t He just make us born without a foreskin? The Midrash answers that Hashem wanted us to perfect ourselves and the way to do this is by circumcising ourselves. The Mahahral explains that this Mitzvah is actually the paradigm for all the Mitzvos. In each and every Mitzvah we are required to utilize every aspect to perfect ourselves and labor in spiritual growth so that there is never even one moment in which we are lying fallow with nothing to do. This is what the verse means, “Man was created for work”.
The Mesillas Yesharim buttresses this point at the end of the first chapter by saying that man’s purpose in this world is to keep the Torah and all the Mitzvos and to stand up to the enticement of the evil inclination. This seems a bit wordy. If a person is keeping the Torah, isn’t he by definition standing up to many trials? The answer is that a person can technically keep all the Mitzvos in the Torah by wrote, and may be fooled into thinking that he does not really need to grow from his Mitzvah observance on a constant basis. When the Mesillas Yesharim adds the words, “He must resist temptation”, he is telling us that in addition to keeping the commandments, we are required to grow from the commandments and be in a constant state of self-restraint to keep the commandments properly. This is a completely different awareness.
When a person reaches this state of being one who is constantly growing and moving forward, he will be encouraged to realize that he brings the entire world forward with him. R’ Chaim Shmuelevitz used to often quote the Gemorah in Chulin (71) in which R’ Yonasan told Ben Azai that it was a “Chaval” that he didn’t get a chance to serve his Rebbe, R’ Yishmael. Rashi explains that this word “Chaval” is from the word Chabalah, which means to destroy. R’ Chaim would say that we see from this Gemorah that a person who doesn’t take an opportunity to grow, doesn’t only hurt himself, but he causes great damage to the world as well. The reason for this is because each and every human being is like a pipe way to the heavens and has great power to affect this earth, either positively or negatively. On the other hand, if we choose to grow from every opportunity, and turn ourselves into people who are constantly moving forward, there is no telling how much good we can accomplish for ourselves, and the world around us. Because if we have this great ability to destroy, our ability to build is 500 times greater, as Hashem always creates the good in the world 500 times stronger than the evil.
May we become the true “Bnei Aliyah” that we are capable of and merit a great life in this world, and the next!