BS"D Parshath Naso by Yitzhak Kolakowski - - - - - - - - - - - Dedicated to Blessing - - - - - - - - - - - "And the L-RD spoke unto Moses saying, 'Speak unto Aaron and his sons saying: Thus shall ye bless the Children of Israel, say to them - "May the L-RD bless you and keep you - May the L-RD shine His Countenance on you and have grace upon you - May the L-RD lift up His Countenance upon you and set upon you peace." And this is how you will set My Name upon the Children of Israel, and I will bless them.'" (Numbers 6:22-27) - - - - - - - My dear friends, Hashem is, of course, the source of everything in His universe. He is the Source of all blessing in the world, this is His very essence. He wants to give us blessing, so He created a conduit, a vessel to send the blessing to us. After all is said and done, what we should want is to find that vessel. As a matter of fact, after all WAS said and done, at the very end of the Talmud (Ukzin 3:12), our Sages tell us that G-d Himself searched for a vessel to pour out His blessing upon us - yet He couldn't (so to speak) find one, except for peace. This is what it means when David said "May the L-RD give strength (i.e. Torah) to His people, may the L-RD bless His people with peace." (Psalms 29:11). "Bless His people WITH PEACE," thus peace, "Shalom", is the vessel through which Hashem blesses us with. "Shalom", "Shalem" - "Complete", "Whole". A lot of people want peace, but they don't know what it is. The Hebrew word "Shalom", which almost everyone knows means "peace" is rooted in the word "Shalem" - "whole". "Shlemuth" - wholeness, completeness, is the key to peace. Peace cannot be in pieces, peace must be complete, full. Also, we see in the Bible that "Shalom" is one of G-d's Names, as when Gideon dedicated and altar and called out to "HASHEM-SHALOM" (Judges 6:24). If someone makes even a slight breach in their wholeness and wholesomeness; such as the "sotah" did, the suspected adultress mentioned in this week's parshah; it brings about awful humiliation and disgrace. All peace flies out of that little crack in the foundation, leaving embarassment and misery. It would do well to stay away from anything which might lead even to suspicion - or even lead to that leading. If one wants the blessings of peace, he needs to dedicate himself, as the Nazirite did, to keeping great distance even from the vine where the fruits of jealousy sprung, and even from its seeds, to "staying away from unseemliness, from what resembles unseemliness, and even from a semblance of a semblance," (Bemidbar Rabbah 10:8), even to wearing the holy crown of G-d upon his head. And the priestly one who wishes to give such peace over to others would benefit by doing the same - by dedicating himself to loving peace and pursuing it, and by keeping away from stumbling until the blessing is given, by not letting anything come in the way of G-d's blessing. Let's think back now to what it means to be so dedicated to holiness, to wear the crown of G-d on one's head. Rav Avigdor Miller, ztk"l, explains that the Nazirite, the crowned one of G-d, was a person who looked different from everyone else. When you saw a Nazirite, you knew what he or she was. You knew the Nazirite was dedicated to G-d. Now, the days of the Temple, when Nazirism was popular, were times of great virtue. Everyone who lived in those days kept Kosher and Shabbos and wore Tephillin and Tzitzith, but the Nazirite was different. The Nazirite wore long hair in addition to all of these. You knew the Nazirite was different. In those days, wine was the most popular drink. If you wanted to be a social person in those days, wine was almost always involved. A Nazirite abstained from wine. He couldn't go to parties, not even weddings or bar- mitzvahs. Not only that, but he couldn't go to funerals either, since he had to stay away from any dead body. Basically, the Nazirite was separate from any non-Nazirite, neither associating with them nor following in their ways. Today we can be holy, and wear G-d's crown, without going so far as to be a Nazirite, but by just being a normal Jew. The world around us is in such blind opposition to that which will bring true happiness, blessing, and peace - following in G-d's commandments - that just keeping the minimal of what the Torah commands us is almost like what being a Nazir was in Temple times. Keeping the Torah means looking different than our heathen neighbors. It means not associating with them more than neccessary and not following in any of their heathen ways, whether in thought or deed. It means being holy and exalted above the mundane world, and living a life of holiness, happiness, and peace. Friends, if you think about it, the embarrassment of the Sotah is a result of following in the ways of the heathens, even if you restrict yourself to doing so only among your own people. A woman who had to go through such an ordeal as described in the Bible and Talmud may have had her life ruined. You might ask, "Why is the chapter of the Nazirite (Numbers 6) right after the chapter of the Sotah (ibid. 5)? To tell you that whoever sees a Sotah in her humiliation should separate himself from wine, which is a cause of immorality." (Rashi on Num. 6:2, based on Talmud Sotah 2a) If someone saw this disgrace, they would do well to become a Nazirite, and distance himself from the ways of the heathen. The Chovoth HaLevavoth explains that the worse the disgrace is that one sees, the more dedicated he should become to G-d. Seeing such things should wake us up and make us want to do this amazing thing, to remove ourselves from the evil temptations of this world and become more and more extreme in our holiness, more and more extreme in our closeness to G-d. We might think, "What does all of what is going on outside have to do with us?", but the Torah says "WHOEVER sees the Sotah", even if you are already a good Jew, you have to take it to heart and become more dedicated. You cannot just say, "well my parents or grandparents were this religious, why should I be more religious than they?" - the outside world is a lot worse than it was fifty or sixty years ago, so we have to be a lot more religious than we were fifty or sixty years ago. According to the letter of the law, no one HAS to become a Nazirite - but if the rest of the world has become so extreme in their ways, we SHOULD become extreme in ours - if we want to survive. Moreover, the Talmud tells us that the reason that the Priestly Blessing follows the chapter of the Nazirite is to teach that before bestowing the Priestly Blessing, a Cohen-Priest must distance himself from wine and wine products just as much as the Nazirite must do so during his Naziruth. This is the way of making sure that nothing comes in the way of the blessing of peace. If we don't want anything to come in the way of the blessings of peace, we must dedicate ourself to serving G-d just as a Nazirite did (however, not by actually taking the Nazirite oath, but rather by being just a normal G-d fearing Jew - which today is almost like what it would have been to be a Nazirite in the days of the Temple). If we don't want to fall into the pit of heathenish ways, if we want the joy of eternal life and happiness in this world and the next, we must be dedicated to serving G-d without caring what anyone but He wants. We must, like the Princes at the end of our Sedra, each make our own effort to serve G-d as only we can. If we don't want to get in the way of the blessing of peace which the Alm-ighty wants to pour upon us, we must be dedicated. My dear friends, we must have dedication - dedication to blessing - dedication to true and everlasting peace - dedication to being distinct and separate - dedication to holiness - dedication to living a Torah life - dedication to the Living G-d of the Universe. "This is the Dedication of the altar on the day it was anointed by the Princes of Israel..." (Numbers 7:84) This is the Dedication we must have if we want to see the day when a new altar will be anointed in the rebuilt Jerusalem, on that great day, may it be so soon! Gut Shabbos. ----- (c) 2001 J. Kolakowski. All rights reserved. Duplication and distribution is permitted and encouraged.