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Jun 14, 2024 By Andrea Merow | Commentary | Naso
In Parashat Naso we learn the blessing used by so many, called birkat kohanim, the blessing of the priests. Amid our longest parashah, nestled between laws of the Nazirites and final preparations for how to use the Tabernacle, our holy space, God teaches that people can use their words and actions to bless one another, all while noting that our blessings come from The Holy One.
Read MoreThe Power of a Blessing
Jun 2, 2023 By Eliezer B. Diamond | Commentary | Naso
Anyone I know who grew up in a synagogue where the kohanim dukhened on the Yamim Tovim remembers this as one of the peak moments of their
synagogue experience. There are many reasons for this: the strange sight of men (and now women) standing with their hands extended and with their heads and upper faces covered by tallitot, the fact that we were in fact not to gaze upon this startling spectacle, and the sense of protection afforded to those of us whose parents covered them with their own tallitot during the rendering of the blessing in order to protect them from the potentially harmful effects of looking upon the kohanim.
Does God Speak?
Jun 10, 2022 By Benjamin D. Sommer | Commentary | Naso
The final verse of Parashat Naso is easy to miss. It comes after a long passage that describes the gifts the leader of each tribe presented at the Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting (both names are used for the structure) in the wilderness. Twelve times we read six verses listing the exact same set of items donated from each tribe. The substantial amount of repetition may lead readers to lose some focus as they move through the passage. But Numbers 7:89, the verse that comes right after those twelve sets of six verses, is highly significant. It provides crucial information about the nature of revelation as understood by the kohanim (Priests) who wrote this section of the Torah.
Read MoreParenting Lessons from the Priests
May 21, 2021 By Abigail Uhrman | Commentary | Naso
It is a beautiful moment in this week’s parashah: God asks Moses to instruct Aaron and his sons to bless B’nei Yisrael on God’s behalf. Not only is the sentiment and poetry of the priestly blessing stirring in and of itself, but given its use in contemporary religious life, it carries even further resonance. In Jewish households across the world, parents offer this blessing to their children as part of their Friday night ritual. In my own experience, I have vivid memories of my grandparents and parents blessing me and my sisters with these words, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to do the same for my children each Shabbat. Those few precious moments—where my husband and I get to hold each of our kids, whisper these ancient verses, and kiss them “Shabbat shalom”—have become a sacred occasion in our home. I’ve repeated these phrases now over many weeks and years and, at times, with little thought to the meaning behind the words. A closer reading of the text, though, has affirmed for me some essential parenting lessons.
Read MoreThe Torah of Large-Scale Projects
Jun 5, 2020 By Ashira Konigsburg | Commentary | Naso
Naso opens up with a census of the Levites, who will be responsible for transporting parts of the Mishkan. Num. 4:3 specifies that those who will be engaged in this work are to be between the ages of 30 and 50 and fit for service when the Mishkan is operating.
Read MoreHow We Build Character
Jun 14, 2019 By Marjorie Lehman | Commentary | Naso
Parashat Naso begins with the appointment of the Levite families of Gershon and Merari to take care of the Mishkan, the Israelites’ portable sanctuary in the desert. While Aaron and his family were given the responsibility of overseeing the actual service of God in the Mishkan, the descendants of Gershon and Merari were defined as mere helpers, charged with the role of caring for the structure of the Mishkan, its cloths, its equipment, its posts and their sockets, its planks, pegs, and furnishings.
Read MoreGoing to the Head of the Prayer Line
May 25, 2018 By Joel Alter | Commentary | Naso
Sharp elbows at shul extend beyond the kiddush table line and back into the sanctuary. Prayer—or giving honor to God—can be a competitive business. There are lots of reasons why this is so, and some of them even have to do with loving God. But showing off how we love God can get us into trouble.
Read MoreThe Problem with Priests
Jun 2, 2017 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Naso
Modern Judaism has a problem with the priesthood. The notion of hereditary holiness—that one segment of the Jewish people is set apart from others, given ceremonial privileges, and invited to bless the people—conflicts with our egalitarian ethos. The strange rituals of the priests, especially when they are invited to raise their hands in blessing the people, feel magical and irrational. For these reasons, many non-Orthodox communities have diminished or even eliminated the priestly privileges such as reserving the first aliyot for kohanim and Levi’im.
Read MoreWhat Would You Pack?
Jun 2, 2017 By Tim Daniel Bernard | Commentary | Naso
1 pair of pants, 1 shirt, 1 pair of shoes and 1 pair of socks
Shampoo and hair gel, toothbrush and toothpaste, face whitening cream
Comb, nail clipper
Bandages
100 U.S. dollars
130 Turkish liras
Smart phone and back-up cell phone
SIM cards for Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey
Read More—contents of Iqbal’s backpack on arriving in Lesbos, Greece (emphasis added)
Light Shine Through
Jun 17, 2016 By Danielle Upbin | Commentary | Naso
Read MoreWe are Hollow Bamboo
Open up your heart and let the light shine through
Light shine, light shine through!
Light shine, light shine through
Answer Me
Jun 17, 2016 By Joel Alter | Commentary | Naso
In a plaintive and anxious song by Israeli singer Ehud Banai called “Aneh Li” (“Answer Me”), the challenge of communicating with God is rendered as an increasingly panicked monologue by a man waiting for a voice he’s sure is on the other end of the phone line:
Read MoreYou’re breaking up—there’s background noise—it’s like the ocean.
I guess there’s no reception here—you’ve disappeared.
I’m still waiting on the line for my turn.
I’m holding the connection, in case you return . . .
Are you still with me?
Answer me.
Biblical Waterboarding
May 29, 2015 By Raysh Weiss | Commentary | Naso
A representation of the sotah (suspected adulteress) ritual from this week’s parashah (Num. 5:11–31).
Read MoreFrom Duty to Community and Back
May 29, 2015 By Nigel Savage | Commentary | Naso | Shavuot
Two weeks ago I was amongst a group discussing the nature of obligation in Jewish tradition and contemporary life. I played some role in convening the group because this is—for me—a central and often unaddressed paradox in the world we live in today. One can argue about the bounds of halakhah and about the nature and pace of its evolution. But it is hard to argue that we are not a people with a halakhic tradition. Halakhah is too engrained in Jewish tradition and in Jewish history to argue otherwise.
Read MoreCan the Center Hold?
May 30, 2014 By Marc Gary | Commentary | Naso
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”
—William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming”
Last week, The Jewish Theological Seminary presented an honorary degree to Philip Roth, one of the greatest American writers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. The famous author must have received this recognition from an iconic Jewish institution with a certain measure of irony and satisfaction. After all, when his first book was published more than 50 years ago, an outraged American rabbi wrote to the Anti-Defamation League asking, “what is being done to silence that man?”
Read More
The Blessing of Happiness
May 30, 2014 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Naso
One of the centerpieces of Parashat Naso is the Priestly Blessing.
Read MoreGoing to the Head of the Prayer Line
May 14, 2013 By Joel Alter | Commentary | Naso
Sharp elbows at shul extend beyond the kiddush table line and back into the sanctuary. Prayer—or giving honor to God—can be a competitive business. There are lots of reasons why this is so, and some of them even have to do with loving God. But showing off how we love God can get us into trouble.
Read MoreThe Importance of What We Give
May 14, 2013 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Naso
At the heart of Parashat Naso is a repetitive description of the offerings brought by the leaders of each of the tribes in honor of the anointing of the altar.
Read MoreLifting Up Our Communities
Jun 2, 2012 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Naso
“Carrying capacity” might be a good explanation for our parashah’s title, Naso, which literally means, “lift up.” In these chapters God gives Moses precise orders for the leaders of the people—both the clergy and the tribal chiefs. It ends with a somewhat stultifying litany of the identical offerings of the chieftains. This portion lacks exciting narratives, and yet there is a sense of vast power embedded in its orderly universe.
Read MoreAging with Vigor
Jun 2, 2012 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Text Study | Naso
I have always been curious about Pirkei Avot’s laying out of particular life-stage milestones according to age. What are the different stages of life about? What is “supposed” to happen to us when? What can we expect as we grow up and (God willing) grow old? Is there a point at which we are “disqualified,” turned away as less useful than before for service to our community?
Read MoreSacred Schlepping
May 26, 2012 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Naso
Since making the transition from JTS student to JTS staff three years ago, I have regularly told my students and donors how a debt of gratitude to my alma mater fuels what I do now.
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