Parashas Naso

Our Parsha this Shabbos is Parashas Naso .
In this Parsha , we continue with the responsibilities of the sons of Gershon .
Their work is laid out and then HaShem Tells us of the work of Merari, who were both Levite families . The Levite families are then totaled .
HaShem Then Discusses the purity of the Camp , that all who have Tzaraas , or a Zav emission or those contaminated by a human corpse are to be outside the Camp , for ritual contamination is not to be in the Presence of HaShem's Shechinah , according to Ramban .
HaShem Teaches what to do with theft and how to make restitution , by giving the principal amount and a fifth extra . But a sin needs to have a confession .
The Sotah is then discussed , which refers to a wife who was warned not to be alone with a certain man and witnesses attest to her infidelity . Our Jewish people are not to take on the immodest ways that reflect the Physical World of desire , and so , we are to be a people of Tznius Modest Purity . We must always remember that HaShem Is In our midst , and so act accordingly , with purity and modesty and holy spirituality . The Wife who goes astray , is totally the opposite of what HaShem Wants in a union between husband and wife , who are to be faithful to each other as HaShem Is Faithful to us . In fact , Fidelity and Sholom Bait - peace in the home between husband and wife , is so important to HaShem , that as a test to the Sotah , HaShem Allows His Name to be written and dissolved in the waters that the Sotah is to drink . The Gemorrah on this subject from the verses of Torah about the Sotah , describe the full ceremony that the Sotah has to go through , where she is taken to the Gate of Nikanor near the Temple and is made to drink the Bitter Waters that cause curse if she did commit Adultery . She is given plenty of time to confess and the Kohanim who do the process , try their utmost to get her to confess, for if she does , she avoids the test of the Sotah and its consequences . The Curse she suffers , hits at the very areas she used to sin with . Of course the husband must not be in any way responsible for her lack of trust in him . The man she committed the adultery with , also gets the same result of the curse . An offering is made too , with barley flower , an animal food , as she acted as a base animal , wanting to fulfill her physical needs . No Incense or oil is used for the offering as her action does not deserve any beautifying in the offering . HaShem Looks upon Adultery with the same view as unfaithfulness to Him and this is totally abhorrent to HaShem . The Water she drinks is taken from the Laver in the Temple , which was originally made from the mirrors that the Jewish women used in Egypt to beautify themselves for their husbands so that their tired overworked husbands would be attracted to them so our people could multiply. She is given water from this Laver , to point out that her motives were totally opposite from the holy actions of the Jewish women in Egypt . The water is put in an earthenware vessel to signify the baseness of her act that deserves no beautifying , for as she served her lover in wine glasses, now she faces the opposite, with the baseless physicality of her sin . Earth was taken from the floor of he Temple to put in the water .Her head was uncovered as she uncovered her hair and herself for her lover . The Kohanim wrote out the Oath from the Torah on a scroll with HaShem's Name and it is erased in the water which she drinks . If she is guilty , the curses in these verses take affect , but if she was not guilty, she is given a Blessing to bare Torah scholars of holiness . The fact is that she should either way , have known to be modest and not seclude herself with strange men that are not her husband . There was a story of two women who were twins and the one who was married was unfaithful to her husband . She was ordered to take the test of the Sotah , so she thought she could fool the Test and trick HaShem Chas Ve Shalom , so she sent her sister instead who looked like her , and her sister passed the test . When that sister , overjoyed, came running up to the sister who had been unfaithful and they embraced in happiness and kissed , the waters passed from mouth to mouth , and at that instant , the Waters that Curse took affect on the guilty unfaithful sister and she died the way the Test says she will . HaShem Hates Unfaithfulness , to Himself and between Husband and Wife and wants us as a Jewish people to lift ourselves above the ways of the impure world and remain totally faithful to our spouse . We are to be , as Torah Tells us , a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation and so , we are to value most highly , Modesty , Purity and Tznius and Faithfulness .
The Torah then discusses the choice to take the Nazarite vow , for those who want to become more holy , by putting down their physical Yetzer Horah and avoid wine or anything that has grapes in it . This is put after the Sotah , to show the link between wine and temptations of sin . Those who wish to curb a physical desire for that which is wrong , or for that which can lead to a physical drop in holiness , so a vow is taken to abstain from wine and grape products . Obviously , after the period of being a Nazarite , the person is to try keep up a holy way . Two offerings are brought at the end , one an elevation offering to elevate him and another a sin offering , for he is still counselled for depriving himself of things HaShem mean him to have in reason, for we are to learn to control ourselves to moderation . The Haftorah for this Sedra is in Judges Shoftim 13:2-25 , and talks about the upcoming birth of Shimshon Samson , who was to be a Nazarite from birth , which is one of the subjects of our Torah reading .
The Torah Parsha then discusses the Priestly Blessing , said by the Kohanim when they are to bless Israel .
We note that there are Sixty letters in the Priestly Blessing , like the Sixty men that surrounded Shlomo Hamelech while he slept , all versed in Torah , to protect him against negative forces . The First verse has three words in it , like our three ForeFathers . The Second verse has five words in it , like the five books of the Torah . The Third verse has Seven words in it , representative of the Shabbos , the Seventh day , the Shemittah Seventh Year and into the future , the holy time of Mashiach . The Kohanim , when standing and Blessing the Congregation , stand with their fingers up and open , for when we heard that we would be Blessed through the Kohanim , we requested that HaShem Bless us directly , so HaShem Said That He Will Stand behind the Kohanim , and the Light of His Shechinah will shine through the fingers of the Kohanim . If we take the first word and last word of this Priestly Blessing , it forms " Yevarechecha Shalom , " which means " May you be Blessed with Peace , " for all Blessings can only be enjoyed in a state of peace . HaShem Wants us to have peace and we have have to keep HaShem's Commandments to warrant peace . The reason that Shlomo HaMelech had to have Sixty men around him while he slept was because of Ashmedai and his Mazikim . When Shlomo Ha Melech built the Temple , he had his friend Benayahu catch and bring Ashmedai to tell of where the Shamir Worm was so that it could split the rocks for building as no iron implement was to be used in the building of the Temple . While Ashmedai ( prince of mazikim ) , was there , he tricked Shlomo Ha Melech into untying him , and suddenly Ashmedai transported Shlomo Ha Melech many parasangs distant out of the castle and took over the kingship pretending to be Solomon .HaShem Had Given Ashmedai , son of Samael ( the angel that tempted Chava ) and Lilith , power to go at Solomon , because of Solomon's foreign wives bringing Avodah Zorah in , and so King Solomon suddenly found himself out of his kingship . He knocked on many doors trying to persuade people he was the real Solomon , but was not believed , for Ashmedai had taken the form of the king . Finally Solomon came before the Sanhedrin pleading with them that he was the real king and they made a test and asked his wives if they had ever seen his feet , for the feet of a demon is unlike a human for it is like an chicken's feet. They found out hos he hid himself away in his chambers a lot of the time and never exposed his feet . It was found that it was Ashmedai , and Solomon was restored to his kingship . Since then , Solomon had an open door to attacks from mazikin and a they were always around . Yet when Shlomo HaMelech wore a ring and chain with HaShem's Name on it , Ashmedai was powerless .So this is why the Sixty men around Shlomo while he slept . So the Priestly Blessing is also one of purity and peace . Our Kohanim of today , say it on Yomim Tovim and in the Temple , it was said every day . It teaches us HaShem's Deep Desire to Bless us .
The Parsha ends with all the tribal leaders bringing the exact same offerings miraculously without prior discussion between them . HaShem Puts each of their offerings in Torah , even though each is repeated , for HaShem Wants To Show His Love and Appreciation for their offerings . The Tribal leaders did not get the opportunity to contribute before , as the contributions had to be stopped because of over abundance , and so now they took the opportunity to also contribute . Even though they each brought the same things , each different Tribe had deep spiritual reasons allied to what they brought that had meaning either to a specific holy event , or to something past of still to come and so , HaShem Valued each of their offerings .Even within each Tribal Leader's Name , were deep hints to events in our history and other deep meanings . The Totals too , also have deep significance . The Parsha ends with Moshe coming to the Tent of Meeting to speak with HaShem , and hearing the Voice of HaShem Speaking from the Ark Cover , between the two Keruvim , from where HaShem Spoke to Moshe there . So ends our Sedra .
This Parsha is called Naso , which means " Take ," and refers to HaShem Telling Moshe to take a census of the sons of Gershon.
The usual word for ' Take ' is ' Kach .' Yet here , HaShem uses the word " Naso ." This word actually means to " Lift or Rise up . " So HaShem Is Telling us again , that when we stand up to be counted for HaShem's Service , we actually ' Rise up ' and Bring ourselves higher toward HaShem .
Every time we stand up as a member of K'lal Yisroel , to fulfill HaShem's Mitzvos , we " Lift " Ourselves higher in Holiness to HaShem . Also within the word " Naso ," is the word ' Nasi ' which refers to a Tribal leader , discussed near the end of the Parsha . This shows us that we are to rise up as Hillel says , in Pirkei Avos , and where there are no leaders , to strive to be a leader in bringing people to HaShem . The word " Naso ," also has the root ' Neis , ' which refers to a ' Miracle .' HaShem , In His Humility , Performs His Natural Miracles of Creation every day , Taking Stock of All HaShem Creates .In every moment of existence , HaShem Creates Miracles . We are so busy going around our own day to day lives , that we seldom , if ever , actually take the time to appreciate HaShem's Miracles .Our very act of breathing is a miracle , for the air that remains within us , could find its way out through the pores in the organs, yet HaShem Keeps it in us , for each and every one of the billions of people that exist . The sweet song of the birds , the fragrant soft colourful beauty of the flowers. The epic grandeur of the mountains and the vast expanse of the seas , all contribute to HaShem's Created Miracles every moment of existence . That baby that looks upward toward HaShem's Light , as it gets reared my HaShem and its parents . The Miracle of HaShem of the human body is beyond our understanding . All things on Earth grow upward , all growing up toward HaShem . As Shlomo Ha Melech used to often say , we can learn so many things and how to be , just by observing the Miracles of HaShem that surround us all the time , for as I said all things grow upward toward HaShem , so can we learn to do the same thing , but constantly working our way upward toward HaShem . The vastness of Space and time , the Universe and possibly Universes , are so far beyond our imagination , with their millions of Galaxies , Stars , Pulsars and Nebulae , all singing the chorus of love to HaShem . It has been shown that the Universe has a moving sound that sound like music , all , the Miracle of HaShem , as all things Praise our Creator . We could do very well , in learning from all things around us , that we are to praise HaShem Always and Look Up toward Him Always , learning how to Serve Him with love , as all of His Creation Looks up toward Him . Yet HaShem Remains totally Humble , wanting us to find Him , in all He Makes . Isn't that a sweet Miracle on its own . Thus , in looking for Him in all things , we thus " Naso " - " Raise ," the level of all things in Creation , by Letting out His Light within all He Creates . By doing that , we " Naso " - " Take " His Essence out of the physical and expose It .The more we do this , the more HaShem Will Rest Within us and all around us , and then Creation can finally reach its destination , in every part of it , being filled with HaShem's Light . Let us bring the Light of HaShem and Hos Torah , to Creation , and Make this World , a World that , with Love for HaShem , can be a World of Torah Mitzvos and where all Creation obeys HaShem's Laws with Love .
I wish HaShem With Deep Love , a Very Sweet and Beautiful Shabbos Kodesh with Love , and to all my fellow Yidden , a sweet and beautiful Shabbos Kodesh with love .