Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 3 Sivan, 5784– Day 47 of the Omer
Parsha Naso – “Lift”: (Numbers 4:21 – 7:89)
First Portion: Numbers 4:21 – 4:28

Good morning! It is a new week, in a new month, with a few days left before a Holy Day!  Things are shifting – are we flowing with the shift right now, or are we resisting it? This is the message!

Today is the 47^th day of the Omer. The theme today is the “Humility of Dignity.”  From Chabad:

Sovereignty is G‑d’s gift to each individual. Hod of Malchut is the humble appreciation of this exceptional gift. Does my sovereignty and independence humble me? Am I an arrogant leader? Do I appreciate the special qualities I was blessed with?

Exercise for the day: Acknowledge G‑d for creating you with personal dignity.

As I reflect on this, I am struck by the idea of dignity and sovereignty.  Dignity, we’ve been sharing, is the belief that we matter and are needed in this world. Sovereignty understands, this is not because of what we DO or what someone TELLS us. It is because this is our design.

We receive external messages that could be in conflict with this belief – and how we navigate that is crucial.

Do we become “self-righteous” and arrogant with this idea of being needed and wanted in the world? Or do we remain humble and understand this is ONLY because of the creator, Hashem – who is all around us, and within us – AND – within others as well?  We are indeed Royalty. And. We must accept the Royalty of others.  This is the theme of humility of dignity in my opinion!

With this humble royalty, let’s dive into this week’s parsha!  It is very timely.

Last week, we spent time in the desert. We ended with the focus on the Levi’s – the family of Kohath.  We’ve seen how Kohath represents our soul, our spiritual.  It is FASICNATING the Torah goes out of order here. Gershon was mentioned first, the Kohath, the Merari.

Here, Kohath went first in the Parsha of “in the desert” and we are now transitioning to a new parsha – “Lift.”

This tells me, to move from the desert to reach higher and lift ourselves out of the desert? The foundation is our spiritual condition. How is our connection to our soul? Our Neshama? Hashem within us?  This is where the Omer is taking us. Towards Shavuot.  If we want to manifest in the physical reality, we need to be settled in our souls. Let’s dig in:

21The Lord spoke to Moses saying:

22Take a census of the sons of Gershon, of them too, following their fathers’ houses, according to their families.

23From the age of thirty years and upward, until the age of fifty years you shall count them, all who come to join the legion, to perform service in the Tent of Meeting.

Gershon – who represents our physical bodies comes next.  They count now. AND. What is their purpose?

24This is the service of the Gershonite families to serve and to carry.

25They shall carry the curtains of the Mishkan and the Tent of Meeting, its covering and the tachash skin covering overlaid upon it, and the screen for the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

26The hangings of the courtyard, the screen at the entrance of the gate of the courtyard which is around the Mishkan and the altar, their ropes, all the work involved, and everything that is made for them, and thus shall they serve.

27All the service of the sons of Gershon shall be by the instruction of Aaron and his sons, regarding all their burden and all their service. You shall designate their entire burden as their charge.

28This is the service of the families of the sons of Gershon in the Tent of Meeting, and their charge, which was under the supervision of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the kohen.

Gershon was responsible for the outer coverings. The skin of our bodies that contains the heart that Kohath was responsible for.  Gershon separated the inner with the outer. That was their role. Kohath did not “carry.”  Kohath put “poles into place” and “was responsible for the inner parts.” Kohath was foundational. Gershon carried and served.

How are we serving the internal (Kohath) and the external (Children of Israel)? Are we communicating to OTHERS how they matter and are needed in this world? How often do we communicate that?  Ok. Let’s keep going:

29[As for] the sons of Merari, you shall count them by their families, according to their fathers’ houses.

30From the age of thirty years and upward until the age of fifty years, you shall count them, all who come to the legion, to perform service in the Tent of Meeting.

31This is the charge of their burden for all their service in the Tent of Meeting: the planks of the Mishkan, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets.

32The pillars of the surrounding courtyard, their sockets, their pegs, and their ropes, all their implements for all the work involved. You shall designate by name the implements charged to them for their burden.

33This is the service of the families of the sons of Merari for all their service in the Tent of Meeting, which was under the supervision of Ithamar the son of Aaron the kohen.

Here we have Merari – their job? The burden of service within the Tent. They carried the structure within. I believe this connects to our emotions.  As Kohath took care of the spiritual, putting poles into their place, setting the foundation, and Gershon took care of the boundary between the external and the internal? Merari took care of the internal structures. It may be more though, as I am reflecting. Maybe Merari is the cohesion of thoughts and emotions. Maybe the planks are thoughts, and the sockets are emotions? Or the ropes? Maybe Merari is both emotion and thought? That is their charge? Something I am reflecting on this time around.  Let’s keep going:

34Moses, Aaron, and the chieftains of the congregation counted the sons of the Kohathites, according to their families and their fathers’ houses.

35From the age of thirty years and upward, until the age of fifty years, all who come to the legion, for service in the Tent of Meeting.

36Their tally, according to their families: two thousand, seven hundred and fifty.

37These are the numbers of the Kohathite families, all who served in the Tent of Meeting, who were counted by Moses and Aaron as directed by the Lord to Moses.

We close with a count. Kohath was 2,750

38The tally of the sons of Gershon, according to their families and their fathers’ houses.

39From the age of thirty years and upward, until the age of fifty years, all who come to the legion, for service in the Tent of Meeting.

40Their total, according to their families and their fathers’ houses: two thousand, six hundred and thirty.

41These are the numbers of the families of the sons of Gershon, all who served in the Tent of Meeting, whom Moses and Aaron counted as directed by the Lord.

Gershon was 2,630

42The tally of the families of the sons of Merari, according to their families and their fathers’ houses.

43From the age of thirty years and upward, until the age of fifty years, all who come to the legion, for work in the Tent of Meeting.

44Their tally, according to their families: three thousand two hundred.

45These are the numbers of the families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron counted as directed by the Lord to Moses.

Merari was 3,200.

46All the numbers whom by Moses, Aaron, and the chieftains of Israel counted the Levites according to their families and their fathers’ houses,

47from the age of thirty years and upward until the age of fifty years, who are fit to perform the service for the service and the work of carrying, in the Tent of Meeting.

48Their tally: eight thousand, five hundred and eighty.

49As directed by the Lord, they were appointed by Moses, each man to his service and his burden; they were counted as the Lord had commanded Moses.

The total was 8,580.

Percentage wise:

• Kohath was 2750/8580: 32.1%
• Gershon was 2630/8580: 30.6%
• Merari was 3200/8580: 37.3%

With my math degree, I find it interesting that the soul, emotions and thoughts could comprise almost 69.4% of our identity, and the skin and rest of the physical body (what separates us from the external) is only 30.6%.

Does our time match this priority for us? That is my takeaway from today’s portion.  I am curious to yours.

Here are my thoughts from the past two years:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 8 Sivan, 5783.

Today we start Parsha Naso. Please see last year’s comments for context.

It’s a short portion, focused on the physical component of our reality. When we left off in the last portion, it was focused on Merari – which I postulate represents our spiritual component mattering. We went into Shavuot – focused on the last of the Omer – and come out of it with a portion we discussed yesterday focused on “seeing.” That is a physical thing.

We do this spiritual work within us, so that our physical reality transforms. So we can “see.” Parsha Naso means literally “lift.” This (to me) indicates strength.

How we view ourselves (As physical bodies with a soul inside vs. A spiritual soul with a body wrapped around us) is critical. And I think this week’s parsha shows us – if we take care of the spiritual, we can then live physical lives that are satisfying!

What are your thoughts?

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 6 Sivan, 5782

Chag Sameach! It’s Shavuot!

Today is the day we celebrate the first fruits. And the feast of weeks because it has been 7 weeks since Passover.

What are the first fruits of the freedom we’ve experienced since leaving our personal Egypts? Are we bringing those to Hashem? Are we feeling good about what our freedom has produced?

This weeks Parsha is called “Naso” which means “lift.”

The idea (from the Chumash I am reading from) is that the “Torah should not be limited to the realm of the academic or even the spiritual. It should affect you deeply, lifting you to a higher plane.”

One of the pieces of this week’s Parsha is the idea of restitution. The Chumash I’m reading says this; “confession is important, but a person must also make restitution to those that he has wronged. Only then can he ask for God’s forgiveness.”

It was very interesting that the past seven weeks since Passover has had me reaching out to people to ask them to forgive me for things I had done in the past that I have been holding onto. Some I’ve been holding onto for over 30 years.

In addition – I have needed to ask myself for forgiveness for how I have treated myself. I am learning about how to make restitution to myself- that is a difficult process. Fortunately, I have some amazing friends to help me with this; reminding me to practice self-compassion and self-empathy.

As we start today’s portion, we see that we focus on Gershon. Remember when we discussed Gershon, Kohath and Merari, Gershon represented the physical.

The focus was on specifically what they were to do; they carried the outer coverings of the tent of meeting.

What is interesting is that Gershon was the firstborn. But he came second after Kohath. We may be able to learn from this that our spiritual cognition may be more important than our physical. And we won’t develop this until later. And it makes sense. As babies it’s all physical. That is the first-born thing.

So, our first fruits my need to be physical because they came first; but also, spiritual because they are more important.

What are your thoughts?