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Parshat Naso
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Discovering the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

במשוך בקרן היובל המה יעלו בהר

 "And enlighten our eyes with Your Torah and attach our hearts to Your commandments".

Last week we celebrated Hebron's Jubilee year, just before Shavuot, the Jubilee of days. As we mentioned many times before, the number fifty represents the supernatural. The supernatural is associated with the Torah as the Torah super-dates the natural world as it was God's 'blueprint' in creating the world. In this way we can also appreciate our title quote which calls the 'supernatural-heavenly shofar' sounded at the Giving of the Torah as the 'horn of the Yovel - the Jubilee'.

On Yom Kippur of the Jubilee year we are commanded to sound the shofar. Obviously, the relationship of the shofar, the instrument of repentance, to Yom Kippur, the day of repentance, clearly brings us to the recognition that the Jubilee is related to the concept of repentance. The word repentance, 'teshuva', means to return, to return to the source. Similarly, the Jubilee calls all to return lands to their original 'source', to their original owners. Also, slaves are freed on the Jubilee year, which yet again shows the return to the original state of freedom, before the subjugation of man. Indeed, repentance is the amazing gift of freedom given to us. Before repentance, one was enslaved by the dire effects of imperfection, enslaved by habits that seem inescapable. Yet, with the dawning of repentance man is emancipated, his chains of dire habit are broken, and his soul is liberated.

Indeed, just as Torah predates the natural world, so too, according to our Sages, repentance predates the natural world. Also, Torah and repentance are tightly linked, as we says in our prayers, 'return us to Your Torah... and return us before You with full repentance.' Thirdly, just as we saw how repentance gives freedom, so too Torah gives freedom, as our Sages interpret the verse, ''harut' (same letters as 'herut'=freedom) upon the (Two) Tablets of the Torah' - 'only one who studies Torah is really considered free'. We may internalize this connection by seeing Shavuot as a time of return, as a time of personal repentance and refinement, towards our personal connection to the study of Torah, which is also the source of its observance.

The name of our parsha is Naso, which means 'to lift up', a theme that can be seen throughout the various topics of this parsha, as we showed on this parsha several years ago. One of the ways we can explain the inherent freedom in Torah and repentance is by contemplating the tremendous 'lifting' of consciousness one can achieve when studying Torah or through repentance.

One of the sites of Hebron that seems to highlight this 'lifting' of consciousness is the Hebron Observatory, found at the top floor of the Beit Menahem building in the Admot Yishai neighborhood in Hebron. At this Observatory one can glimpse many important sites of Hebron at a height that can give one a new perspective on things. In a similar way when one studies Torah one's consciousness is lifted to a 'spiritual height' which allows the contemplation of all matters of this world in a new perspective. Also through repentance one's consciousness is lifted to contemplate the soul's journey through the pathways of life, bringing one to an enlightened perspective on life at large.

Hebron's Ma'arat HaMachpela is the Threshold of the Afterlife where all souls are elevated to Heaven, from where they originated. Hebron is also synonymous with Torah - the Elevator of Consciousness, as the Zohar teaches that 'Hebron means Torah, for all those who occupy themselves with Torah are called a haber - Torah scholar'.  This is Hebron, the City of Elevation.

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #221

'One day I was studying with my hevruta about the categorization of the commandments into various groups according to Kabbalah. My hevruta commented that in the book we learned this categorization there seemed to be an omission of a sub-categorization of the commandments that have various capital punishments. Later that day, I was studying with a different hevruta Gemara, and I just 'happened' to see a Tosfot which asks the question: 'why in the gemara aren't the capital punishments sub-categorized like the other commandments categorized there?' Y.S 

Correction: Last week instead of "had to redeem themselves with five silver shekel pieces given to a Levite" should be "had to redeem themselves with five silver shekel pieces given to a Kohen (Aharon and his sons)".

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