From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, May 30, 2004 2:52
AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : Naso, 5764 -
corrected version
The
Good Earth
By
Rabbi Joshua (inventively known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
In
parshas Naso, we read of the wayward wife, or the sotah. As the Torah phrases
it,” Any man, if his wife shall go astray and commit a trespass against her
husband, etc., The man shall bring his wife to the kohein, etc.” ( Bamidbar
5:12-15). The Torah refers to a woman who is discovered alone with a man
whom the husband had warned her not to be alone with. In order to ascertain
whether or not she had relations with this man, she has to go through a process
of investigation in the Beis HaMikdash. This process involves taking some dust
from the floor of the mishkan, mixing it with water, erasing God’s name into the
mixture, and giving the woman some of it to drink. The midrash notes that the
word “ sisteh’ - shall go astray - can also mean ‘to act foolishly’ if the
second letter of the word is punctuated differently, so that it is read as
‘sishteh.’ The message, says the midrash, is that adulterers do not commit that
unless a spirit of foolishness enters into them. Actually, other sources in the
midrash say that a person does not sin at all unless a spirit of foolishness has
entered him. Sin is thus characterized as going astray from the path that God
has set for us, and the rabbis are telling us that a person does not deviate
from that path as long as he acts intelligently. We need to understand, however,
why this message is stated specifically in regard to the sin of adultery.
The Sefas Emes, in explaining the special significance of the
parsha of sotah as a paradigm for all sin, focuses on the process of testing the
wayward woman, and specifically on the use of earth from the Beis HaMikdash in
the mixture she is given to drink. If she did commit adultery, then the waters
cause her to die a terrible death, while if she is innocent of the charges, she
will survive and be blessed with a child. This entire process, says the Ramban,
was of a miraculous nature. The rabbis tell us that the nation merited the
miraculous process in which this dust was used because Avrohom said, in
humility, “ I am dust and ashes.” (Bereishis 18:27). Avrohom, in saying this,
was actually saying that, standing before God, he felt connected to the earth in
the sense that he surrendered his personality to the purpose for which God
created him from it. Adam, say the rabbis, was created from earth taken from the
place on which the Beis HaMikdash would later be built. That earth, therefore,
represents God’s purpose in creating man and placing him in this world, and the
approach man must take to the use of the material aspects of the world in
carrying out that purpose. Avrohom, by referring to himself as dust, was
committing himself to fulfill that purpose and to use the physical aspects of
the world in a manner that facilitated this commitment. Whenever a person sins
against God, he is betraying that connection to the earth in the Beis HaMikdash
originally made by Avrohom. When the sotah is tested, the kohein, who carries
out the procedure of trying to ascertain whether the woman has lived up to her
mandate, uses that same dust as part of the process. Marital relations are an
aspect of life that involve one’s use of the physical in an intensive way, and
so it is this area of sin that was chosen as a paradigm for the rest of the
mitzvos of the Torah.
The rabbis tell us that the laws of the
nazir follow, in the Torah, immediately after the section of the laws of sotah
to teach us that whoever sees the sotah in the midst of her being disgraced,
should separate himself from wine through becoming a nazir. Rabbi Alexander
Simcha Mandelbaum, in his Mima'amakim, based on the teachings of Rabbi Moshe
Shapiro of Yerusholayim, explains this connection on the basis of the comments
of the Sefas Emes in regard to the sotah. In both cases, there is a need to
reassess one’s use of the physical aspects of the world. The restrictions that
the nazir takes upon himself, not to drink wine or eat grape products, not to
defile himself through contact with a dead body, and not to cut his hair, all
relate to the physical. Although Rabbi Mandelbaum does not mention this, Rav
Meir Simcha HaKohein of Dvinsk, in his Meshech Chochma, notes that the duration
of the state of being a nazir once one has taken a vow to become one is not
specified in the Torah, even though the rabbis say that it is a minimum of
thirty days. Rav Meir Simcha explains that this is due to the fact that the
nazir is engaged in a process of reassessment of his station in life. Therefore,
he needs to determine for himself at which point he has achieved the proper
balance between renouncement of certain physical pleasures and use of the
physical in order to achieve his purpose in life. In a sense, the nazir is going
through a process of re-invention and re-definition, and only he can know when
that process of re-invention has reached its endpoint. Therefore, no specific
time frame is stated, explicitly, for the process.
Rav Meir
Simcha further notes a peculiarity of the offering that a nazir must bring as an
offering after he successfully completes his nezirus. The animals that the nazir
brings at this time, he says, are identical to the animals brought by the
nesi’im, the princes of each tribe, for their offering at the inauguration
process of the mishkan. Although Rav Meir Simcha himself explains this
phenomenon in his own way, I would like to suggest an explanation that follows
on his comments regarding the non-specificity of the duration of the nezirus
process. As we have seen, this was due to the fact that the nazir was engaged in
a process of re-definition of himself. This was true in regard to the nesi’im,
as well. As we have noted in the past, the Torah spells out the offering of each
nasi, even though they were all exactly the same. Ramban, quoting the midrash,
explains that even though the physical content of the offering from each nasi
was the same, the intentions each of the nesi’im had were unique. We have
explained that the nesi’im were, in this way, correcting the mistake that they
made when, during the period when donations were being made for the building of
the mishkan, they waited until everyone else brought their donations, and then
filled in whatever was missing. By acting in this way, and not taking the
initiative to decide what to bring as a donation, they failed to bring out the
unique personal element necessary in their service of God. By bringing their
offerings in the way that they did now, at the inauguration of the mishkan, each
nasi was bringing out his own unique personality and relationship to God through
the offering. Thus, the nesi’im, in bringing their offerings at this time, were
really defining themselves in terms of their service of God. Perhaps, then, this
is why the nazir, who was also engaged in a process of self-definition, brought
the same animals for his offering when he completed his nezirus. The process of
self-definition needed to continue, until the nazir understood the balance of
forces necessary to fulfill his purpose in life. Although the laws of nazir do
not apply today, we, too, would do well to reassess our approach to the physical
aspects of God’s world, and determine whether the approach we are following is
conducive to fulfilling our own unique purpose in life.
Note :
The animals of the offering brought by the nazir who successfully completed his
nezirus - the nazir tahor - were similar to those brought by the nesi’im in
their offering, as stated in this corrected version. The animals of the chatas
of the nazir tamei, who inadvertently defiled himself and thus did not
successfully complete his nezirus, were not similar to the offering of the
nesi’im, as was erroneously stated in the original version of Netvort to parshas
Naso.
Please address all correspondence to the
author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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