From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 10:10 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Naso, 5767



                  
                                                Who Is A Jew?                                  

                 By Rabbi Joshua (definitionally known as The Hoffer) Hoffman



Rav Yosef Dov Solovetichik, zt"l, once asked, when speaking in Boston on Tisha B"Av explaining the kinos, the elegies over the destruction of the Temple that are recited for many hours on that day, what the definition of a Jew is. He answered that a Jew is someone who, from time to time, has a rendezvous with God. He then went on to explicate the kinos and show how they describe how the existence of the Temple made it very easy for someone to have an encounter with God, and how its loss makes it that much harder. He likened our situation, without the Temple, to that of a father and son who are sitting in the same room and long to meet with each other, but a partition in the room prevents the encounter from occurring. Although prayer and Torah study are also avenues of meeting with God, it is still much harder to do so without a Temple in Jerusalem. That is the tragedy that we mourn over on Tisha B'Av, and the prayer that we offer in hopes of alleviating that state of affairs.


  On another occasion, in a Chumash shiur that he delivered in New York, Rabbi Soloveitchik asked a different question. What, he asked, should the goal of a Jew be? He added, "don't tell me it should be to become a Rosh Yeshiva! I wouldn't recommend it!" What, then should the goal of a Jew be? He answered that the goal of a Jew should be to become a prophet. Although he did not elaborate on his sources, I believe that he must have had the Rambam's elaborate discussion of the process of prophecy and its various stages in his Moreh Nevuchim, or Guide for the Perplexed, as well as his remarks in the introduction to his commentary on the Mishneh, in mind. Rambam says that there are two types of prophets, those who are sent as messengers to the people, and those who attain a certain level of closeness to God, but are not sent with a message to others (see Meshech Chochmah to Bereishis 18:13, for an intersting application of this distinction). Although Malachi was the last of the prophets in terms of messengers sent with a specific message, the kind of prophet which consists of achieving a certain level of personal development can still be achieved today. There is, in fact a discussion among Maimonides scholars of The Guide as to whether the Rambam himself felt that he had achieved a certain level of prophecy, because, in describing an early stage of prophecy, he seems to switch to the first person. However one wants to view that discussion, it seems that, according to the Rambam, a person is able, even today, to achieve some level of prophecy, and this is what Rav Soloveitchik said a Jew should strive for (for a fuller discussion of this topic and many additional sources, I would recommend the work of Rabbi Bezalel Naor, Lights of Prophecy).


  With Rav Soloveitchik's comments in mind, we can better understand why we read the section on the laws of nazir in parshas Naso, which almost always is the parsha that is read after Shavuos. The Rambam, in his Mishneh Torah, tells us that at the revelation at Mt. Sinai the Jewish nation as whole achieved prophecy, and witnessed how God proclaimed the Torah to Moshe, and made him His messenger to the Jewish people in transmitting it (see Pachad Yitzchok to Shavuos by Rav Yitzchok Hutner for a fuller discussion of the Rambam's remarks). The Ramban, in his commentary to parshas Terumah, writes that the function of the mishkan and the encampment of the Jewish people around it was to transfer the experience of closeness to God that the people had at Mt. Sinai to their daily lives. As we explained in last week's message, this may be one of the reasons that we read parshas Bamidbar, in which the formation of the encampment is described, on the week before Shavuos. Perhaps, then, this is why we read about the nazir on the week after Shavuos. The nazir, for a period of thirty days, abstains from wine, avoids becoming defiled through contact with a corpse, and lets his hair grow. The Torah, in the midst of enumerating these laws,seems to describe the nazir as being holy, as we read, "holy will he be" (Bamidbar 6:5). Moreover, the Ramban writes that the reason that a nazir brings a korban chatas, as a sin-offering, after completing his time in this state is that once he has achieved this level of holiness, and experienced the closeness to God that it entails, he should have continued in that state. Although not all commentaries agree with the Ramban's approach to the institution of nezirus, Rabbeinu Bachya cites his remarks, as does the Sefer HaChinuch. The Ramban, in his commentary, cites the verse in Amos (2:11) which is part of the haftarah to parshas Vayeishev, in which God says, "I established some of your sons as prophets,and some of your young men as nazirites," as a proof to his contention that the nazir is considered to be on a high spiritual plane. Rav Soloveitchik, in his shiur, also cited this verse, but used it to argue that being a nazir was actually an early stage in becoming a prophet. He set out to demonstrate that, just as we find, in the book of Shmuel, the notion of a school of prophets, so too was there a school for nazirs, because being a nazir was an earlier stage, or a training ground, for becoming a prophet. 


  Rabbi Moshe Isserles, known as the Rama, takes a different approach to the state of nazir, seeing it as a corrective measure for certain spiritual failings. When the Torah says "he will be holy," according to the Rama, it means that afterward he will be only, but only after he has completed his term of nazirus, not during it. The process of nazirus, for the Rama, will enable the nazir to restore his spiritual equilibrium and thereby become holy. Even according to this approach, however, we can understand why the section of nazir is read after Shavuos, since, at Mt. Sinai, the Jewish nation was given the charge to be kingdom of priests and a holy nation. While according to the Ramban, holiness is achieved during the process of nazirus, for the Rama, holiness comes only after completing the nazirus and returning to everyday life (see Rabbi Yissachar Jacobson's Binah BeMIkrah, or Meditations on the Torah, for a fuller exposition of the two approaches). In either case, the stress on holiness that is taught in the section of nazirus is appropriate to be read on the Shabbos following Shavuos, the holiday on which we commemorate our experience at Mt. Sinai.                                           



  Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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