Holy Nation

By Rabbi Joshua ( nationalistically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

The Ramban, in his introduction to the book of Bamidbar, writes that the book consists of laws that pertain to the mishkan, which served as a continuation, in a discreet way, of the evelation at Mt.Sinai, with the divine presence dwelling within it, and of laws that were needed by the nation in the wilderness, and , also, an account of the miracles that occurred there.However, he says, no new mitzvos that were operative for future generations were given in the book, which, as commentators on the Ramban, point out is problematic, since we find mitzvos such as tztizis, and the priestly blessing. That, however, is an issue that we will not pursue here. The intersted reader in Bamidbar. s referred to the various commentators on the Ramban ( see notes to the Artscroll edition for some sources .)

In any case, the Rambansays that the reason the book begins with the he order of the encampment of the nation around the mishkan, which set boundaries for each tribe, was because the encampment paralleled the encampment around Sinai, when boundaries were set for different groups.The order of encampmentin th ewilderness, then, was a way of maintaining the holiness that was attained at Sinai, where the divine presence dwelled in the camp, within the nation. In that context, we can understand the relevance of the laws that appear in parshas Naso pertaining to expelling from the various camps people who have become impure. I believe that the sections regarding the laws of sotah, the married woman suspected of having relations with another man, and nazir, the person who takes upon himself a certain set of restrictions which the Torah describes as leading to holiness, continue with this idea of maintaining the holy nature of the Jewish encampment around the mishkan, but in a more significant way than does hte earlier sectio concerning the expulsion of peope who have become impure, as I will explain.

The scenario of the test of the suspected unfaithful wife occurs when the husband warns her not to be alone with a certain man, and she is seen with him by witnesses. She is then taken to the mishk anadministered an oath that she did not sin with the man, and then given water mixed with ashes , which also has a scroll with the name of God written on it as part of the section of the curse, dissolved into it. If she is guilty, the water cause her bodily pain and eventual death. The Ramban says that this miracuous effect of the waters was an open miracle, and was in operation only when most of the people were righteous. When the number of unfaithful spouses increased, the miracle was no longer operative. This miraculous process, says the Ramban, was aspecial gift of God to His people, to help them maintain their holy status, and that is why, when that status was already compromised, the miracle was no longer in effect.

The requirement for the nation to be on a certain level in order for the sotah waters to be effective, notes the Ramban, depepnde not only on the women but also on the men. The halacha is that if the huysband ever had an illcit liaison, even with a non- Jewess, the waters would not test the woman. The maintenance of the holy status of the nation, therefore, depends on both spouses, and this is reflective of the Talmudic comment that if' 'ish' and 'isha-' man and woman- are mertorious, the divene presence is among them, and if they are not meritorious, fire consumes them. The words for man and woman share the letters aleph and shin, but the word for man- ish- also has a yud, and the word for woman, isha, has a heh, but not a yud.The two letters, yud and heh, spell, together, a name of God. This hints to the principle that if the couple is meritorious, the name of God will be part of their lives, and if they are not meritorios, the two letters making up God's name will be missing, and all that will be left is the word eish, fire, which will consume them. Put a little differently, if their relationship has the goal of attaing holiness, God will be with them, but if it does not have tthis goal, then they will be consumed by the fire of passion, and ultimately come to ruin. Following the Ramban, this process has repercussions not only for the relatonship of one spouce to another, but also for the collectivity of the Jewish nationn as a whole, butr when most married couples do notfocus their relationships properly, the presence of God among the entire nation is reduced.

Ramban also says that the juxtaposition of the section on nazir to the section on sotah, by spelling out that the oath to become a nazir can be taken by a man of by a woman, teaches us that a righteous woman comports herself in a way that is directly oppposite from that of the sotah. The Ramban also explains that the reason a nazir, at the end of the period during which he keeps the restrictions and prepares to return t his former lifestyle, must bring a chatas offering, whicing a sin- offering to atone for his decision.

The propher Amos (2:11) tells us that God makes nazirites of our children. As Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik explained, the training program for prophets was the institution of nazirus. People who wished to become prophets would first undertake the restrictions of the nazir. Interstingly, Rav David Cohen, Rav Kook's devoted student, undertook the restrictions of the nazir, although in a way that is halachically non- binding, and also tried to attain prophecy,a s he descriibed in his diary. Rav soloveitchik said that the goal of a Jew should, in fact, be to attain prophecy. Perhaps, then the section of nazir folows that od sotah because the laws of testing a suspected sotah were dependent on a high level of holiness existing among the nation, and practicing the laws of nazir was a way of attaining that level. Moshe Rabbeinu, in fact, as recorded in parshas Behaa'loscha, told Yehoshua that he would like all of the nation to be prophets. We may add that, at Mt. Sinai, the people attained a level of prophecy, as the Rashba , Rabbi Shlomo ben adret, says, so that maintaing the level of holiness that was attained at Mt. Sinai to the optimum degree would entail reaching the level of prophecy, for which nazirus, as we have seen, constituted a preliminary stage. These two sets of laws, therefore, of sotah and of nazir, highlight the importance of maintaining a high degree of holiness among the collectivity of the nation, as a continuation of the level that was reached at Mt. Sinai.