Parshat Naso
D’var Torah by Rabbi Zischa Shaps
If your children have gone to school, you are probably familiar with the
debates over the pros and cons of school uniforms. Uniformity vs.
individuality. How can a child express his/her unique personality if they have
to wear the same thing as everyone else? On the other hand, we don’t want
to cause a child to feel that their clothes aren’t nice enough, especially if
their family can’t afford it.
In this week’s Torah reading, we read of the gifts and offerings that
the Nesiim, the tribal leaders, brought for the inauguration of
the Mishkan (Tabernacle). There were 12 leaders, one for each tribe. What
should they bring? Will mine be as good as yours? Better? It could have
become a competition and by the time you got to the last tribes, who knows
how high the ante may have climbed. To prevent things from getting out of
hand, the leaders agreed that they would each bring the exact same gifts
and offerings. The Torah records their offerings in great detail, individually
writing their complete list 12 times. Each tribe’s offering is 6 verses in the
Torah making a total of 72 verses describing the gifts they brought.
The big question that the commentaries all ask is, if the Torah is so careful
with every letter, why does it repeat the offerings for each Nasi. They all
brought the exact same things. This repetition adds approximately 65 extra
verses to the Torah, making Parshat Naso the longest Torah reading with
176 verses. It could have listed the first set of offerings and then just said
that everyone else brought the same thing.
Our Sages teach us that each one of the leaders brought their individual
offerings with their own unique intentions and meaning in keeping with the
distinct character traits of their respective tribes. Yet at the same they made
sure that externally everything was the same, so that no one would feel
embarrassed that their offering wasn’t as good as someone else’s.
Therefore, the Torah lists each one to acknowledge their individual unique
intentions. Furthermore, in recognition of the sensitivity that the leaders
showed for each other, Hashem allowed them to bring the offerings on
Shabbat, something that would normally be forbidden, in order not to break
up the consecutive order of the offerings.
While it is extremely important that we maintain our unique personalities
and be able to express our individuality, at the same time we need to make
sure that our expression of uniqueness does not lead to competition
and hurt and embarrassment for others who are unable to participate or
celebrate in a like manner.
Good Shabbos from the JET Team!
