Parshat Naso: Don't Separate Yourself from the Community
06/11/2024 09:39:47 AM
In this week’s Torah portion, Naso (Numbers 4:21-7:89) we learn about the Nazirite – a person who volunteered to observe certain personal restrictions either in repentance for a past behavior, as an act of prayer for something in the future, or in gratitude for some divine beneficence. The Hebrew root nun-zayin-resh means to separate oneself which the individual would do for at least 30 days and often longer.
The person who took the vow of the Naziritie (Nazir) was forbidden from drinking wine, from cutting their hair and forbidden from contact with a corpse. The Nazir abstained from these activities in order to attain a consecrated status in the eyes of God and the community. One would think that this was an admirable thing to do – to step back from basic activities in everyday life taking this vow and disengaging in some ways with mundane busyness of the community.
Interestingly, when the Nazir completed his or her vow, he or she must conclude this time of abstinence with the ritual of a sin offering. I find this curious. If the Nazir attempted to enter the realm of the sacred through abstinence and self-denial, why might concluding such a lofty commitment end in a sacrifice, and specifically a sin offering? With some study it’s clear to me that while the restrictions embraced by the Nazir were legitimate and found in other communities in the ancient world, for the Jewish community, while meaningful, they were not considered normative. To separate oneself from others, even for the purpose of pursuing a sacred goal, is not actually ideal. Ending the Nazarite period with the sin offering suggests that service to God is best achieved by embracing the world and by performing mitzvot within the realm of the ‘not yet’ sacred.
From this we learn that our task is not to separate from our community and people, and not to abstain from life’s joys, but rather to affirm life at its best, to join in the task of making holiness part of our lives as together we build holy communities.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Amy Schwartzman