WHEN THE TABERNACLE IS SET TO TRAVEL, THE LEVITES

SHALL DISMANTLE IT; AND WHEN THE TABERNACLE CAMPS, THE LEVITES SHALL ERECT IT;

ANY OUTSIDER WHO APPROACHES SHALL BE PUT TO DEATH.

(Bamidbar 1:51)

On another occasion it happened

that a certain heathen was passing behind a Beit Midrash, when he heard the

voice of a teacher reciting, And these are the garments which they shall

make; a breastplate, and an ephod (Shemot 28). He said, 'For whom are these?' 'For the High Priest,' he was told.

Then that heathen said to himself, 'I will go and become a proselyte, that I

may be appointed a High Priest.' So he went before Shammai and said to him, 'Make

me a proselyte on condition that you appoint me a High Priest.' But he repulsed

him with the builder's cubit that was in his hand. He then went before Hillel,

who made him a proselyte. He said to him, 'Can any man be made a king but he

who knows the arts of government? Go and study the arts of government!' He went

and read. When he came to, any

outsider who approaches shall be put to death (Bamidbar

1) he asked him, 'To whom does

this verse apply?' 'Even to David King, of Israel,' was the answer. Thereupon

that proselyte reasoned within himself a fortiori: if Israel, who are

called sons of the Omnipresent, and who in His love for them He designated

them, Israel is my son, my firstborn (Shemot 4), yet it is written of them, any outsider who approaches shall be put to death: how much more so a mere proselyte, who

comes with his staff and wallet! Then he went before Shammai and said to him. 'Am

I then eligible to be a High Priest; is it not written in the Torah, any outsider who approaches shall be put to

death? He went before

Hillel and said to him, 'O gentle Hillel; blessings rest on thy head for

bringing me under the wings of the Shekhinah!' Some time later the three met in

one place; said they, Shammai's impatience sought to drive us from the world,

but Hillel's gentleness brought us under the wings of the Shekhinah.

(Shabbat

31a, based on Soncino translation)

The People Israel's Discernment of Secrets

Elon Langebheim

1. The nation treks through the desert, masses of

people move slowly forward in an organized formation with the Levites bearing

the disassembled Tabernacle at its center. The other tribes are arranged around

the Levites, three on each direction of the compass; the members of each tribe

surround a tall pole on which flies their tribal flag. A great pillar of cloud

precedes the entire camp, its base caressing the dry wilderness plain. This

immense body of closely-packed human beings, walking in geometric formation

behind the pillar of cloud, was an awe-inspiring sight.

Indeed, the midrash on the verse, The children

fathers' house describes the awe aroused in the surrounding nations as they

observed the Israelite camp on the move:

It

is in allusion to this that Scripture writes: Who is this that looks forth

standards (Song of Songs 6:10). Holy and grand indeed were Israel beneath

their standards! All the nations looked at them with rapt attention and wonder,

thinking, 'Who is this that looks forth,' etc. These nations said to

them… cling to us, come unto us and we will make you governors, generals,

commanders, lieutenants, commanders-in-chief… (Bamidbar Rabbah 2;3, Soncino translation)

The

Gemara assumes that every member of Israel will share the nations' awe and

amazement upon viewing the great camp; this emotion even finds expression in

the halakhah. According to the Gemara in Berakhot 58a, one who sees an ukhlusei

rarest among blessings that are recited upon seeing particular things and

events: "Blessed be the Discerner of secrets." The formulation of

this blessing makes no reference to the size of the group, but rather to some

mystery hidden within it. A braita explains the nature of that secret:

The

rabbis taught: He who sees an akhlusei of Israelites says, "Blessed

be the Discerner of secrets," for their minds are not similar to each

other's and their faces are not similar to each other's.

The

expression hakham razim – "discerner of secrets" – refers to

God's ability to know the hidden thoughts and feelings of each and every member

of Israel's masses.[1]

Surprisingly, instead of registering amazement at the powerful sight of so many

people assembled together in one place in such an orderly fashion, the blessing

addresses the way God relates to each separate individual living in the camp. Other

blessings that refer to things seen relate directly to physically perceived

phenomena such as lightning, rainbows, and the sea. This blessing, in contrast,

relates to the hidden connection between God and each of the individual human

beings swallowed up in the huge crowd.

Most

commentators state that the blessing can only be made on a Jewish crowd, but in

his Hagahot al HaShaS, MaHaRITz Hayyot questions that notion, and

writes:

In

the midrash on parashat Pinhas on the verse, The Lord, God of the spirits

shall assign, there is a halakhah – "If one sees an ukhlusei of

human beings…" see that ad loc. We see that it speaks of an ukhlusei

of human beings and did not differentiate between Israelites and heathens, and

also in light of the reason given [for the blessing] there should be no

differentiation between Israelites and heathens.

If

we accept the opinion of MaHaRITz Hayyot, we can learn from here that the

blessing refers to a general phenomenon found in every situation in which human

beings are seen crowding together in one place. Nature films that show us

scenes of thousands of birds or animals traveling together as one body are no

less impressive a natural sight than is a large group of people, but no

blessing is required in the former case. The sight of a huge crowd of people

creates an existential crisis in the viewer; his individuality is threatened,

as is his personal connection to God. That is why when someone sees a

tremendous crowd of human beings – and not of any other type of creature – he

must immediately make contact with his God by way of a blessing that expresses

his amazement at the scene before him. He specifically blesses God for being

able to maintain a personal connection with him, a God Who recognizes his face

and personality even while standing in a huge crowd of fellow human beings,

even while the man making the blessing feels he has disappeared into the

masses.

2. Parashat Bamidbar deals

mostly with the censuses carried out among the tribes and the manner of their

encampment in the wilderness. Many explanations have been given for the census

and for the arrangement of the tribes in the camp; there is not enough room

here to mention them all. One of the most interesting approaches can be found

in the book Mei HaShiloah by the Izbetzer Rebbe. In his discourse on the

second verse of the parasha, Count the heads of all the congregation of the

children of Israel, the author of Mei HaShiloah discusses the need

to involve the nesi'im [tribal leaders] in the census. In this

connection, he makes use of the idea behind the blessing hakham harazim:

Count

the heads, etc. – the

matter of counting heads was in accordance with that which we find in the

Gemara: "Their minds are not similar to each other's" (Berakhot 58a).

For the blessed Lord distributed to each his own portion of life and the good,

and not one of them is like his fellow. That is why He said se'u et rosh

should stand on the spot that belongs to him and this will make him special and

menuseh [raised up]… (Mei HaShiloah I:140)

According

to Mei HaShiloah, a "special and menuseh" person is

someone who possesses an independent and unique mind. This uniqueness is

expressed by each person receiving his own private place that is specifically

his own, a place that also serves as a brick in the larger building of the

tribe. The nasi organizes the physical location of each member of his

tribe; in this way he raises up the heads of those in their care,

allowing each of them to express his own uniqueness. Thus, according to the

Izbetzer Rebbe, the point of the census was to allow for personal expression by

each and every Israelite and for them to be able to raise their heads and

project their uniqueness upon their surroundings. Later, the Izbitzer uses a

beautiful parable to explain the connection between the nasi and his

tribe. He compares the tribal members to fruit trees which grow in an orchard

and the nasi to the fruit grower who recognizes each tree by its

location:

The nasi

knew each person's place in the tribe and that if anyone's place was switched

the tribe's condition would be imperfect. By way of a parable: When someone

plants a well-ordered orchard, the orchard's imperfection will become evident

even if he removes or replaces a single tree, and Israel is called the

planting of the Lord, with which to glory (Isaiah 61:3).

The nasi

of the tribe is chosen to count its members because he is acquainted with their

physical environment. In order to get to know his tribesmen, the nasi

"goes down to the people" and mingles with them just as the fruit

grower wanders around his orchard and distinguishes between trees according to

their location and surroundings. Sometimes the manager of a large company or

the principal of a large school knows those in his charge in this way; he

enjoys a bit of "discernment of secrets." Nonetheless, the principal

does not know his pupils in a deep way, and neither does the manager his

workers. No human being is capable of knowing the faces and minds of hundreds

of thousands of people, relating to each personally.

3. Mei HaShiloah claims

that a person needs his own space, his own "four cubits," in order to

actualize himself and his unique nature. Large groups of people, such as tribes

and nations need their own territory in order to actualize their cultures and unique

natures. Jealousy and feelings of relative deprivation between groups can give

rise to conflicts. Such conflicts can be solved by some form of consensual

arbitration, such as the arbitration of a nasi or a court of law. Feelings

of envy and anger between tribes and between people more generally can be dealt

with via acceptance of the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven. Elsewhere the Mei

HaShiloah relates to the verse, The children of Israel shall encamp each

man by his division with the flag staffs of their fathers' house:

Actually,

Eliav ben Ahisamakh of the Dan tribe lifted up his heart with knowledge and

wisdom as did Bezalel from the tribe of Judah. In this verse the blessed Lord

tells us that Eliav would not ask, "Why should Bezalel dwell on high while

I travel in the back [of the Israelite camp]?" For this reason it is

written: each man by his division with the flag staffs, that is, in the

place that the blessed Lord wills to be his place to be cognizant of Heaven's

glory; there they shall camp and they will not be jealous of one another…

God

provided each tribe with its own special place from which it could maintain a

connection with Him. Each tribe's particular place allows it to know God in its

own unique way and from its own unique perspective. The tribe of Dan knows God

in a different way than does the tribe of Judah; that is why it requires a

different place to encamp. One tribe's connection with God does not come at the

expense of the others'. For instance, it was impossible to place all of the

tribes to the east of the Tabernacle because that would leave some of them

quite distant from the center of the camp. That is why the tribes were arranged

around a common center – equidistant from the center but lying in different

directions from it.

The

relationships of different nations to the city of Jerusalem are tied to

feelings of deprivation, jealousy, and frustration. The sight of thousands of

worshippers from another nation bonding themselves to the place arouses

feelings of fear and terror. If the various leaders will find the wisdom to

"go down" and mingle with their common folk, to "raise up the

heads" of those who they lead and convince them that it is possible to

maintain connections with a place that represents God in various and

non-contradictory ways, we will be able to pronounce the blessing "Discerner

of secrets" on a regular basis, and live to see the realization of the

prophecy, For My House will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.

Elon

Langebheim is a physics teacher. He lives in Kibbutz Tirat Tzvi.

For My City Jerusalem, Upon the Beginning of Its Fourth Millennium and

Forty-One Years Since the Six Day War

Gil Nativ

When

the Six Day War ended, Haim Hefer published his lyric, HaTzanhanim Bokhim

– The Paratroopers Weep. It ends with the words: "…twenty year

old paratroopers who were born together with the state carry two-thousand years

on their backs." Although we never met, I was convinced that he was

talking about me. I was a twenty year old paratrooper when, together with the

other soldiers from my company – part of Battalion 71 – I climbed up the

incline to the east of the Old City. Besides the two thousand years mentioned

earlier, I also carried on my back three ammunition cases, each containing 250

M.A.G. machine gun rounds. When we neared the crest of the ridge near Augusta

Victoria I felt more like an overloaded pack-mule than a fleet-footed

paratrooper. I noticed other members of the company overtaking and passing me…

At that moment the thought passed through my mind that the last time an armed

Jewish soldier had climbed this incline had been in the revolt against the

Romans 1900 years earlier. If I fell back behind my comrades I would not

forgive myself even after another 1900 years… I began to run and reclaimed my

place in the front of the line…

A

week later on Shavuot eve, I was already dressed in civilian clothes and I

invited my girlfriend Ziva to go with me and retrace my path in the war. We

entered the Old City, we walked the very alleyways that had witnessed the death

of one of my comrades, shot by a sniper. I was amazed: the alleys were bursting

with life! Thousands of Israelis stormed the stalls of the Arab merchants and

bought everything they could get their hands on. No linguistic barrier could

stymie the bargaining… it began in a mix of Hebrew, Arabic, and English… the

alleys looked and sounded like a bee hive… I jotted down a line of poetry in

my notebook: "Fortunate are the bombshells whose trajectories end in the

squawking of traders…"

In

his prayer book, Olat RAYaH, HaRAYaH Kook explains that animal

sacrifices will not be offered in the Third Temple, but rather only vegetable

meal offerings. His discourse upon the verse, And then the offerings [minhat

– also "the meal offering"] of Judah and Jerusalem shall be

pleasant to the Lord (Malachi 3:4) gladdens

the heart: "There shall be no manner of blood shed on the Temple Mount,

not even of sheep, rams, or cattle! The prophet Isaiah's vision (56:7) went even further: For My House will be

called a house of prayer for all the nations: in the end of days Jews,

Christians, and Moslems will pray together in the courtyard of the Lord's House

in a brotherhood of believers. They will "stand crowded together but

prostrate themselves with ample room" to the same God Who is referred to

with different names in many languages.

It

is not yet too late to demonstrate the generosity of victors in Jerusalem! If

we find the wisdom to include its non-Jewish inhabitants in the management of

the city and in a just allocation of its resources to all who live there, then

perhaps Jerusalem will become the city of the future from which Torah will

spread to all the peoples of the earth humanity, showing how each human group

can preserve its religious and cultural uniqueness without loosing sight of the

basic truth that we are all created in God's image and that we are all children

of Adam and Eve. Let not a man say to his fellow: "My

father-nation-religion is better than your father-nation-religion. Let us not

allow Jerusalem to remain a object of struggles between denominations, peoples,

and religions over power and control. Such struggles have brought us great

suffering over the past three thousand years since it became the capital of

Israel. Zion shall be redeemed through justice and those who return to her

through righteousness (Isaiah 1:27) – justice

and righteousness for all those who return to Jerusalem and for all those who

dwell within her: poor and wealthy, women and men, Jew and gentile – may it be

God's will!

Rabbi Gil

Nativ serves as the rabbi of Kehilat Magen Avraham in Omer.

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