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 of Israel shall encamp each man by his division with the flag staffs of their 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 as the dawn, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as an army with 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 [crowd] of 600,000 Israelites is required to say a blessing, apparently the 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 [count the heads, literally: raise up the heads]; that each one 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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