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Parashat Naso translation and commentary by Avraham Sutton After the Mishkan was completed around Chanukah time of the first year after the Exodus, Moshe waited until the month of Nissan to inaugurate it: (1) On the day that Moshe finished erecting the Mishkan (Rosh Chodesh Nissan), he anointed it and sanctified it along with all its furnishings. He also anointed the Altar and all its utensils, and thus sanctified them (Bamidbar 7:1). Seeing that the Mishkan had been completed, the Princes of the tribes wished to contribute something of their own: (2) The Princes of Israel, who were the heads of their paternal houses, then came forward. They were the leaders of the tribes, and the ones who had directed the census [along with the Cohanim and Levi'im]. (3) The offering that they presented to Hashem consisted of shesh agalot tzav [six covered service wagons] and twelve oxen. There was one wagon for every two princes, plus one ox for each prince. They presented them in front of the Mishkan (7:2-3). Moshe waited for an express command before he accepted the donation: (4) Hashem said to Moshe: Take [the offering] from them, and let them [the wagons and oxen] be used for the service of the Ohel Mo'ed [Communion Tent]. Give them to the Levites, as appropriate for each [family's] work (7:4-5). As is clear from the following four verses, Moshe was told exactly what was "appropriate for each family's work": (6) Moshe thus took the wagons and oxen, and gave them to the Levites. (7) He gave two wagons and four oxen to the descendants of Gershon, as appropriate for their service [i.e. transporting all the woven articles, tapestries, drapes, hangings, etc., corresponding to the dermis and epidermis, i.e. the various layers of 'skin' of the Mishkan]. (8) To the descendants of Merari, he gave four wagons and eight oxen [as appropriate for their service, namely, transporting the beams, crossbars, pillars, bases, stakes, etc., corresponding to the 'skeleton,' the bony structure of the Mishkan] (7:6-8). With two wagons and four oxen for the Gershonites, and four wagons and eight oxen for the Merarites, that makes six wagons and twelve oxen -- exactly the number of wagons and oxen donated by the Princes. Why aren't there any left for Kehat? Rather, as we saw above in parashat Bamidbar (see Bamidbar Rabbah 5:8): (9) He did not give [any wagons] to the descendants of Kehat, since they had responsibility for the most sacred articles [the Table, Candelabra, Golden Incense Altar, Copper Altar, and most importantly, the Ark, corresponding to the 'inner organs' of the Miskhan], which they had to carry on their shoulders (7:9). But the Princes were not finished. As we saw above in verse 1, the inauguration of the Altar followed that of the Mishkan itself. Correspondingly, after donating the wagons and oxen to transport the various parts of the Mishkan, the Princes now wished to contribute a whole set of offerings specifically connected to the service of the Altar: (10) On the day the Altar was anointed, the Princes presented their dedication offerings for the Altar. They presented their offerings before the Altar (7:10). Not wanting them to present their offerings all at once, Hashem commanded: (11) Hashem said: Let the princes present their offerings for the Altar's inauguration, one prince each day (7:11). Now begins the detailed list of everything that each Prince presented, starting with the prince of the tribe of Yehudah, Nachshon ben Aminadav: (12) The one to bring his offering on the first day was Nachshon ben Aminadav of the tribe of Yehudah. (13) His offering was one silver bowl weighing 130 shekels, and one silver sacrificial basin weighing 70 shekels by the sanctuary standard, both filled with the best grade wheat meal kneaded with olive oil for a meal offering. (14) One gold incense bowl weighing 10 [shekels] filled with incense. (15) One young bull, one ram and one yearling sheep for a burnt offering; (16) one goat for a sin offering; (17) and for the peace offering, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five yearling sheep. This was the offering of Nachshon ben Aminadav (7:12-17). The Torah continues listing the donations of the other Princes, all of which were identical to those of Nachshon. In the end, a complete tally is made of all the offerings. Now, in preparation for what the ARI has to say about [a particular detail of] this offering, we turn to the Midrash. Again, remember that Midrash was the vehicle the Master Sages used to transmit the deepest secrets of the Torah: Bamidbar Rabbah 13:20 "His offering was one silver bowl weighing 130 shekels" … This alludes to the fact that [Yocheved] was 130 years of age when Moshe was born. How do we know this? Yocheved was born 'between the walls' [at the border] when Israel came down to Egypt. She was therefore included among those who went down to Egypt, as it is written, "All the souls [born of Leah]... were thirty-three" (Bereshit 46:15). The sum total is given as thirty-three, whereas in the detailed account you only find thirty-two. Why? Because Yocheved was born 'between the walls' and was therefore counted among those who came to Egypt… Go and calculate: From the day when our ancestors came down to Egypt until the day when Moshe was born, a period of 130 years elapsed, Israel having spent 210 in Egypt. How do we know this? Because it says, "Redu shamah - Go down there" (Bereshit 42:2) [Redu = reish (200), dalet (4), vav (6) = 210]. Deduct from this 80 years, the age of Moshe when Israel left Egypt, and the remainder is 130. Thus we learn that Yocheved was 130 years old when Moshe was born. Bamidbar Rabbah 14:7 "His offering was one silver bowl weighing 130 shekels" … When Yaacov came down to Egypt on account of Yoseph, he was 130 years old, as per the verse: "Yaacov said to Pharaoh: 'The days of the years of my sojournings [in this world] have been 130 years'" (Bereshit 47:9). Bamidbar Rabbah 14:12 "His offering was one silver bowl weighing 130 shekels" … This alludes to the 130 years during which [Adam] separated from his wife, at the end of which he bore Shet [Seth] who was considered foremost of his progeny, as it is written, "Adam lived 130 years, and he had a son in his likeness and form. He named him Shet" (Bereshit 5:3), for the world was founded [hushtat] through him... Rabbi Chayim Vital writes in Sha'ar HaPesukim and Likutey Torah, Parashat Naso (Chumash HaAri, Bamidbar, pp. 49-51): "Ve'korbano ke'arat kesef achat sheloshim u'me'ah mish'kalah - His offering was one silver bowl weighing 130 shekels…" -- The Sages of blessed memory have intimated that this 130 shekel weight corresponds to the 130 years during which Adam separated from his wife, as a result of which he emitted wasted seed, and caused ruchin [disembodied spirits] and lilin [banshees] to be created. Whereas ruchin are bodiless, formless spirits, lilin have a human form with additional wings (Rashi, Sanhedrin 109a, s.v. ruchin). Now, behold, the letters of the word mish'kalah [literally, "its weight"], can be re-arranged to read Moshe K"L [i.e. "Moshe, 130"]. This alludes to the fact that Moshe Rabbenu was born to his mother Yocheved when she was 130 years old. [The connection to Adam is that] Moshe was a gilgul [reincarnation] of Shet [Seth], who was born when Adam was 130 years old, after spending all those years creating ruchin and lilin. The fact that Yaacov Avinu was 130 years old when he came down to Egypt (Bereshit 47:9; Bamidbar Rabbah 14:7 above) hints to the fact that he, too, spent most of his life trying to rectify Adam's sin. * * * This teaching, about the 130 years that Adam separated from Chava, appears again and again throughout the Kitvey HaAri. One of these is Sha'ar HaHakdamot, where the ARI explains exactly what happened during those first 130 years after Adam was expelled from the Garden. Again, the ostensible reason for the number 130 here is that Adam's third child, Shet, was born when he and Chava were 130 years old. [As we have just seen, this is also the exact age of Moshe's mother, Yocheved, when he was born many years later.] The implication is that Adam and Chava refrained from marital relations for this entire time. The Biblical account is typically silent about why they would do such a thing. We are left to conjecture that the original sin had something to do with sex, so Adam's self-imposed punishment was abstinence. What then did he do during this period? According to the Midrash (Pirkei d'Rebbi Eliezer 20 (47b)), he sat in the waters of the Gichon River that emerged from Eden. In this way, he hoped to purify himself of something. But what happened? Why did he need to purify himself? What went on during this period that required constant purification in a river? Rabbi Chayim Vital writes in the name of his master, the ARI: Know that during those first 130 years [before he rejoined with Chava to bear Shet], Adam emitted wasted seed. [If Adam had emitted this seed in proper marital relations] the souls that would have been born would have been very holy. By emitting them in the way he did [without his wife], however, they were born as shedin [shades and demons], ruchin [disembodied spirits] and lilin [banshees]. Only after [130 years did he rejoin his wife and] give birth to Shet, who was the soul of Moshe. In the meantime, the Holy One was forced to purify those souls [that had been born during the 130 years] and which had become mixed with evil. He therefore reincarnated them during the Generation of the Flood. Because they had been shedin and ruchin, however, they were incarnated as non-Jews [with extremely un-evolved character traits]. It sounds strange to say that they were born as non-Jews. Of course they were born as non-Jews! There weren't any Jews yet at the time! But the truth is that had Adam not done what he did [a subject we will discuss in the future], he and all of his seed would have been called Israel, Jews. Understand this, and let it suffice for the moment. Rav Chayim continues: Because they had originally been born as a result of wasting seed, they were therefore prone to this sin. Thus, they themselves wasted their own seed, as their progenitor [Adam] had. The verse thus testifies, "All flesh corrupted its way upon the earth" (Bereshit 6:12) [where the word "way" is a hidden allusion to the seed that is emitted during sexual relations, with the expression "upon the earth" indicating that the seed was spilled unto the ground, i.e. wasted]. This then is the mystery of the verse, "Hashem thus saw the great evil of Adam in the earth" (Bereshit 6:5). For these people were truly and literally the result of Adam's spilling his semen... [Not only failing to rectify themselves, but making things worse] these same souls were therefore later reincarnated again during the Generation of the Tower of Babel. They were drawn to worshiping many powers, however, as their progenitor had done [in a much more subtle way]. This is the mystery of the verse, "Hashem came down to see the city and the tower which the children of Adam had built" (Bereshit 11:5), concerning which our Sages commented, "They were literally children of Adam, children of the first man [from the seed he spilled]" (Bereshit Rabbah 38:9). Understand this well. By this time, Avraham had been born. [He was 52 when the Tower of Babel was destroyed and mankind became dispersed.] It is known that he was a reincarnation of Adam, as stated in the Zohar (3:111b; Tikuney Zohar, Tikun 26, p. 72a; Tikun 69, p. 102b, 111b; Tikun 2b, p. 139a)... [Shortly afterwards, at the age of 70] the Holy One informed Avraham that it was necessary to send his children into exile; they would have to descend to Egypt. He showed him this exile [and all other future exiles] in dark visions in what is called the Covenant Between the Halves. In telling him, "Your seed will be strangers in a land that is not their own" (Bereshit 15:13), He was informing him as to why his children would be exiled. In effect, He said to him, "You are a reincarnation of Adam. All those souls who were born during the Generations of the Flood and the Tower are literally your children. They are the drops of your semen which you spilled. As a result, they were incarnated as extremely coarse human beings, as noted. Know, however, with a certainty, that your seed, those same souls who were extremely coarse human beings until now, will become converts during the Egyptian exile, and return to being called the Children of Israel." … We now return to speak about the souls that reincarnated in Egypt. Know that the total time that the children of Israel were subjugated in Egypt was 210 years (i.e. the gematria of the word Redu). Now, the first 130 of these 210 years (before Moshe was born) did not involve any subjugation. Only afterwards did the Egyptians begin to oppress the children of Israel. This subjugation lasted for 80 years only (210 minus 130 = 80). We saw the reason for this above: During his initial 130 years [while separated from his wife], Adam "gave birth to" [i.e. generated] "evil" shedim and ruchin. Only after this did he remarry Chava, who then gave birth to Shet, who was from the good (i.e. refined) aspect of Adam's soul. The opposite was the case during the initial 130 years. During that entire time, only those souls which were from his evil side (i.e. from the unrefined aspects of his soul) were born. These subsequently reincarnated in the Generation of the Flood and the Generation of the Tower of Babel, as explained above. Finally, in Egypt, they reincarnated yet another time, in order to fulfill what was told to Avraham, "Your seed will be strangers in a land that is not their own" (Bereshit 15:13). When the "evil" had finally been refined from all these souls, Moshe was born. He is the good aspect of Shet who, too, was born when Adam and Chava were 130 years old, just as Yocheved was 130 years old when she gave birth to Moshe, as is known (Sotah 12a; Rashi on Shemot 2:1). This then is the mystery of the verse, "She beheld that the child was good" (Shemot 2:2) [concerning which the sages said, "the house was filled with light" (Sotah 12a), for the word "good" is always a code-word for "light"]. [In addition] the fact that he was "good" indicates that all who were born before him were from the "evil" wasted seed of Adam, as we have explained elsewhere concerning Moshe's plea to Hashem, "Do not make me look upon my own evil!" (Bamidbar 11:15). For the Generation of the Desert were literally the children of Adam, Moshe's (i.e. Shet's) father. They were his brothers. The only difference is that they issued forth from Adam's wasted "evil" seed of the klipah. Moshe, on the other hand, was from the good, refined aspects among them. This, then, is the meaning of Moshe's statement, "This people numbers 600,000 men on foot, and I am among them…" (Bamidbar 11:21). He was literally one of them. Now, although Moshe [of the refined aspects of Adam] and all these souls [the unrefined aspects of Adam] had been born in Egypt, this did not mean that they had been completely refined [through their previous incarnations], as we shall explain. Those souls which had been born in the Generation of the Flood [and sinned] were now thrown into the Nile River to die. The verse attests to this when it says, "Every male child born shall be cast into the Nile" (Shemot 1:22). In this way, they suffered the same fate as when they drowned in the waters of the Flood. [By virtue of the suffering they endured], the evil among them were now refined and died in the Nile, and the good among them were saved, as is known. Those souls which had been born in the Generation of the Tower of Babel had said, "Come, let us mold bricks and fire them" (Bereshit 11:3). [Measure for measure] they were subjugated to work with lime and bricks. The evil [souls] among them were thereby rectified and died working in clay, as is known. The souls of those who had "good" mixed and intermingled with "evil" were subjugated to work in lime and bricks. In this way, they were able to gain atonement for their sins… [This process of refinement went on until finally] they were rectified enough to go forth from Egypt. It is for this reason the Moses hand to stay with them in the land of Egypt, the iron furnace, until they were refined, and the "good silver" had been extracted from the evil impurities. Know that the oppression began six years before Moshe was born, with the birth of his older sister Miriam. The reason for this was so that there could be 86 years of subjugation, the gematria of the name Divine Elohim… Sha'ar HaHakdamot, Drush Dalet BeInyan Shinui Hazemanim, Attieh-Jerusalem edition, p. 84b. |
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Ascent of Safed
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