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Parshas Naso
A Song Missing a Note1
To the children of Kohos he did not give [wagons], since the service of the holy was upon them. They carried on the shoulder.
We would think that the Torah should have
said is that "theirs was the service of the holy." Emphasizing that the
kelim they carried – and carried specifically on their shoulders, as the
pasuk concludes – were “upon them” strikes us as unnecessarily weighing
down the pasuk.
Uneconomical phraseology always invites derashos. Surely we are to
figure out that “upon them” emphasizes some important truth about
carrying the mishkan’s kelim. We cannot establish so easily what the Torah
is driving at. We can quickly come up with two possible derashsos.
Unfortunately for us, those two derashos are mutually exclusive, and
point in opposite directions. We could take “upon them” as a limitation,
i.e. when it is “them,” the Bnei Kohos who carry the kelim - when the
kelim are upon them – then they must be transported on the shoulders of
the levi’im. The Torah specifies the way in
which the Levi’im are to go about their holy work. These instructions do
no tell us, however, how anyone else might carry these kelim if they
substitute for Bnei Kohos.
Equally plausible, it would seem, is that “upon them” defines the procedure. In other words, perhaps the Torah
wishes to make known to us that we have no other legal option. Only the
Bnei Kohos are permitted to transport the kelim. Everyone else is
excluded. (Noteworthy is Rambam’s approach in Sefer ha-Mitzvos[2], that
it is kohanim who are supposed to carry the Aron on their shoulders!
Even this is consistent with our second derashah option, since all
kohanim also descend from Kohos, who was Aharon’s grandfather; when an
insufficient number of kohanim are available – as occurred with the
generation of the Wilderness - the task passes only to Levi’im who are
directly related to Kohos.)
Which derashah, then, conveys the Torah’s
intention? Dovid found out by picking the wrong one. He had the Aron
brought into Yerushalayim by Uzah and his brothers (none of them
Levi’im) on a wagon[3]. Although Rashi says that “Dovid erred in a
matter that even schoolchildren know,” this does not mean that he forgot
an obvious halacha. “Children know” that halacha today, because the
proper derashah took hold in halachic memory. In Dovid’s day, however,
there were two halachic roads that opened before him – the two
conflicting derashos we mentioned above. Dovid chose the wrong one, the
one that permitted non-Levi’im to transport the Aron, using a wagon if
they wished. This resulted in tragedy marring what was to be the joyous
arrival of the Aron at Yerushalayim.
After three months, Dovid tried again, this time putting Kohanim and
Levi’im in charge of transporting the Aron. Dovid explained that at the
time of the ill-fated earlier attempt לא דרשניהו כמשפט. This should be
translated as “we did not subject the Torah to
the proper derashah,” rather than the usual translation of “we did not
seek Him out properly.” Dovid understood that a different derashah would
have led to an antipodal position to the one he first took, and that
this second derashah was in fact the one that should have been applied.
Chazal teach[4] that the spiritual precursor to Dovid’s error was in being too casual regarding the holy Torah, when he wrote, “Your statutes were music to me[5].” Hashem responds, “ ‘Blink your eye, and it is gone[6]:’ You think Torah is a mere song? You will stumble in a matter that even schoolchildren know.”
What is the meaning of the pasuk in Mishlei? We could assume that it means that Torah
is so deep and complex that diverting attention from it leads to a
lapse of memory. But then how would this follow from calling Torah “songs?” Whey would that diminish Dovid’s powers of retention?
Rather, we should consider chukim in the pasuk in Tehillim as “fixed
rules,” rather than “fixed laws,” or “statutes[7].” These rules are the
protocols of derashos, the principles that govern how we extract
information from a pasuk beyond the plain sense of the words. HKBH
admonishes Dovid for taking the process of making derashos lightly.
Blink your eye, Hashem tells Dovid, fail to focus on the pasuk with
precise, deep vision and thought, and it is gone. This means that the
real intent of the pasuk – the one that should have been uncovered by
making the proper derashah - will become obscured or vanish. You will
err, says Hashem to Dovid, in a derashah whose proper conclusion even
schoolchildren comprehend.
Dovid, it turns out, did not “forget” a known halacha, nor make an
obvious error. His choice reflects the complexity and subtlety of Torah She-B’al Peh – something we all need to keep in mind.
1. Based on Ha’amek Davar and Harchev Davar, Bamidbar 7:9
2. Mitzvos Aseh, 34
3. Shmuel2 6:3
4. Sotah 35A
5. Tehillim 119:54
6. Mishlei 23:5
7. Netziv makes use of this understanding of chukim in several places |
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Say Yes to Abba Yahweh and His Laws special in
this time when Abba Yahweh is 'testing' us:
Hab 1:12 Art thou not mikedem (‘everlasting’ also said of
Moshiach, indicating Moshiach’s eternal divine nature: Dan
7:14 And there was given Him
(Moshiach) dominion, and honor, and sovereignty, that all people, Goyim,
tongues, should pey-lammed-chet. [1](worship
as deity) (see Dan 3:12, serve, reverence as deity Him (Moshiach). His dominion
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His (Messianic)
Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.]see Michoh 5:1[2]; Yahweh Elohai (my
Elohim) Kedoshi (my Holy One)? We shall not die. Yahweh, Thou hast appointed
them for mishpat (ordinance); O Tzur, Thou hast ordained them for reproof.
(Please read the whole book of HaNavi Habakuk)
Please take it serious what Abba Yahweh is telling us in:
Deu 18:15 Yahweh Eloheicha (your Elohim) will raise up unto thee a Navi
(prophet) from among thee, of thy achim (bretheren), kamoni (like me Exo
32:30 The next day Moshe said to the
people, "You have committed a terrible sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh;
maybe I will be able to atone for your sin."); unto him ye must listen;
Deu 18:16 According to all that thou
desired of Yahweh Eloheicha (your Elohimin) Chorev in the Yom HaKahal (day of
the congregation), saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh Elohav
(your Elohim), neither let me see this eish hagedolah (‘great fire’) any more,
that I die not.
Deu 18:17 And Yahweh said unto me, They
have well-spoken that which they have spoken.
Deu 18:18 I will raise them up a Navi
(prophet) from among their achim (brethren), like unto thee, and will put My
words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him
[Yn 10:18].
Deu 18:19 And it shall come to pass,
that whosoever will not listen unto My words which he shall speak Bishmi (in My
Name), I will require it of him.
Joh 8:28 Therefore, Rebbe, Melech
HaMoshiach said to them, When you perform the hagbah (lifting up) of
the Ben HaAdam, you will have da'as (knowledge) that Ani Hu [YESHAYAH
41:4; SHEMOT 3:14-16], and from myself I do nothing, but as HaAv (the Father)
of me taught me, these things I speak.
[1]
Dictionary of the Talmud. M. Jastrow p. 1178 פלח
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