Naso 5782 ~ June 10, 2022

Our Torah reading for this Shabbat asks questions that begin with the words “What if.”

What if you make a vow, which is a kind of promise but not just any promise, a promise that goes like this:

Everyone is leading prayers… everyone is acting good as a Jew… God loves everyone for doing this…

I want to love God more… so here is what I am going to do:

I am going to pledge to God that I am going to be holier than everyone else,

that I am going to prove that I am better than everyone else to God.

How do you think God is going to react?

Saint or goodie-two-shoes?

God responds, “Okay, if you want to be holier than everyone else, then fine… but that is not what I ask of you! I just want you to be like everyone else, but if you are so insistent… then I am requiring you to change some things up such as you are not allowed to cut your hair; you are not allowed to drink wine or grape juice, or eat grapes…  If, God forbid, something happens where someone you love dies, you cannot attend their funeral, even if is your mother or your father!”

God wants holier people…but…

God does not want us to be holier than other people… he just wants us to live a life with values that are holy and make efforts and actions that are holy.

Which leaves us with the questions:  When is it ok to want to be more and how do we prepare for and achieve that desire? How do we do so, and, at the same time, not become the Nazir, the individual who has the desire to be holier than thou, as described in our Torah portion?

And if our desire is to act in such a manner as the Nazir, then how do we achieve that status in a most humbling of manners?

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi K