Inner Peace

In Chapter 6 of this weeks parshah, we learn about the laws of the Nazirite; the case of an individual who wishes to take upon himself extra stringencies, most probably with the intention of strengthening his commitment to God. For thirty days, this individual is prohibited from drinking wine, cutting his/her hair, and coming in contact with a corpse. At the end of the thirty-day period, he/she brings a special offering marking the completion of the entire Nazirite process.

Immediately after, the Torah then speaks about the three-part priestly blessing that the Kohanim (the priests of the Temple) bestow upon the Jewish nation daily. The juxtaposition of these sections seems odd at first and the obvious question that comes to mind is what is the connection between these two? How is the Nazirite related to the priestly blessing?

Following the priestly blessing, Chapter 7 then describes the special sacrifices offered by the leaders of each tribe for the inauguration ceremony of the Mishkan (the Tabernacle, God’s dwelling place). Again we may note the seemingly strange positioning of this segment! Once more we should be asking ourselves about the relationship between these two sections; is there a link that exists between these special sacrifices and the previously mentioned priestly blessings?

In order to come to an understanding of our question we will first probe one section on its own; that of the inaugural sacrifices. Interestingly, the description of these offerings is unlike anything else written in the entire Torah. As the verses demonstrate, each leader offered the same exact sacrifice; there literally was not one discrepancy between any of the 12 offerings from each of them. Therefore, it would be common sense to detail the offerings in only one paragraph and conclude with something like “This was the inaugural sacrifice offered up by the leader of each tribe”. Instead, the Torah repeats the inaugural sacrifice 12 times; once for every leader! The Torah, in its divine essence, cannot contain anything superfluous. So why was it necessary to repeat the same exact thing 12 times, word for word, when it could’ve easily been written just once!? Let us attempt to solve this dilemma.

Often times in Jewish life, it is very common for someone, in his service to God, to feel like he’s doing the same exact thing every day. Years go by and one can still feel he resides in the same spiritual status as before and that he hasn’t changed a bit in his relationship with God. With time, his religious service becomes quite monotonous and he doesn’t really feel any sense of spirituality at all while fulfilling God’s various commandments. This is a frequent problem that even existed back in the times of the Holy Temple. Even then it was possible for a Jew to simply feel a lack of improvement in his religious growth, and the unchanging rituals make him feel like an emotionless robot. Therefore, certain individuals felt it necessary to temporarily impose upon themselves additional stringencies in their daily religious routine. This was often times the mindset of the Nazirite (explained above). This individual felt that by going the extra mile for a certain amount of time (30 days or longer), it would help rejuvenate his commitment to God and aid him in keeping His commandments on a daily routine.

But the truth is that this is not always the necessary solution. If only one would have true patience, over many years his daily prayers or other religious rituals would eventually flourish and begin to actually mean something to him. He just needs to realize that with time, his spiritual chasm would sooner or later fill up. Even by doing the same thing as everyone else, one can really obtain that desired spiritual feeling after some time. And because every individual is different, any religious practice, as repetitive as it may seem, can express itself in its own significant way for that particular person.

This was the message of the seemingly repetitious description of the inaugural offerings. The Midrash (inherited teachings of Moses from Sinai) explains that although each sacrifice was identical, because each leader had his own special intention while he brought up the offering, it was as if each offering was in fact different. Therefore, if one could comprehend the inner thoughts and emotions of each tribal leader, rather than observing the outer performance of the offering, one would see that each sacrifice indeed had its own special significance

This may explain why the inauguration offerings are found right after the laws of the Nazirite. The moral is that sometimes it isn’t necessary to act different, like the Nazirite, in order to realize your own uniqueness, as each tribal leader exemplified. All too often, people tend to disregard their own individual strengths and in order to feel different from everyone else they develop the need to do something extreme like die their hair blue or pierce their body in every possible way.

If we only focused on the inner dimension we’d find that even the simplest actions we perform can be truly unique; although our actions may sometimes appear identical to everyone else’s on the outside, they can be worlds apart on the inside. This inner vision is in fact the meaning of the priestly blessing.
The concluding words of the three-part priestly recitation is that God should “…establish peace for you” [Numbers: 6: 26]. This blessing for peace should not be viewed as only the final part of the three-part blessing, but rather as the ultimate goal of the entire blessing. What is the meaning of this peace and how does it tie together everything we’ve said thus far?

In the blessing for peace in the Shemoneh Esrei prayer service, we pray to God to “Establish peace…upon us and upon all of Your people Israel…” If we’re begging for peace within the Jewish nation (“upon all Your people Israel”), then whom are we referring to when we declare “upon us” just before that!? The answer is that there are two realms of peace; on the one hand there must exist a universal peace between man and his fellow human being, but on the other hand there must also exist an individual peace between man and himself. Not only do we demand God for peace between ourselves and other members of the world, but we also request God to bestow peace within each and every one of us. This realm of individual peace is what seems to be included in the priestly blessing. The words of the priestly blessings are all written in the singular, rather than plural (which would seem more fitting since this blessing was declared to the nation), as if the blessing was directed toward an individual. But that is the very point! The blessing is indeed meant to be directed toward each and every Jew on his own individual and unique level.

It is this inner peace that is necessary for us to recognize the harmony in our own individual lives. It is this inner peace that allows us to understand our true selves and our own unique characteristics, without having to result in adopting radical outward behaviours in order to feel different. May we all merit to come closer to understanding the inner meaning within ourselves and to uncovering our true individual essence.

Good Shabbos,

NZL