This week's Torah portion coincides with Rosh Chodesh Adar -- the beginning of the month of Adar, the happiest month of the year. Actually, this year is a Jewish leap year, meaning that we add an extra lunar month (about 29 days) to the calendar so that it stays in rough alignment with the solar calendar. The tradition is that we add a second Adar -- why not have two of the happiest months in a row?
In the Torah portion, Moses conveys the basic framework of civil law as handed down by God. He then ascends Mount Sinai to receive the rest of the law, and will spend 40 days there -- a fateful 40 days...
...He will receive not only the written law, but also the Oral Law. The proof of the existence of the Oral Law is in this very portion, when the Torah talks about "an eye for an eye" and "a tooth for a tooth."
Without the Oral Law to explain that this way of putting this means the monetary value of an eye or a tooth, we would have the barbaric practice of extracting eyes and teeth as punishment.
I love the teachings at the end -- that if you follow all the laws, then all suffering will disappear, even childlessness ... of course this will prove to be almost impossible. But it is a goal to which we aspire.
This week'd portion begins the book of Numbers. Interestingly, the Hebrew name for the book is "In the Desert," not "Numbers." The portion, which happens to be my bar mitzvah portion, focuses almost as much on the names of the princes of each tribe as the number of soldiers it fielded. It also focuses on the configuration of the tribal camps around the central Tabernacle and the Levites.
So why "Numbers" instead of "Names" or "Places"? The numbers are, to be sure, a unique feature of the opening of this Biblical book -- but they are not the focus of the rest of the narrative. The Hebrew focuses on the place where the events in the book take place, because essentially this is the narrative of the Israelites' wanderings from Egypt to Israel, across 40 years. We move from the giving of the Torah and the construction of the Tabernacle in Exodus and Leviticus, to the final valediction of Moses in Deuteronomy -- Bamidbar is the story of wandering that happened in between.
The question of ...
This week's portion begins with the laws of the Sabbath and the Sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year that restores all land to its original (tribal) owners. It also explores laws of property and labor that will apply in the Land of Israel, and the laws of vows and inheritance.
The Israelites are presented -- not for the last time -- with the essential moral choice that they must face, and the rewards for choosing well, along with the consequences for choosing poorly.
We learn that doing good things will earn God's protection from enemies. That does not mean that victims of terror, God forbid, were sinful. But it does mean that we can respond to evil by committing ourselves to a higher path.
This week's portion describes the major sacrifices that are to be offered by the Jewish people, including those that are offered only by the priestly Kohen class, and physical requirements of the people (men) who serve in that role.
Inter alia, there are interesting commandments -- such as an injection to treat animals with respect and care, first, by letting a mother animal nurse her offspring for a week before being offered in any sacrifice; and second, by refraining from slaughtering an animal and its offspring on the same day.
The commandments regarding animals remind us of the purpose of those regarding human beings: to uphold a divine connection, through ritual.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111878/jewish/Rabbi-Isaac-Luria-The-Ari-Hakodosh.htm
