Nasso
Take up — נשא
Regular readings above are often interrupted with special readings on Jewish holidays, special Sabbaths, and Rosh Chodesh. Refer to the current Torah Portion Schedule for all these variations, and special portions.
Portion Summary
The second reading from the book of Numbers and the thirty-fifth reading from the Torah is called Nasso (נשא), a word that literally means "lift up." It comes from the first word of the second verse in Hebrew, which could literally be translated to say, "Lift up the heads of the sons of Gershon," an idiomatic way of saying, "Make an accounting of the sons of Gershon." This Torah portion finishes up the census of the Levites that was under way at the end of the last Torah portion, before going on to discuss the purification of the camp, the ritual for a woman suspected of adultery, the laws of the Nazirite vow, the priestly benediction and the gifts the heads of the twelve tribes brought for the dedication of the altar.
Portion Outline
- Torah
- Numbers 4:21 | The Gershonites and Merarites
- Numbers 4:34 | Census of the Levites
- Numbers 5:1 | Unclean Persons
- Numbers 5:5 | Confession and Restitution
- Numbers 5:11 | Concerning an Unfaithful Wife
- Numbers 6:1 | The Nazirites
- Numbers 6:22 | The Priestly Benediction
- Numbers 7:1 | Offerings of the Leaders
- Prophets
- Jdg 13:1 | The Birth of Samson
The Priestly Blessing
The LORD bless you, and keep you; the LORD make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace.
Large crowds gather at the Western Wall in Jerusalem during Passover, 2017, to receive the priestly blessing. (Image: Screenshot, YouTube, Watch)
Numbers 6 closes with the immortal words of the priestly blessing, a commandment for the sons of Aaron to bless Israel. To this day, the sons of Aaron lift their hands over the worshipers in the synagogue service while they utter the words, “The LORD bless you, and keep you; the LORD make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).
The three lines of the priestly benediction each invoke a different aspect of God’s blessing. The first requests God to bless and keep us. Messiah “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah” (Ephesians 1:3). Through Messiah, the blessing of Abraham has come upon the Gentiles, and we all experience “the fullness of the blessing of Messiah” (Romans 15:29). Through Yeshua, God is “able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory” (Jude 24-25).
The second verse of the blessing says, “The LORD make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you” (Numbers 6:25). The shining of the LORD’s face represents His attention and pleasure. His graciousness is the expression of His grace. Messiah is the fulfillment of this request as well. The gift of God’s grace comes through “the redemption which is in Messiah Yeshua” (Romans 3:24). “We believe that we are saved through the grace of the Master Yeshua” (Acts 15:11), which God “freely bestowed on us in the Beloved…according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us” (Ephesians 1:6-8).
The third verse of the blessing says, “The LORD lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace” (Numbers 6:26). The lifting up of the LORD’S countenance upon a person implies the smile of God. Messiah fulfills the request for peace: “We have peace with God through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah” (Romans 5:1).
He told His disciples, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27). “Let the peace of the Messiah rule in your hearts” (Colossians 3:15), and “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in the Messiah Yeshua” (Philippians 4:7). This peace will cover the whole earth in the Messianic Era: “There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore” (Isaiah 9:7).
Erasing God's Name
The Talmud says "One must always be careful of wronging his wife, for her tears are frequent and she is quickly hurt."
(Image: © Bigstock/David Pereiras)
The husband of the woman suspected of adultery is brought to the Tabernacle. The priest officiating the ritual prepares a cocktail of water and dust from the Tabernacle floor. He makes the woman swear an oath that will bring an imprecation upon herself if she is guilty. Then the priest wrote out the words of the oath on a scroll, washed the ink from the scroll into the water and gave the water to the woman.
The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off into the water of bitterness. (Numbers 5:23)
The woman drank the water, symbolizing the ingesting of the curse to prove her guilt or innocence. If she was guilty, the water would harm her. If she was innocent, the water would have no malignant effect on her. Instead, it would increase her fertility.
The procedure raises a difficulty, though. Ordinarily in Judaism it is forbidden to erase God's holy Name. For example, when a scribe is copying the Scriptures in Hebrew, he can erase any mistake he makes unless it contains God's Name. If he errs while writing a line of text with God's Name in it, he can erase the rest of the line, but not the Name of God.
For this reason, observant Jews do not write the Name of God in Hebrew on a chalkboard or white board that might be erased. Documents containing the written Hebrew Name of God take on a more precious status. They are not carelessly dropped or destroyed or irreverently tossed in the garbage. Holy books containing God's Name are not even left face down on a table or placed beneath other, less sacred books. Holy books are never taken into bathrooms. Even photocopies containing God's Name take on a holy status. When a scroll or book or piece of paper containing God's Name is ready for disposal, the item is accorded a proper "burial" of sorts in a repository for sacred writings. These traditions teach us to respect and revere God's Name.
Given the respect accorded to God's Name and the strong tradition against erasing God's Name, why does the Torah command the priest to erase the curse from the scroll into the water? God's holy Name appears twice in the curse. The sages teach that God is so concerned for peace between a husband and wife that He is even willing for His own Name to be erased to bring it about (Sifre 17).
In Judaism, peace between husband and wife is referred to as shalom bayit (שלום בית), a term that literally means "peace of the house." Peace between a husband and wife takes precedence even over the sanctity of God's Name. If that is the case, we need to be careful about allowing religion to disrupt marriage. God is more interested in the success of your marriage than He is in your particular religious choices. He is so committed to the sanctity of marriage that He is even willing for his Name to be erased to preserve peace in the home. How much more should we make every effort to bring peace into our homes.
The Talmud says "One must always be careful of wronging his wife, for her tears are frequent and she is quickly hurt." The Talmudic passage goes on to say that God is quick to respond to a wife's tears and that her tears are more efficacious than his prayers. God takes the tears of a woman very seriously. The passage concludes by saying, "One must always be respectful towards his wife because blessings rest on a man's home only for the sake of his wife." (b.Baba Metzia 59a)
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