podcast #16 Naso and Shavuot

This week's Parasha is Parashat Naser, the longest Parasha in the Torah. It focuses on the Levites and their roles in serving the Kohanim. The Parasha also discusses the theme of being chosen by God and the burden that comes with it. The conversation also touches on the genetic connection between the Levites of today and the original Levites. The discussion ends with a reflection on the Jewish approach to life, balancing self-worth with humility. Shalom everyone, we are sitting here together again, joyfully, and this week we have a double, not a double parashah, but a double celebration. One is the weekly parashah, it's parashat Nassau, with the priestly blessings, which is beautiful. Another is Shavuot, Shavuot is going to be Thursday evening, so we're going to try and weave in all these themes together one way or another, so shalom, shalom. Shalom Elisha, nice to be here again, and we have parashat Nassau. Thanks to the wonders of computers, Elisha, we know exactly how many words are in the parashah, even how many letters, and parashat Nassau is, as you know, the longest parashah in the Torah, it has 2,264 words according to a computer, 176 verses, and there are 311 lines in the Torah scroll for parashat Nassau. By Maseh Elisha, we're in Bamidbar, this is a wonderful and interesting chapter, but boy Elisha, for the longest parashah, this is a shopping list of the Levites and their jobs and who does what. It's pretty hard to find pearls of wisdom there, but I think we have quite a few. Yeah, they're always, always, always there, even when it's the most difficult to find wisdom. It's just because we didn't work hard enough, but you worked hard here, so I know we'll find wisdom. Here is a connection with Shavuot, we celebrate Thursday night, so Shavuot, the children of Israel, we receive the Torah, and we say in the prayer book, Atah Bechartanu, you chose us to receive the Torah. I read that some Jewish people, our friends in the Reform, do not say Atah Bechartanu, because that's, what are you talking about, that's prideful, but Elisha, Nassau means to carry, to bear, like to bear a burden, and in some ways this Torah that we are given and brought to the world, it's a burden, it's a burden to be a light unto the nations. It demands high standards, and the truth is we have paid a price for this message that we have brought to the world, and it's the foundation of other great religions. Yeah, yeah, that's a beautiful way of, I think, of reframing it, because you're right, for the modern ear and mind and heart, the idea of being chosen is problematic. For many, many years, I like to say that every nation was chosen, but chosen for a different task, and that we indeed were chosen for a certain task, and we could also look at human beings and see, I see that a lot with our Bar Mitzvah kids, sometimes we have Bar Mitzvah kids who are really incredibly capable and unique, like yesterday I met with a Bar Mitzvah family, the Bar Mitzvah is coming up, and the kid is just amazingly capable and full of skills and abilities, and we talked about how being granted so many gifts in life, so many abilities, and being so bright and smart and clever, it actually, that means that he carries a burden, it's a burden, and the burden is, you can't put those qualities to waste. You were chosen to bear all these great qualities and bring them to the world, so you're right, being chosen is not chosen for a prize, it's chosen to carry a burden. Absolutely. So, the Parsha is about the Levites, and I did some research about the Levites, the Levites were the tribe of Levi, and they were given this special task of basically helping to serve the Kohanim, the priests, they were kind of the backup, the followers of the Kohanim, with specific jobs, you know, for years I taught management workshops, and it was always about leadership, how to be a leader, managers want to be a leader, but the truth is, it's as important to learn to be a follower as a leader. Especially for us Jews, we don't like being followers, we love leading I think. Not everybody wants to be a leader, but being a follower is crucial, because as the Levites show, this is crucially important sometimes, and the sign of a leader is really about the followers. A leader, a great leader, makes his followers do things that they couldn't and wouldn't do otherwise, so leadership is not just about the ego of the leader, it's about the followers that he inspires, it's about the quality of the Levites and how well they do their job. Interesting, so you're suggesting that the followers, it's an art being a follower, not just a leader, and in this case you see the Levites as followers or leaders in this case? They're followers, I see them as followers, and the reason this is important, if you think about it, and I'm thinking about my own army experience, so it's been a year and the Children of Israel left Egypt, and they are still slaves in their mentality, it takes a long time to get rid of that slave mentality, and they're going through an exercise here of discipline and organization, because when they come to the Holy Land, and it's going to take them longer than they thought, they will have to be a powerful, disciplined group of people, they will be outnumbered in many cases, they'll have to fight, fighting means you have to have a disciplined army, so this is basic training, Elisha, including the Levites, including the Mishkan, including how you organize things, and it reminds me a lot of basic training. I did shortened basic training, Shlavbet, because I was married, and I did it with drug addicts and convicted criminals and Hasidim and rabbis, thrown into the same unit, it was a wonderful experience, and we had to do what is called the Mizdar, which you know well, which is to make our bed and make the bunk absolutely ship-shape, and a lot of it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me as a professor, but obviously, you learn discipline, you're given an order, you don't question it, you just do it, and that to me seems to be part of what's happening in the Parsha. It's true, it's about the Mishkan, it's about the ritual, which is important, but it's also about taking this rag-tag group of people and turning them into a cohesive, organized, disciplined band of people. That's interesting, very interesting what you're saying, especially, we also know that the Levites, or the original Levites, we know his background, and he was very unruly. He was the one, along with Shimon, who barged into the city of Shechem and massacred all the men as they were healing from the circumcision, after agreeing to Jacob's conditions to marry Dina, and Jacob was very upset with their act, and maybe that's a sign of how unruly they might be, so perhaps, what you're saying now, that's the big tikkun, there's always a big question, how come Levi, the tribe of Levi, and, or rather, Levi himself and his clan, they end in the book of Bereshit, of Genesis, with Jacob's reprimand, with Jacob's conviction that they made him so angry and so furious, they're going to be scattered among the tribes of Israel, and it seemed like both them and Shimon were doomed, and lo and behold, Bereshit ends, Shemot begins, and who takes over the leadership of the people of Israel? The tribe of Levi. Lo and behold, Moshe, Aaron, Miriam, and later the Kohanim and Leviim, so it raises the question, could it be that Jacob's prophecy was wrong, or maybe he was right, I mean, they were indeed scattered, they were not to own land, and they were scattered among the people, among the tribes of Israel, but nevertheless, they attained a lot of power and a huge status, and perhaps, with what you just said now, it's coming to say, it follows Jacob's call, or it wasn't exactly a prophecy, the Sages say it wasn't a prophecy, but rather a call to order, saying, you are unruly, and therefore, you're going to be scattered, but you're going to be given a regiment, you're going to be given tasks, you're going to know exactly what you need to do every single day, so you will never ever do what you did to me many many years ago. You know, Elisha, I was curious, reading this parashah, reading your parashah, I wondered to myself, so we have koanim today, and leviim, we call the kohena first to the Torah, then we call the leviim, we have one levi in our congregation, normally, Oh, we just have two, now we have two, we finally have two! Two, yes! We have two! My question was, are these really leviim, are they really descendants of Moshe and Aharon? And the answer is yes, Professor Skoretsky at the Technion, who is religious, observant, did genetic research, and creatively looked at the Y-chromosome, because that's what men have, and the koanuth and leviim, they're passed on, patrilineal, from father to son, so if there is a genetic trace, it should be in the Y-chromosome, and he found it, he found it. The leviim today, really, not all of them, but there is a high probability, based on this unique genetic marker that they have, 4% of the Jewish population are kohenim, and 4% are leviim. And that 8% of the Jewish population means there are 1.1 million kohenim and leviim, and of course the kohenim are also from the tribe of levi. So they're here, they're still here. One last comment, I have to mention this. So the ultra-Orthodox don't really like this research, and they cite a principle that I want to ask you about, Elisha. According to Rabbi Shafran, he's from Agudat Yisrael in the United States, he says that Jewish law permits as evidence only those things that are discernible to the five unaided senses. Genes, you have to see under a microscope. Not allowed, not eligible, not legitimate. That's a bit problematic to me, because many things in modern medicine require the microscope. What do we say about this principle? Have you heard this? I haven't, I haven't. So you're saying, so I want to make sure that I fully understand. It needs to be something that is easily distinguishable by our senses. Specifically, vision. And seeing genes, you need a microscope, and therefore it doesn't count. Okay, so then, would he suggest another option? Would he say, you know, don't even go there, just accept it. The Levi's of today are descendants of the original Levi, and the Kuanin today are descendants of Aaron, period. Just trust the process. Believe, leap of faith. Yes, that's legitimate. But it troubles me a bit, because we can test genetically embryos, and prevent some really horrendous genetic illnesses that sometimes kids are born with. And this principle, I think, would not allow that. So, this principle is not just to determine who is a Levi, who is a Kohen, but to determine anything and everything, and that includes also prenatal examinations, etc., that are not permissible according to that view. I have to say, my wife and I underwent genetic testing, and I, and my family, we are carriers of Tay-Sachs. And Tay-Sachs is a genetic illness of Ashkenazim, and it's recessive. But if both you and your wife have it, there's a high probability that one of your children will also have it. And it's an awful genetic illness. And, of course, we informed all of my family. Unfortunately, we're all fine. The kids are fine. But this genetic testing is very, very important. And it should be done by everyone. So, that's a huge, that's a difficult point. And, obviously, it touches on issues of ethics, medical ethics. But, in a sense, you know, neither of us are medical ethicists. What's the word? Ethicists? Ethicists. Ethicists. Okay. I'd like to look at it from a faith perspective. There's a part in me that's drawn, drawn to the conclusion of this rabbi, Rabbi Shafran, because I really do believe in the power of faith. I strongly believe in the power of faith. There is a pasuk, a verse in Deuteronomy, which I chose as my pasuk for my ordination 22, 23 years ago. And that is, Tamim in modern Hebrew means gullible. But it also means naive. But in ancient Hebrew, it means whole. From the word tam, shalim. Be whole with the Lord your God. And I actually wrote a whole shuva on the subject of astrology. I've always loved astrology. It may be shocking to some people. How could a modern day rabbi kind of love astrology? But I do. I really do. And it's important also to say that until Maimonides, 800 years ago, 850 years ago, most of the rabbis, most of the big rabbis were astrologers. And there's a lot of astrology in the Talmud. And when I was in rabbinical school and we all had to write a shuva, a religious, a halachic decree on a topic of our choice, I wanted to choose astrology. Is that permissible today? And my teacher, Professor David Golinkin, the great professor David Golinkin, said, what? Are you really going to miss that, you know, I don't want to use horrible language here. This is, you know, again, I don't want to use bad language here. And I said, yes, I do. I absolutely do. I'm drawn to astrology. I really love it. And first of all, in the shuva that I wrote, I discovered just how much astrology there is in Judaism. It's full of astrology. And the Talmud is full of astrology. The sages say that Abraham was an astrologer. In fact, he, when God told him, like, God, if you tend to look at the sky, you know, count your, as many of the stars that you see, they're going to be descendants of yours. And the sages say, no. God said to him, Abraham, you're an astrologer. Go look at the sky. Look at the stars. And what is God's answer to him, to this astrologer called Abraham? He said, even though I know that according to astrology, you are not destined to have a son. And I know you're looking up at the sky and you're seeing, oh my God, I am not going to have a son. I'm telling you, you will. You will. All these stars are telling you you're not going to have a son. They will be proof that you will indeed have a son. And what is the final dictum here, the final conclusion? Even though astrologically the astrology may say X or Y, if you have enough faith, then astrology will not be the decisive factor. Faith will. So now bringing it back to our conversation here. We know today there's genetics and there's epigenetics. Not all genes get activated. So perhaps the sages were right. Perhaps this rabbi is somewhat correct. But I'm going to modify this in a second. Okay, don't worry. Suggesting that, yeah, the genetics are problematic here. There's a genetic problem here. Nevertheless, genetics are not the only factor here. And if we pray, if we have faith, then the destiny may be different. And I'm very drawn to that. I love that. I love that idea. Yet, yet. In a tshuva on astrology, I also found there that you don't go by miracles. If you have information, if, back to astrology a second, if an astrologer said to you, Hey, you know, Shlomo, be careful. Etc. Tomorrow this and that may happen. Then you cannot say, I will not follow astrology. No. Listen to what you heard. Don't trust miracles. And take the precautions needed. So it comes back to, if you know that there's a genetic risk here, don't override it. Be cautious here and listen carefully to the doctors. That was a long, long comment. I apologize. That was cool. So at least I'm a number guy. I'm an economist. That's what I do. Unfortunately, I mentioned this in our class on Sunday night. And it's related to what you say about genes. They did a study of 450 people from South America, North America, Europe, Africa, all over the world, and compared the genes of these 400 plus people to see what is common and what is not. Human beings have 22,500 genes, active genes. And of these, they found 99.6% of these genes, that is all but 90 of these 22,000 genes, are exactly the same in human beings. In other words, genetically we are the same. Black, yellow, white, brown, whatever. But we're different. We're human beings are different. And this is related to what you mentioned, epigenetics. Depending where we are, our culture, our parents, our surroundings, the genes are turned on and off by what we live and what we do and what we experience, and by our own will. By our own will. Yeah, and that is so incredibly deep. Especially if we do connect it to Shavuot, if we connect it to Shavuot, Shavuot will receive the Torah. The Torah is a symbol of freedom, of liberty. We came out of Egypt, but we were not truly free until we received the Torah. And the way the Saviors understand that is that freedom is in your relationship with God. In our relationship with the physical universe, there's no freedom. Spinoza taught us that. Spinoza would say, there is no freedom. We also talked about that. You and I talked about that. It's all deterministic. So those who've heard our podcast before may remember that in the organic world, in the world of matter, there's cause and effect. And if you have a certain chemical compound, it will impact matter in a certain way, etc., etc. And that's also true for genetics. However, there is this mysterious element to life. And freedom of choice lies in the mysterious. And will, you mentioned the word will. I think will is one of those examples where as Herschel said, if you will it, it is no dream. If you will it, you can defy matter. If you will it, you can defy determinism. And that was eventually also the final answer to astrology, that no, you are not allowed to consult astrologers because it takes away your will, your freedom of choice. However, if you're willing to look at reality and say, Okay, in the world of matter, this is what it says. However, just as we saw in Yom Kippur, If we pray, if we give tzedakah, tzedakah means caring. If we care, if we help others, if we're generous, and if we do tshuva to return, return back to ourselves, we can change. We can change even matter. We can even change the chemistry. Absolutely. I have a question, Elisha. I want to ask you a question based on a Hasidic rabbi. I found this in Rabbi Sachs' wonderful website, which is amazing. He writes as follows. The Hasidic master rabbi Simcha Bunim of Przedska summed up the Jewish approach to life. And here is his approach. So Simcha Bunim says we should each have two pockets. And we should put a piece of paper in each pocket. On one pocket, for my sake the world was created. In other words, I have great worth, great self-worth. I count. On the other piece of paper is written, I am but dust and ashes. I am nothing. And you put these two pieces of paper in your pocket, and you live by this dialectic, which is really, really difficult. Because how in the world do you find the balance between your self-worth as a deterministic person who sets your fate, and as dust and ashes that are driven and blown by the wind and by the stars and whatever? This powerful dialectic, which is so hard to manage. How do you manage this dialectic? Yeah, I don't. I mean, I do and I don't. First of all, I love that. It's usually quoted around Osh Shanaim Kippur, and it's a beautiful, beautiful Hasidic teaching, those two notes in the two different pockets. I think we oscillate. We oscillate between moments of me, me, me, and self-importance, and moments of realizing, gosh, we're just like dust in the wind. We're just dust in the wind. And it's so beautiful that he said, you know, carry these two notes in both pockets. But, you know, I want to take it one step further and suggest that it's very Jewish. It's very Jewish in the sense of, I think Judaism has never been about either or. So what's the answer? Is it this or is it that? As we know, it's both and. It's always both and. We always have both Hillel and Shammai. We always have, you know, Hasidism, Litvax. We have Masorti, Orthodox, Reform, and Haredi views and opinions. I think the way Judaism looks at it is, since God is infinite, within infinity, there are all the possible options. And one day we are full of ego, and the next day we are really humbled by life. Absolutely. Elisha, going back to the Parsa, the Parsa is called Nassau, which is to bear. And we use it in modern Hebrew. Often we say, Z'kashemi Nassau. It's a burden that's too heavy to bear. In your classes, you often bring wonderful songs that illustrate what we're going to talk about. I found a song that's one of my favorites. Maybe we can end by reading the words of the song, if that's alright. Sure. You might know it. Yeah, this was actually one of the songs we used, I think in our first, in our last series about love. About love, that was the song we used. We used this? Yes. Wow, I don't remember that. That was one of the times that you and Shona had a family event. You either married off a grandchild, or you went to a brief, or... So this is a song by the Hollies from 1969, and it's called, He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother. The road is long, with many a winding turn, that leads us to who knows where, who knows where, but I'm strong, strong enough to carry him. He ain't heavy, he's my brother. So on we go, his welfare is of my concern, no burden is he to bear, we'll get there, for I know, he would not encumber me, he ain't heavy, he's my brother. If I'm laden at all, I'm laden with sadness, that everyone's heart isn't filled with the gladness of love for one another. It's a long, long road, from which there is no return, while we're on our way to there, why not share? And the load doesn't weigh me down at all, he ain't heavy, he's my brother. And a very quick story about that, I did a shalav bet in the army in 1968, a shortened teranut, and we had a final march, which was only 15 kilometers, no big deal, but with me was a little red-headed chassid, who had spent his life in yeshiva, and he wasn't really in shape, I was a runner, and he was really struggling, and he really wanted to finish this march, so I carried his weapon, and it was heavy, but as the song said, it wasn't heavy, because he's my brother. That's beautiful. I still remember that, and I wish we could get back to that, because there's so much friction and hatred going on, and we need to get back to the feeling of he's my brother, whoever he is, and he ain't heavy. He ain't heavy. That's beautiful. And you know what the origin of this song is? An Irish priest, I think. Scottish, I think. Scottish priest. Who saw a young girl walking in the streets of Glasgow, if I'm not mistaken, carrying her little brother, a very poor girl, carrying her poor brother, either couldn't walk, or was sick, or something, and he walked over to her, and he's like, are you okay? You must be really heavy. And he said, he ain't heavy. He's my brother. And that's, I call it legend, at least, the origin of this song. So it's a beautiful connection between the song and Parashat Nassau, carrying, the Levites carrying the people, carrying, instead of the children of Israel, the brothers and sisters of Israel. Yes. For 40 years, until we reach the Holy Land. Yes. And maybe to this very day. Maybe. So, Todah Shalom, I want to wish everyone Shavuot, happy Shavuot, and also Shabbat Shalom, because one kind of weaves into the other. And I hope you enjoy the podcast, and share it with others if you liked it, and we always welcome your comments. So, Chag Sameach. Chag Sameach, Shabbat Shalom.