"To Stand before God and to Serve Him
STUDENT SUMMARIES OF SICHOT OF THE ROSHEI YESHIVA
PARASHAT NASO
SICHA OF HARAV MOSHEH LICHTENSTEIN
"To Stand before God to Serve Him"
Summarized by Binyamin Frankel
Translated by
At the very end of last
week's parasha, Bamidbar (chapter 4), we read of the command to
Moshe and Aharon:
"Take the number of the sons of Kehat from among the sons of Levi, by their
families, by their fathers' households." (4:2)
The beginning of our parasha, Naso, seems to be a
direct continuation:
"Take the number of the sons of Gershon, too, by their fathers' households, by
their families" (4:22)
And further on, there is a similar command concerning Merari:
"The sons of Merari, by their families, by their fathers' households, shall you
number them" (4:29).
This raises the
question of why the division between parashat Bamidbar and
parashat Naso falls in the middle of what is seemingly a single command.
Would it not make more sense for the break to come either prior to or after the
command concerning all three Levite families?
For an initial answer
to this question we may point to the nature of parashat Bamidbar, which
has as its theme the sanctity of the camp. This theme is embodied by the
children of Kehat to a greater extent than it is by the other Levite families,
since it is they who carry the holy vessels.
While this answer is
not entirely satisfactory, let us dwell for a moment on the differences between
the family of Kehat, on the one hand, and Gershon and Merari, on the other. The
children of Kehat bear on their shoulders the holy vessels of the Mishkan,
while the children of Gershon and Merari are entrusted with the curtains and the
poles, which they transport in special wagons (7:4-9). Since the functions
differ considerably, we might have expected that every Levite might choose for
himself which sort of work he prefers. However, the Rambam speaks out strongly
against such a mindset:
"The entire progeny of Levi is set aside for the service of the Sanctuary, as it
is written, 'At that time God set aside the tribe of Levi' (Devarim
10:8), and it is a positive commandment for the Leviim to be available and ready
for Sanctuary service, whether they so desired or not, as it is written, 'And
the Levites shall perform the service of the Tent of Meeting' (Bamidbar
18:23). A Levite who accepted upon himself all the Levite commandments except
for one matter, is not accepted until he accepts everything." (Hilkhot
Klei Ha-Mikdash 3:1)
If a Levite comes and
asks to be assigned a specific task perhaps carrying the boards, or the
Menora, during the period of the Mishkan, or singing or guard-duty later
on, during the period of the
Apparently, according
to the Rambam, the law of Levite service is "for the Leviim to be available and
ready for Sanctuary service, whether they so desired or not." In other words, it
is obligatory for the Levi to be entirely, completely available for any service
whatsoever. The point here is not that some specific service will be carried
out, but rather that the person will be ready to serve wherever he needs to.
In his shiur "Teki'a
ve-shira ba-mikdash," Rav Soloveitchik discusses, inter alia, the difference
between a Kohen and a Levi when it comes to sounding the shofar (Shiurim
Le-Zekher Abba Mari z"l, vol. 2, p. 73). Addressing the Rambam's words
above, he writes:
"In explaining this, it would seem that a special law of distinction applies to
the Leviim, requiring them to count themselves ready for some service,
and each of the Leviim is separated and appointed to a particular service
one is a gatekeeper, another is a singer, etc. The 'acceptance' that the
Rambam is talking about, then, means a formal status of appointment to service
in general and designation for a particular role in the service. Hence, his
appointment to any particular service is dependent and conditional upon his
readiness to devote himself to all of the Levite commandments. If he
specifically wants, for example, to be appointed as a singer, and not as a
gatekeeper, then he is not appointed to what he prefers to do."
Not only is he not appointed to his preferred task:
"Moreover, it would seem that the need for the preparation and appointment of
the Levi is what invokes the concept of 'foreignness' (zarut) concerning
the service of the Leviim, for someone who is not appointed
is defined
as a 'zar' owing to his non-appointment."
In any event, we see that what is required of a Levi is absolute
devotion and a complete readiness to fulfill whatever function is required of
him.
Let us try to
understand the meaning of this demand for devotion by drawing a comparison with
a different sort of "labor army." Let us imagine the following situation: Upon
reaching the age of service in the Mishkan, many Leviim are
observed to be full of combat spirit, practicing for months prior to the
assignation to
But what could this
sort of situation lead to? After some time, we would hear the combat-spirited
candidates who had not been accepted to Bnei Kehat issuing the
same sort of statements that we sometimes hear today: "Either I'm in Sayeret
Matkal (an elite IDF unit), or I'm not going to serve at all." Similarly,
there would be threats on the opposite side. During the interviews for the
yeshiva last year, I heard from many students that they wanted to serve
specifically in army intelligence, backing this up with the ultimate
explanation: "I'm suited to it." One confided to me that the Hesder
program didn't seem moral to him. When I asked what he was planning to do in the
army, he answered, "Intelligence." Even without weighing up a full year and four
months of combat service against a short work day, five days a week, for three
years, this high-school student still didn't think there was any moral problem
with spending his army service sitting in front of a computer in an
air-conditioned office while others were literally spitting blood, their mothers
sleepless for weeks on end.
This phenomenon is
caused by one single thing: the search for "What suits me" or "what is
convenient for me." Some people don't understand that what is required of them
is to serve the country, and they must do what the state sees fit to ask of
them. Hesder yeshiva students must know that if they are required to
serve as cooks in IDF kitchens, then that is what they should do, willingly,
with the same eagerness with which they would serve in Sayeret Matkal or
in Intelligence.
It is important to
emphasize that this service orientation applies not only to the army, but also
to civilian life. When Rav Soloveitchik passed away, it was a Thursday, at 8 PM
in
This person worked in a
seemingly mundane position; despite this, he felt with his whole being that his
job required him to exert his best efforts. Perhaps the great majority of his
time was spent on standard orders that required no special degree of commitment,
but those few special cases where he was required to demonstrate a real service
orientation, testified to his general approach and to the true nature and
importance of his conduct.
The fact that a person
is an idealistic and has a sense of mission does not express itself only in the
fact that he devotes free time to Torah study and gives shiurim in the
workplace, no matter how lofty this may be. It manifests itself in his readiness
to stand at the disposal of Am Yisrael, in whatever way he is needed, and
not necessarily in a way that will help advance him. This consciousness is well
anchored in the Rambam's formulation, "for the Leviim to be available and
ready."
If we, too, attain this
meaningful consciousness, then with God's help we will merit what Rambam tells
us:
"And not only the tribe of Levi, but any individual whatsoever whose spirit
moves him and whose thinking leads him to separate himself to stand before God,
to serve Him and to worship Him, to know God and to walk uprightly as God made
him, and who breaks from upon his neck the yoke of the many accountings that
people pursue, then he is sanctified as a holy of holies, and God will be his
portion and his inheritance forever and for eternity, and He will provide him in
this world with his needs." (Hilkhot Shemitta ve-Yovel
13:13)
(This sicha was delivered at seuda shelishit, Shabbat
parashat Bamidbar 5770 [2010].)