Dear Friends,
This is my favorite Torah portion of the year.
Yes, I have been known to say this on other occasions, and those other portions are favorites, as well. But our portion of this week, Parashat Naso, is my favorite (Shhh! Don’t tell the others!)
This portion not only includes the marvelously powerful and compelling Priestly Blessing… “May God bless you and keep you…” but it also was the portion which I read when my brother and I were B’nai Mitzvah. It was the first time I read Torah, and the first portion which I would study, prepare and about which I would speak. So, when it rolls around each year, it offers a special reflection. And, this year is a special anniversary year for me… so allow this D’var Torah to be a bit contemplative.
We need milestones. They ground us, and they offer vistas from which to peer backwards, and ahead. I have a few Torah portion milestones in the annual cycle of Torah. One, in Genesis, reminds me of my years in rabbinical school, as I read it and spoke about it in front of the school faculty three times. I chuckle as I think back to those rather sophomoric attempts at making meaning, when I had little experience of meaning to offer. But, such is professional schooling.
And, this week, when we read from Numbers, chapters 4-7, is a milestone of warm fuzzies. It reminds me to be extra curious when our students first encounter Torah, or when I sit with a Bar or Bat Mitzvah student who is struggling to find an idea for her or his D’var Torah, or when a Confirmation student steps up to read again from Torah, making a deep commitment, as we experienced last Sunday morning at Shavuot.
Parashat Naso, “May God bless you and keep you...” has such majesty and power, and the ability to change a moment, or a life, that I still pinch myself thinking back that I had the privilege to read those lofty words when I was but 13. Perhaps, if I had read a more mundane section, I would already have forgotten the moment. Afterall, I did not recognize my rabbinic career path until I was in my 20’s, not at 13. Yet, this portion proved endearing and enduring.
This week, it will be my privilege again to offer a few teachings about Parashat Naso – in this message, at our Temple Annual Meeting on Wednesday, and on Shabbat on Friday and Saturday. I will bask in its import, and I will seek still newer meanings from the text, and maybe struggle, too, as I have each year for many decades. And then I will roll the Torah to the next section. Such it is: ephemeral, lasting for but a week, and then surrendering to a flip of the calendar’s page. But, while it is here, it demands attention and has an incomparable claim on our soul.
Thank you for rolling it with me this year!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
This is my favorite Torah portion of the year.
Yes, I have been known to say this on other occasions, and those other portions are favorites, as well. But our portion of this week, Parashat Naso, is my favorite (Shhh! Don’t tell the others!)
This portion not only includes the marvelously powerful and compelling Priestly Blessing… “May God bless you and keep you…” but it also was the portion which I read when my brother and I were B’nai Mitzvah. It was the first time I read Torah, and the first portion which I would study, prepare and about which I would speak. So, when it rolls around each year, it offers a special reflection. And, this year is a special anniversary year for me… so allow this D’var Torah to be a bit contemplative.
We need milestones. They ground us, and they offer vistas from which to peer backwards, and ahead. I have a few Torah portion milestones in the annual cycle of Torah. One, in Genesis, reminds me of my years in rabbinical school, as I read it and spoke about it in front of the school faculty three times. I chuckle as I think back to those rather sophomoric attempts at making meaning, when I had little experience of meaning to offer. But, such is professional schooling.
And, this week, when we read from Numbers, chapters 4-7, is a milestone of warm fuzzies. It reminds me to be extra curious when our students first encounter Torah, or when I sit with a Bar or Bat Mitzvah student who is struggling to find an idea for her or his D’var Torah, or when a Confirmation student steps up to read again from Torah, making a deep commitment, as we experienced last Sunday morning at Shavuot.
Parashat Naso, “May God bless you and keep you...” has such majesty and power, and the ability to change a moment, or a life, that I still pinch myself thinking back that I had the privilege to read those lofty words when I was but 13. Perhaps, if I had read a more mundane section, I would already have forgotten the moment. Afterall, I did not recognize my rabbinic career path until I was in my 20’s, not at 13. Yet, this portion proved endearing and enduring.
This week, it will be my privilege again to offer a few teachings about Parashat Naso – in this message, at our Temple Annual Meeting on Wednesday, and on Shabbat on Friday and Saturday. I will bask in its import, and I will seek still newer meanings from the text, and maybe struggle, too, as I have each year for many decades. And then I will roll the Torah to the next section. Such it is: ephemeral, lasting for but a week, and then surrendering to a flip of the calendar’s page. But, while it is here, it demands attention and has an incomparable claim on our soul.
Thank you for rolling it with me this year!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
