Shabbat Reflection: Parashat Naso

By Rabbi David

June 2, 2023 / 13 Sivan 5783

A century ago, Martin Buber introduced the concept of leitworter (the key word) to Biblical studies. A leitwort  is “a word or linguistic root that recurs within a text, a sequence of texts, or a complex of texts in an extremely meaningful manner.”

Bible scholar Shani Tzoref suggests that “an extended use of Leitwörter can be identified in the book of Numbers, in the strategic repetition of the roots נסע and נשא to shape the readers’ impression of Israel’s journey through the wilderness. This repetition is not merely aesthetic, but functional.”

The second of those Hebrew roots – נ.ש.א (nun, sin, aleph) – dominates this week’s parashah beginning with its very name, נשוא – Naso. At it’s core, the root nun-sin-aleph (נ,ש,א) means ‘to raise up’ or ‘to lift up.’ Dr. Tzoref gives us a handy list of its uses in the opening chapters of Numbers which describe Counting, leading, shlepping – the central themes of the first parashiot of the Torah’s fourth book. All derive from the root nun-sin-aleph (נ,ש,א).

The 19th century Hasidic master, R Mordecai Leiner of Ishbitz, makes of the various meanings a coherent (and compelling) message. “For ‘count,’ literally ‘raise, naso in Hebrew, refers to hitnasoot, a state of spiritual elevation, or importance, achieved…by deliberately entering oneself into situations of doubt and uncertainty, and by being tested. In other words, from yisas’u, the act of carrying on their shoulder, a cognate of naso, or raise, we learn that they had reached the state of patience necessary to enter into and cope with places of uncertainty.”

And the same root makes an appearance in Naso’s best known passage, Birkat Kohanim, the priestly benediction! יִשָּׂ֨א יְהֹוָ֤ה ׀ פָּנָיו֙ אֵלֶ֔יךָ וְיָשֵׂ֥ם לְךָ֖ שָׁלֽוֹם׃ – May YHWH lift up God’s face toward you and grant you shalom! The Midrash wonders what might prompt God to raise the divine face in our direction. Why indeed? אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא כְּשֵׁם שֶׁהֵם נוֹשְׂאִים לִי פָּנִים, כָּךְ אֲנִי נוֹשֵׂא לָהֶם פָּנִים – Says God: just as they lift their faces toward Me, so too I lift My face toward them.

The central message, then, of the leitwort נ,ש,א goes something like this: Hold Your Head Up! Good and blessed things follow from your (or my) choosing to stand up and be counted. 

Shabbat Shalom