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Mina's Musings: Naso 2016

It’s Not the Same Thing

Shabbat Shalom. 

Since last we gathered for Shabbat, Christina Grimmie, a singer from the Voice was murdered in Orlando by a crazed fan. Late that night, really early Sunday morning in Orlando, forty-nine innocents were slaughtered by an American who had become radicalized and pledged his loyalty to the Islamic State. And then on Tuesday night at a Disney Resort - also basically in Orlando - a two year old child was snatched away from his parents and killed by an alligator.

Three horrible things to befall one city - and really the country - in less than a week. How do we respond to such tragedy? Our hearts are broken, our faith perhaps shaken, and we may even be a little angry. Our first impulse may be to scream out in pain to God, and yet at least for me the feelings are so intense that I finally - kind of - understand the response Aaron, Moses’ brother had when Moses told him that two of Aaron’s sons had just been struck down by God - total silence in the face of such a loss, for what could Aaron say, what can we say?

As always at such a time we turn to the Torah. Now just a short while ago we read from Naso, the second Torah portion in the book of Numbers, and the longest portion in the entire Torah, containing 176 verses. Naso begins with a second census of the Levites, moves to talk about individuals who take a Nazirite vow, then to the ritual undertaken by women whose husband’s who suspected their wives of adultery. All of that is found in the first two thirds of the parashah. But here at Congregation Beth Emeth we follow the triennial cycle. We are in the third year of that cycle and so our reading today was from the final third section of the portion.

That section is devoted to the sacrificial offerings brought by the chiefs of the twelve tribes for the consecration and dedication of the Tabernacle. When studying or listening to this section the first thing we notice is how much space the Torah devotes to the gifts of these n’si’im, these twelve princes of the tribes of Israel. The twelve men give seemingly identical offerings, and yet the Torah, which is oftentimes incredibly sparing in words, goes to the trouble to list separately, in 75 verses, the individual offerings of the chiefs, rather than state succinctly, Nahshon ben Amminadav brought such and such for an offering, and the other chiefs each brought the same offering. The obvious question is why does the Torah devote so space to this repetitive list?

The answer to that question, at least the answer that I like the most, is that even though the items were identical, each individual infused the gifts with their own sense of purpose, qualities which were specific to them and their tribe.

What does this mean? Ironically, Christina Grimmie, z”l, that murdered singer from the Voice can help us understand what I am talking about. Before I continue, how many of you watch the Voice? Ok..... For those of you who DON’T watch the Voice, it is a reality TV singing competition, and it is one we watch regularly at the Goldsmith residence.  

But I digress. What is it that they do on the Voice? In between stories about the coaches/judges and contestants and performances by musical guests, the contestants naturally are asked to sing. Sometimes they sing solos, sometimes they battle it out with another contestant in a duet, and sometimes they sing with one of the coaches/judges. And what is that they sing? Almost exclusively they sing cover songs, which are songs recorded and made famous previously by some other artist. If you’ve never seen the show you might think that the singers most often try to match as closely as possible what the original singer did. After all, they made it famous! However, that’s often not the case. Rather, the contestants often try to sing it in such a way that reflects their OWN personality, THEIR style, not the original. Sometimes the versions are so different that it almost seems like a new song - it’s hard to believe it’s even the same words. I remember watching Christina Grimmie. I even remember one of her cover songs - she did a version of Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling in Love - that brought me to tears and moved me in a way that the original never did. So same exact words, totally different feelings, personalities, etc.  

Just as the challengers in the Voice infuse the music with their own feelings and intentions, so too did the twelve ancient chieftains of ancient Israel infuse seemingly identical gifts with their intentions, wishes and desires relevant to their particular tribe, etc. The truth is that it is the same with all of us. When we gather together in synagogue and pray or listen to the Torah, although we may be reciting or reading the same words, each of us brings our own experiences, our own state of mind, our own intentions, and our own world view, allowing each of us to have a unique and personal experience in the midst of our community.

In short, we are each unique. It is when we join together our very unique and individual personalities and needs and combine them into a community that something truly beautiful can happen. Recently on television there has been a commercial in which a young man is playing a beautiful piece of music on the piano, using as many of the keys as he can. It is lovely. Then he turns around and faces an identical looking piano in which all the keys have been tuned to the same exact note. The music is not music, it is just a single note.

It is the fact that we are each unique that makes the tragedies in Orlando this past week so hard. Every single person who died was part of the tapestry that makes up his/ her family, community, country, and world. Who knows what amazing things each of those innocents who died this week could have brought into our world. This Shabbat let us embrace our individuality, let us cherish it, let our individual voices join together as we cry out for love, tolerance & peace. Amen. 

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784