Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch has a beautiful commentary on Bamidbar 26:53, which is the opening of the section of the Torah in which Hashem explains how the Promised Land will be divided. The verse says: “To these shall the Land be divided as an inheritance, according to the number of names,” Rav Hirsch comments that this explains that the land was to be divided by each tribe, each family, and each male over twenty years of age. He then says: “This seems to be a realisation of what we have repeatedly remarked as being the fundamental character of the Jewish nation, that the greatest diversity of tribal family and individual characteristics within an equally great spiritual and moral uniformity belong to the calling of the People of the Torah. Each Tribe, each branch of it, each home had its own special characteristics which it is to keep and develop and which is to have its place on the common universal ground of the Torah…”
Reading this statement brings one to the startling realization that our constant call for Jewish unity is truly attainable - And yet, it remains so sadly elusive. Rav Hirsch here accentuates the beauty of twelve shevatim. Each tribe had their own character traits, their own minhagim, and their own strengths. A man from Dan could not be judgemental about a man from Gad being different from him – wearing different type of clothes or singing different tunes to a song – because it was recognized and understood that they would each be different. Different does not mean better and it does not mean worse. Human nature, however, has an unfortunate habit of thinking that something that is different needs to be something that is comparative. In every corner of the earth, people struggle to realize that it is part of the design of the world that different people have different ways of doing things.
It is actually interesting to take a moment and note that the need to be flexible, to accept and make room for variations on the norm, is a lesson from a separate perek of this week’s parsha. Tzelaphchad’s daughters approach Moshe and request to be the inheritors of their father’s land. Before his sin and punishment, Tzelaphchad was part of those who were to have a portion, and that portion was still the right of their family. In no way does there appear to be an opening for a deviation from the normal laws of inheritance, but the women of the family follow the appropriate channels and make their request. From their actions one could take the lesson that it is ok to step outside the norms as long as one does so in a manner befitting Torah, in a way that still recognizes Hashem and Torah above one’s personal desires.
In the modern age, we have come a long way to accepting differences among major Jewish communities. Ashkenazim and Sephardim have improved significantly on appreciating the cultural differences that make each distinct within the greater whole. The customs that once defined chassidim from misnagdim have blurred as each have taken minhagim from the other. And yet, we still have not come far enough. Even as we speak of respecting others’ differences, within our own communities we make judgements on miniscule variations. This one wears a colored shirt and that one does not… should such small differences really define people? The important part, as Rav Hirsch pointed out, is that all are living within “an equally great spiritual and moral uniformity.”
Jewish unity is a perpetual theme for Divrei Torah because our progress in Ahavas Chinam is two steps forward and one step back. Let us remember that our quest for true Jewish unity begins on the smallest level with our individual interactions. Rabbi Yochanan Kirschblum, in his book Thinking Outside the Box, Bamidbar, references Megila 6a, on which it records that the tribe of Zevulon complained that the other tribes received fields and vineyards and fertile land, while they had received hills and mountains, lakes and rivers. Hashem responded that in his portion would be found the precious chilazon, the snail that provided a unique blue die. Rabbi Kirschblum uses this Midrash to comment that “Each of us is like the land portion of Zevulon. Each of us has hidden valuable talents and abilities that are not readily visible to the undiscerning eye…each one of us has a hidden talent that is representative of all the mitzvos in the Torah.”
In our greater nation and within our individual communities, we have to stop looking at differences as threatening or problematic and start recognizing the values in our variations. We must work to accomplish this and to teach this skill to our children, and only then can we begin to understand the true power of the Jewish nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment