After the Chuppah - Naso 5772

As you know, the Parshios are divided in ways that separate between topics. It is very strange that Parshas Bamidbar contains Masa Bnei Kehas, the Tzavaa and different details of what the family of Kehas carried and this week’s Parsha begins with Masa Bnei Gershon and the Masa of the Bnei Mirari (with the details of the job of the Bnei Gershon and Bnei Mirari and the things that they carried when transporting the Mishkan). It is very strange that the 2 Parshios should be broken up in a way that it doesn’t leave either the Bnei Gershon or the Bnei Mirari together with Parshas Bamidbar. After all Parshas Naso has plenty of Pesukim to spare. Or the reverse, putting the Bnei Kehas in this week’s Parsha. It is a very strange way for it to be broken up.

In the Sefer Acharai Ro’i he has a beautiful Pshat. The Hakdama to this Pshat is the Ohr Hachaim Hakodosh who writes that when the three families of the Leviim divided the job of carrying the utensils of the Mishkan from one place to another it wasn’t one job that was divided among three. Rather it was three jobs in the sense that each carrying job had its own personality had its own uniqueness. The Bnei Kehas carried the Aron. Ha’aron Nosei Es Nosav. It was not a job that involved heavy physical work. It was easy to do. The Aron carried those who carried it. It was a certain level of carrying. Bnei Gershon carried the curtains that housed the Shechina. They carried things that were very close to the Shechina. The Bnei Mirari had the hard job of carrying the Kerashim the wooden beams that formed the walls of the Mishkan and their job was the most physical of all. In sorts the Bnei Kehas had the most spiritual job, the Bnei Gershon in between, and the Bnei Mirari the most physical part of this holy work of carrying the Mishkan.

Parshas Bamidbar always occurs before Matan Torah, before Shavuos. This is something mandated by the Gemara in Maseches Megillah 31b (13 lines from the bottom) (תניא ר' שמעון בן אלעזר אומר עזרא תיקן להן לישראל שיהו קורין קללות שבתורת כהנים קודם עצרת) (Ed. Note: the Gemara mentions that the Klalos of the end of Sefer Vayikra in Parshas Bichukosai are read before Shavuos, however, Tosafos in Dibbur Hamaschil (קללות שבת"כ קודם עצרת ושבמשנה תורה קודם ראש השנה) mentions (ומטעם זה אנו קורין במדבר סיני קודם עצרת כדי שלא להסמיך הקללות שבבחוקותי לעצרת)). Parshas Naso is always afterwards. As you know Mattan Torah is very much like a Chuppah between Klal Yisrael and the Ribbono Shel Olam. When it comes to getting married there are different attitudes which a person must succeed at dealing with in marriage.

When ones comes to a Chuppah, Ha’aron Nosei Es Nosav. A person is carried to the Chuppah on cloud 9. A person is carried there happily. It is not a hard job to come to one’s own wedding. However, after the wedding a person has to know that the job changes. It becomes much more tedious and it becomes much more difficult. First you have the job of having walls, utensils, things in the house that keep the Kedusha of the house going. Later on in life if one is successful and is Zoche to have a family, Zoche to have a business, Zoche to have a home, than the job becomes a much more physical job. A job that involves much more labor and much more difficulty. All of this to build a Mishkan, a place of Kedusha.  Therefore, the Parsha was broken up this way. Before Mattan Torah which is the Chuppah of Bnei Yisrael with the Ribbono Shel Olam, we have the carrying of the Ha’aron Nosei Es Nosav. We talk about carrying the Mishkan and the matter of carrying the Aron, of flying high as one approaches Mattan Torah as one approaches the Chuppah. After the Chuppah which was Shevuos, we read about the next job, maintaining the Kedusha that we have and ultimately the Bnei Mirari which is the job of doing physical things, hard things that have to do with our physical existence. For example, going to work, paying bills, struggling with physical challenges. All of this in a manner of Kedusha of leading to the building of the Mishkan. Therefore, the Seder is B’davka. The Seder is Kehas first, Shevuos second, Gershon & Mirari next. A beautiful Vort for the Parsha and a beautiful Vort for this coming month of June where many of us have Aufrufs, Chasunah, Sheva Berachos, Simchos relating to Chosson V’kallah. This is a very appropriate Vort for such an occasion.

Levi'im Are Different - Bamidbar 5771

Let’s move on to a second Rashi. We find that the Posuk in 1:49 says, (אַךְ אֶת-מַטֵּה לֵוִי לֹא תִפְקֹד, וְאֶת-רֹאשָׁם לֹא תִשָּׂא, בְּתוֹךְ, בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל). The Ribbono Shel Olam tells Moshe not to count Sheivet Levi. Why not? Rashi explains (אך את מטה לוי לא תפקד: כדאי הוא לגיון של מלך להיות נמנה לבדו. דבר אחר, צפה הקב"ה שעתידה לעמוד גזירה על כל הנמנין מבן עשרים שנה ומעלה שימותו במדבר, אמר אל יהיו אלו בכלל, לפי שהם שלי, שלא טעו בעגל) in the Davar Achar that all those who were counted were destined to die in the Midbar. So the Ribbono Shel Olam said do not include these in the counting because they (Sheivet Levi) are mine and didn’t sin with the Eigel. 
The difficulty with this Rashi is addressed by the Meforshim of Rashi including the Mizrachi and others who say that the sin of the Eigel is not what caused the Yidden to die in the Midbar. The sin of the Meraglim caused the Yidden to die in the Midbar and not the Eigel. If so, why does Rashi say that Levi should not be included because they didn’t sin with the Eigel, Rashi should have said because they didn’t sin by the Miraglim? This is a difficulty in this Rashi. 
The standard Teretz that is usually given is that had Klal Yisrael sinned only by the Meraglim they would not have to die in the Midbar. It was because they had sinned at the Eigel and now they once again sinned with the Meraglim that they were punished. The Leviim who did not sin by the Eigel, even had they sinned by the Meraglim nevertheless they were not Chayuv Misah because they didn’t sin by the Eigel as Rashi says. This is the standard Teretz and it is certainly an acceptable Teretz. 

The Satmar Rebbe in Divrei Yoel offers a different Pshat. I will be Makdim to that a Kasha. He asks what is the difference if they were all counted together or not. If all 12 Shevatim were counted together and 11 Shevatim sinned and one didn’t why should that Sheivet die in the Midbar? If a complete Sheivet didn’t sin they should be exempt from the Gizaira. Why is being counted together something which is Kovea? 
The Satmar Rebbe answers with a beautiful understanding, Divrei Mussar, certainly something appropriate L’mi She’amaro, the Satmar Rebbe. He says  Sheivet Levi didn’t sin by the Eigel. Therefore they deserved some sort of protection for the Cheit Hamiraglim. The protection is not to mix with people who do Aveiros, it is to stay separate. A person has to guard himself from coming to close to someone who does Aveiros. Even when a person’s intention is to be Mikareiv the other one, it is usually the Yeitzer Hora that is Mikareiv, which brings a better person down rather than the better person bringing the weaker person up. It is the job of a person to be careful and to keep themselves at arms distance from others (even Yidden) who do Aveiros. 
Says the Satmar Rebbe. Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s intention with not counting Levi separately here was to make a Pirud, to make some sort of separation, some divide, a statement that there is Sheivet Levi and there is everyone else. They are not all the same. Sheivet Levi would hopefully live that way. They would see themselves as different. In the Parsha of the Degalim, which is the way the camp was set up in the Midbar, we see that the Leviim were indeed not one of the Shevatim who had the usual setup around the Mishkan, however, the Leviim were at the place of the Mishkan. Again, the idea is to make a Pirud. 
He says beautifully. In their mind they didn’t sin at the Eigel, therefore, I don’t want to count them and put them together with everyone else. Because if I do, then when it comes to the sin of the Meraglim they may G-d forbid be pulled along. Therefore, this is the Pirud that was made and that was the Satmar Rebbe’s Shitas Hachaim to warn Yidden and his followers to keep themselves separate and different than others who do Aveiros.  

A beautiful thought and it explains why later we will find in Sefer  Yehosha that Sheivet Yehuda stayed to itself, it was separate many many years, 500 years before the 10 Shevatim and the 2 Shevatim split into a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom with the 10 Shevatim going to Galus. Why? We talk about Achdus Yisrael shouldn’t they have all been together? The answer is that even within the Achdus Yisrael and the Ahavas Yisrael a person has to be smart enough, wise enough to know that when it comes to close friendship which happens only with certain people, if you are smart enough to chose and know who is going to drag you down and who is going help you rise. This is a very important lesson as well.