Friday, June 17, 2016

דבר תורה פרשת נשא


דבר תורה פרשת נשא

Parshat Naso speaks about the korbanot that the nesiim brought. As it lists them, we see that they are each bringing identical korbanot, but each still gets listed individually. The Torah could have listed them all together to save space and time. 

Why was it important to list them all separately if they are exactly the same?

Saul Blinkoff is a Jew who animates movies for Disney. He came to Yavneh a couple weeks ago to speak about his journey getting to this point in his career. He spoke really well, and everyone enjoyed listening to him. He also spoke at my shul that Shabbos, about the exact same thing, and I went anyway. I enjoyed listening to him the second time, the same amount that I enjoyed the first time. 

There are two lessons that I was able to learn from this. First, sometimes doing the same exact thing twice has an impact in the same way it did the first time. If the first time made a big impact, usually the second time will make the same impact or an even bigger impact. 

The second thing that I learn from the Nesiim is that if every person is going the same mitzvah, or the same thing, each person individually is appreciated for his strengths. Even if it appears to be the same exact korban, each individual who brought it is important in his own right, and is important to mention. 

Shabbat Shalom, 

Rabbi Steven Penn