Ziv: Parashat Nasso

The past of the leaders...

“The leaders of Israel, heads of their ancestral houses, the leaders of the tribes, who were over those who were enrolled, made offerings” (Numbers 7:2). Where did these leaders come from? The Sages of Israel saw them as the leaders of the Hebrew people in charge of surveying them during the servitude in Egypt. These were the leaders who were severely punished when there weren’t enough bricks, as we read in Exodus : “And the supervisors of the Israelites, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten” (Exodus 5:14). The Midrash tells us that when the children of Israel failed to produce the quantity of bricks necessary, which was a frequent event since the work was so hard, the leaders refused to denounce them, and accepted to be punished in their stead. And now, several generations later, the descendants of these leaders receive the honor of coming first to offer their sacrifice in the sanctuary that has just been consecrated. A good deed is thus never without producing fruit even if they appear only in later generations. The same theme appears also in the story of Jacob who, back in Canaan, prepares to tackle the anger of his brother Esau (Genesis 33). The latter comes with an army of four hundred men… but finally he decides to make peace with his brother and returns : “So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir” (Genesis 33:16). Rashi explains that he returned all alone because the four hundred men escaped one by one to avoid having to make war against Jacob, forcing Esau to make peace. And Rashi asks the question : “where is the reward of these men?” In the days of David, when he goes to war against the Amalekites : “David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not one of them escaped, except four hundred young men, who mounted camels and fled” (1 Samuel 30:17). These were the descendants of Esau’s men.

But the world being not “black and white”, the leaders of Israel are also far from being perfect. These same leaders of Israel were in fact the last to offer contributions to the construction of the sanctuary in the desert (Exodus 35:27). They were actually angry at the fact that they were not especially named independently of the people and said to themselves : “let us allow them to bring their contributions, we shall give what is missing. Let us not mingle with them”. But the people show itself to be so generous (Exodus 36:7) that at the end, there was nothing more to offer but onyx stones for the robe of the high priest (Exodus 35:27). The scorned the people thinking that they could never bring enough… and they were denied the honors of leadership : the word “leader” lost a letter in this account, the letter “yod”... Shabbat Shalom.