Dvar Torah for Parshat Naso

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Hilkhot Birkhot HaTorah, 1

“May God bless you and protect you. May God shine His countenance upon you and be gracious to you. May God bestow favor upon you and grant you peace.”
(Numbers 6:24-26)

Every morning, when we start the day, we say birkat haTorah, the blessing on the mitzvah of learning Torah. And as with all mitzvot we immediately fulfill the mitzvah, in this instance by learning a few words of Torah. One might think to suggest that the first words of Torah with which we start the day should be the words of the Shema, or of the Ten Commandments, or perhaps even those words which tell us of the mitzvah to learn Torah. But, no. The first words of Torah we speak every day are the words of the Birkat Kohanim (Priestly Blessing) cited above. Reb Noson explains why.

Rebbe Nachman writes (Likutey MoHaran I, 36) that “From out of the mouth of the One Above comes neither good nor evil” (cf. Lamentations 3:38)—the light of Hashem’s (God’s) goodness descends to mankind, to each and every one of us, in an undefined form. It is up to each individual to decide, by choosing what he wants, thinks, says and does. The Rebbe notes that our Sages long ago pointed out that the Torah can be an elixir of life or, God forbid, a potion of death. It depends upon whether or not the person is zokheh.

Usually the word zokheh means “worthy” or “meritorious.” However, in this context it is related to the word zikhukh, “purification,” “cleansing.” Rebbe Nachman teaches that a person must cleanse himself of the obsessions and infatuations relating to sexual desire. Th more successful one is in this process, the more beautifully formed the light of the Torah—Hashem’s light of goodness—becomes.

This is why we start our Torah day with Birkat Kohanim. The kohanim are meant to b exemplars of sexual purity. The blessing that they give creates and channels Hashem’s light into fitting vessels. Our learning the three verses which constitute that blessing therefore serves as a reminder to us of [1] how we want Hashem’s light to be actualized; [2] how we ought to behave in order that that may be achieved. We want Hashem’s light, both as it is perceived through Torah study and as it is concretized in the physical world, to be for the best possible good; and we want to interact with the world, in how we present ourselves to others and in how we react to how they present themselves to us, in a way that truly exemplifies the dignity and holiness of God’s Torah.

agutn Shabbos!
Shabbat Shalom!