The document provides commentary on several passages from the book of Numbers in the Bible. It discusses: 1) The census conducted by Moses, Aaron, and chieftains and why it was important to count the Levites accurately. 2) Instructions for handling wrongdoing between community members, including requiring restitution plus 20% for offenses and making offerings to God, as wronging another also wrongs God. 3) The unusual institution of nazirites, those who took special vows of abstinence from certain pleasures like drinking for a temporary period, and the differing views on them as either extreme or admirable in their religious devotion. 4) The well-known Priestly Blessing

1. Naso
Introduction
I. Read 4:34-35.Who conducts the census, and why?
(It’s Moses, Aaron, and the chieftains. This seems so certainly because
God instructed them to. Their doing it themselves instead of delegating the
work testifies also to the importance of the counting, and getting it right.)
II. Read 5:5-8. Several questions:

2. A. Why do we go straight from the census of the Levites to this instruction
about how to handle wrongdoing by one to another?
(Recall we’re talking broadly about organization of the community as we
begin our experience in the wilderness and our transition to the land of
promise. The next item up is and should be that we not do wrong to each
other and that we have consequences if we do. We see,too, that God is
involved in both this instruction and having a stake in protecting the position
of the innocent.
We count, in order to live as God expects!)
B. Why cast wrongdoing specificallyin terms of theft, and why the need for
consequences to get right after wrongdoing?

3. (One idea is that whenever we do wrong to others we’re stealing from them
in a way that requires getting right through confessionand seeking
forgiveness, providing restitution plus. Whetherwe’ve taken property or
reputation or caused other harm, this always causes harm to relationships
grounded in faith and the order of right living set out by our God in whom
we place this faith.
C. What’s the purpose of the payment of the extra 1/5?
(Is this a sort of punitive payment? Does the damage to the wronged party
in terms of emotional loss,etc., merit extra compensation? Does this extra
payment serve a deterrent effect?Is it a sort of God’s share? Do note that
since this penalty is far less than the four or five times formula we see
elsewhere this may have beenfor a lesseroffense.)

4. D. Why the offering to God?
(Wronging another wrongs God. As the text says, “it breaks faith with God,”
too. It violates our covenant with God. And the text emphasizes the point
that God is the “Third Partner” in our relations with another, and after we
get right with the “second party,” one must get right with the Third.)
E. Note before we leave these verses the Hebrew for confessing is the
reflexive verb, hitvadu, suggesting the confessionis to ourselves for the
wrong we’ve done. Why would that be so?

5. (Until we know and admit to ourselves that we’ve done wrong, seeking
forgiveness, making, restitution, and making an offering to God,while
having certain positive effects, would not be enough with respect to the
genuineness of our remorse and change. Truly turning back to God’s way
is ultimately the most crucial result in that it puts us on the right course for
the future both with God and others.)
III.Let’s talk about this unusual institution of naziritism. Let’s read 6:1-3, 5,
13-15.
A. Any ideas about what being a nazirite involves?

6. (This text deals with a personwho makes a temporary commitment, or vow
of an extraordinary sort, as opposedto some,such as Samson,who were
a nazirite for life. John the Baptist? Paul, temporarily? Several outward
conditions: no drinking, no cutting of hair, no touching death, and various
procedures forcoming back to ordinary life, including special offerings.
There may have been limitations on sex as well elsewhere in the text.
Some scholars thought that this may have involved a very negative
reaction to the urban way of life.
This involves a special vow, an unusual limitation imposed on oneself in the
direction of holiness, a significant separation from the ordinary to offer
special service. Some saw it as unnatural, too much of a closing off from
the community (Rambam). For them, it was sort of extreme, as if the
regular regime wasn’t demanding enough! A real suspicionabout a person
who “goes too far.”
Some saw it as a wonder, as a special path of holiness, of an extremely
meritorious curbing of appetites (Ramban). For the advocates, this was a
blessing to others to have just a few in their midst who committo such a
rigorous and worthy regime.

7. Indeed Ramban sees the offering that is made at the end of the vow period
as an acknowledgement that the nazirite is being defiled in a way by
coming back to normal life with its inevitable worldly passions.)
B. Would we be inclined to see this sort of enthusiast, a modern day
nazirite, as extreme or fanatical. Or would we admire such a person who
abstains greatly from ordinary pleasures in this kind of religious
seriousness?Depends? Whatmakes you go one way or the other?
(Why and how might we make and live out such a vow today? Would our
motive be an exuberance to serve? A sense of needing to make up for
falling short in some way or having fallen short or having been empty or
unfulfilled, maybe spiritually, in some way? Other factors?

8. Would we meditate for an extended period? Do deep study in a more
isolated fashion? Or make another sort of special and different dedication,
or a gift, to God? Is sobriety a must, as opposed to “spirits?”In what way?
Or not cutting the hair? Is this to say that much grooming doesn’t fit with
this sort of service? Or is longer hair to be associated with separation,
holiness? Other?)
IV. Read 6:22-27.This is the well-known Priestly blessing. There actually is
evidence of certain language of this blessing with ancient origins going
back to the First Temple period,before 800 BCE,though the details are
uncertain. Its use becomesmulti-functional in exilic and post-exilic times.
A. When and where do you hear this blessing? What does it mean in the
context of when you hear it?

9. (We tend to hear it in the liturgy, especiallynear the end of a service,
sometimesin special blessings, such as b’nei mitzvah, or for a bride and
groom,or parents’ blessing of children on Shabbat. Again there’s evidence
of the use of this blessing in the Temples and later evidence of use in
synagogues and all the way to our time. Interestingly, there’s some
evidence of its use early on as a blessing at death upon the departure of
the soul to the afterlife.)
B. Let’s go through each of the three components of this blessing and see
what each speaks to you. (Have each read singly.)
(Here’s an interesting translation of the blessing as found in the Qumran
materials: May God bless you - with every good thing. May he protect you -
from every evil thing. May he enlighten your thoughts - with intelligence for
living. May he favor you - with everlasting knowledge. May he show
concern for you through his acts of kindness, for ever-lasting well-being.
(Licht).)

10. C. But what do you think it means in the trajectory of the biblical narrative
we’ve been reading, going back at least through Vayikra?
(I think it’s a lovely follow-on the blessings and curses discussionwe had at
the end of Vayikra. I think this is a powerful exploration and revelation of
how God blessesus.
We live with God,in covenant, and we draw near with our offerings. And
God blesses us and keeps/safeguards us, illuminates our way, is gracious
to us, keeps turning to us, and establishes peace - contentment/wholeness.
These are the elements of blessing that come from God,from living in the
direction of holiness that represents God’s attributes and God’s
expectations of us.
This is a lovely codareally to Vayikra.)

11. V. A. Read 7:1-3.Note the first gifts of the chieftains. 6 wagons and 12
oxen. What does it mean that one wagon is brought by each duo of
chieftains?
(They have to cooperate - two each, presumably in acquiring and bringing
it. A motif for needed cooperation.)
B. Read 12-17.Lookquickly at, for example, 18-23.The gifts appear to be
the same for each tribe! You’ll note this pattern continues. What do you
make of this?

12. Before you answer that, a quick question: do you recall what we learned
about Nachson that likely explains why he gets the honor of coming first?
(The midrash we discussedat the edge of the sea has it that Nachson was
the first to go in, based on faith in God.)
(In a way each brings the same, which places each in an equal position.
The needs are many, of animal, plant, and mineral, and all equally help
meet them. But isn’t the text telling us that each is different, in that the
intention, the acquisition, the spirit behind each offering must have been
individual and personal to each? Isn’t this a beautiful way of understanding
the individual and collective nature of Numbers - the needs of the
community and its vital institutions as well as those of individuals in the
wilderness, and the ways in which each serves the other.)
Conclusion