Parashat Nasso — Lift up (take a census)
נָשׂא
Nasso (נָשׂא) means "lift up (take a census)" — taken, as every parashah name is, from the portion's opening words in the Hebrew.
The Readings
What Happens in Nasso
Lift up — nasso — the heads of the sons of Gershon and Merari also: the longest portion in the Torah opens by completing the Levite census, counting the serving men from thirty to fifty years old — Kehatites bearing the holy things on their shoulders, Gershonites carrying the curtains, Merarites the frames — 8,580 in all, each man appointed by name to his burden and his service. Six wagons and twelve oxen from the princes are distributed to Gershon and Merari for their loads; to Kehat none, because the service of the holy things belonged to them: they carried them on their shoulders. Then the camp is guarded in purity — every leper and defiled person sent outside — and wrongs are handled with confession and restitution plus a fifth; and the strange, solemn ordinance of the sotah addresses a marriage poisoned by suspicion, bringing jealousy out of the shadows and into the sanctuary, where the bitter water and the oath leave judgment with God rather than with a husband's rage.
Then the nazir: when either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to YHVH — no wine or strong drink, no grapes or raisins, nothing of the vine; no razor on the head, the locks growing long as the crown of his consecration; no approach to a dead body, even father or mother. For the length of the vow, an ordinary Israelite of any tribe or gender lives under priest-like — even high-priest-like — restrictions: a commoner's freely chosen path to radical consecration. The laws of the interrupted vow and the completion offerings follow, down to the shaved hair placed on the fire under the peace offering.
Then YHVH gives Aharon the words that have blessed more generations than any others: thus you shall bless the children of Yisrael... YHVH bless you and keep you; YHVH make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; YHVH lift up His countenance upon you and give you shalom. And the explanation beneath the blessing: so they shall put My name on the children of Yisrael, and I will bless them — the blessing is the placing of the Name itself on the people. The portion closes with the dedication of the altar: twelve days, twelve princes, and twelve absolutely identical offerings — silver dish, silver bowl, golden pan of incense, bulls, rams, lambs, and goats — yet the Torah writes out every prince's gift in full, refusing to abbreviate, because no tribe's devotion is a footnote to another's. The totals are summed, and the portion ends at the heart of it all: when Moshe went into the tent of meeting to speak with Him, he heard the Voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the Testimony, from between the two keruvim; and He spoke to him.
Main Themes
The nazirite — voluntary consecration for anyone The Name placed upon the people Blessing: kept, shined upon, given shalom Every tribe's identical gift honored individually The Voice from between the keruvim
Key Events
· The census and duties of the Levite clans
· Confession and restitution for wrongs
· The ordinance of the sotah
· The law of the nazirite vow
· The priestly blessing given
· The twelve days of the princes' offerings
Key People
Moshe Aharon The nazirite The twelve princes
Key Verses
Numbers 6:24 Read →
“‘The LORD bless you, and keep you.”
Numbers 6:27 Read →
““So they shall put my name on the children of Israel; and I will bless them.””
Numbers 7:89 Read →
“When Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard his voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubim; and he spoke to him.”
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