Parshas Naso

In a small town in Europe there was an alcoholic. His addiction created many problems for his family. He didn't support his family, he was abusive and in general a disgrace. One day in that same time town another man passed out drunk in the street. A crowd gathered and was laughing at the sight of the man passed out drunk. The family of the alcoholic brought him out to see the spectacle. "Do you realize this is what you look like?' they asked their father. "yes I see this is very bad" The alcoholic then bent down and whispered to the drunk "Where did you find such good vodka?" Our experiences have consequences but often they are of the unintended nature. This is illustrated in our Parsha but first we need some background.

In this weeks Parsha we are presented with the curious case of the Sotah. A women has been witnessed in seclusion with a man that she has been warned to stay away from. No crime has been witnessed and she protests her innocence. What should the husband do? If he divorces her she might be telling the truth and a marriage has been destroyed for no reason. To just accept her claims might be to hard for him. Somewhere down the line recriminations and suppressed pain or rage are bound to surface. The Torah invokes divine intervention to save the marriage. The woman goes to the Temple where the Kohanim have her drink a special water. If she was lying she will suffer a gruesome death as will her paramour regardless of whether or not he drank the water. If however she is innocent the fact that nothing happens to her will be a sign to her husband to believe her and soon they will be blessed with a child.

The Torah goes on to introduce to us the concept of Nazarite vows. A person may accept upon himself vows of abstinence which commonly include no imbibing grape or alcohol products, avoiding ritual defilement and no hair cutting. These self denials were invoked by people who felt they needed to distance themselves from the world around them.

The famous question is , why did the Torah juxtapose these two situations?

The Talmuds answer is cited by Rashi. Anyone who witnesses the degradation of the Sotah should swear off drinking wine for he will say look what happens when one has an inappropriate drink. Inhibition fall away and sins bearing these horrible consequences are in their wake.

Rabbi Arye Carmel was a student of the famous Rabbi Dessler. he currently lives in Jerusalem. He asks Why should the one who witnesses the Sotah swear off wine. What they have seen before their very eyes should act as motivation enough not to sin. Perhaps others who did not witness the Sotah need to swear off the strong drink but the audience at the Sotah is the last group that should need to take vows?

He answers by sharing a powerful insight of Rabbi Dessler. Knowledge impacts us. It might be a good impact or it might be a bad impact but impact there will be. Witnessing an event is the knowledge of awareness. Awareness is a responsibility. We cannot integrate new knowledge even good knowledge without reacting. If we don't react positively we will react negatively as our consciousness attempts to deal with the information. In our example when one witnesses the Sotah in her disgrace we are actually more prone to adultery than we would have been otherwise unless some positive steps are taken. hence the Nazatite vows. This thought can explain many phenomena. I would like to apply it to three.

1. For many years it has been the trend to educate children about activities that are considered to be adult activities and even vices. Studies show over and over that our children are engaging in these behaviours even more than they used to . it seems that all of the education complete with illustration of the ills involved such as unwanted pregnancy or drug abuse has not had the desired impact. Why? Because the children don't know what to do with the information. they are never told positive actions to enhance their lives while avoiding inappropriate activities.

2. People often remark at the extreme measures that have become De rigour in the orthodox world Vi's a Vi's modesty and separation of the sexes. "My grandparents were orthodox and they never heard of such things " is the common refrain. it seems obvious to me that when we live in a culture that does not allow us to drive one block down the street without confronting us with life size images suggesting immoral behavior that we must take some positive steps to counter act or we will be destroyed. The orthodox world is taking action to turn the awareness into something positive.

3. Lastly people observe inappropriate or illegal activity coming from a learned Jew. The automatic reaction is "How could someone who knows so much Torah act like that?" The answer would be that the person acquired Torah knowledge but never concretized it with positive deeds. the Torah knowledge then worked negatively upon the student and the illegal activity is the result.

So it is with each and every one of us. We gain an insight in the Torah from a lecture or our own study or we learn something from a life experience what will happen to us now. We have a choice. Either do something with it or wait and see what it does with us.
Something just happened that you feel good about go over to the tzedakah box (Cong. Ariel of course) and put something in.
In light of what I know I am going to say a bracha, boreh minay mezonos before I eat the grain products at kiddush. I am going to approach someone I don't know and welcome them to the shul or ask them to welcome me to the shul. This afternoon I will retain the spirit of shabbos a little longer by not changing into casual clothes as soon as I get home.
Now you know what are you going to do about it?