Attention to Detail Only? – Bamidbar/Shavuot

Shavuot is one of the easiest holidays to write about. We celebrate the revelation at Har Sinai and the receiving of the Torah. So, theoretically, any concept used from the Torah is fair play. Yet the topic for this blog corresponds so wonderfully to Bamidbar, the parsha we  read this past Shabbat.

The Torah discusses how to pack up the Mishkan every time it is moved.1 It invests time discussing the order of packing up the utensils of the Mishkan as well as the color and material used to pack and cover all of the holy utensils from inside the Mishkan – the Aron, Shulchan, Menorah and golden Mizbeach. Such attention to detail in the Torah often catches my attention. I wouldn’t expect the Torah to care what color the packaging is. Yet it does. What can we learn from that?

There are numerous ways to categorize the mitzvot. Rabbi Soloveichik discusses two different categories – specific and general. The large majority of mitzvot are specific mitzvot– Shabbat, Chagim, Kashrut and more. There is also a small group of mitzvot which do not demand a specific activity but rather a general attitude towards mitzvot. The verse of “Kedoshim tihyu”2 – you should be holy – can serve as an example. It asks us, explains Rabbi Soloveichik, to live in a way of Torah without giving specific direction and yet “live in a way of holiness that will create a meaningful wholeness.”3

This is a very difficult yet challenging path. We are asked to decide what the Torah would rather have us do. We are asked to think in a “Torah-y” manner. The vagueness is part of the challenge the Torah presents us with.

We often find ourselves in situations where there is no good solution – we are between a rock and a hard place. And yet we expect ourselves to be smart and do the right thing.

Dr. Viktor Frankl recalls many such situations in his various books. There were situations where he had a difficult decision.

One such decision was when he received a visa to move from Vienna to America in 1941. He and his wife were included in the visa but his parents were not. He did not know whether he should use the visa or let it lapse.

He writes about his decision-making process in his autobiography:

“Undecided, I left home, took a walk, and had this thought: “Isn’t this the kind of situation that requires some hint from heaven?”

When I returned home, my eyes fell on a little piece of marble lying on the table. “What’s this?” I asked my father. “This? Oh, I picked it out of the rubble of the synagogue they have burned down. It has on it part of the Ten Commandments. I can even tell you from which commandment it comes. There is only one commandment that uses the letter that is chiseled here.”

“And that is ...?” I asked eagerly.

Then father gave me this answer: “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Thus I stayed “upon the land” with my parents and let the visa lapse.” 4

He listened for his answer, the right answer for him. And he received what, for him, was the right answer. He connected with his meaning of the moment and answered the question that life was asking of him.

In sessions, helping a person discern what is the correct specific path for him to follow is one of the most daunting yet fulfilling tasks for the client. Embracing the unknown as a challenge not to be feared but approached with awe.

This, says Rabbi Joseph Soloveichik, is the task that Shavuot (occurring at the end of Sefirat Haomer) is asking of us - to do the specifics, even if they seem unimportant or not relevant, while keeping in mind the general, unspecified attitude the Torah wishes/expects us to have.

(I just noticed that this fits with part of the Torah experience of Shavuot. It is the only Chag in the Torah without a specific date - rather it is set on the 50th day of the Omer which until about 200 C.E. could have occurred on the 5th, 6th or 7th of Sivan, even though it seems to commemorate a specfic event. Fascinating.)

How will we answer?   

Image by Klaus Dieter vom Wangenheim from Pixabay

Footnotes

  1. Bamidbar 4:1-14
  2. Vayikra 19:2
  3. Soloveichik, Rabbi J., Festival of Our Freedom (Hebrew) p. 179, Toras Harav Foundation
  4. Frankl, Viktor E.. Recollections: An Autobiography (p. 92). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.                 There is as well a You Tube clip where he describes the story emotionally. You can find it here. 0:00-3:40 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaQE1nfuX18&list=PLHhFBC_qutip7B5dsYpAKg3CmCVCp5fdU&index=3&t=10s

 

Have A Great Shabbat!laughing

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