Two Minute Torah Podcast

Bamidbar 5772 by Rabbi Michelle Fisher

When I was a graduate student, our minyan used to divide up Kiddush responsibility among the various students and young professionals by career area. Veterinarians bought Kiddush for Parashat Noach; architects sponsored any of the four parshiyot in Exodus that described the building of the Mishkan; lawyers got Mishpatim ("Laws"). Our parasha this week, B'midbar, beginning the book of Numbers, was a "no brainer" for an individual who had once worked at the US Census Bureau. He easily related to the lists of families, listed by tribe and tribal leader, having himself collected and sorted such data.

However, he would probably take pause at one verse from this week's reading. Our parasha relates the total count of Israelites in each tribe, and then it counts the Levites separately by their clans. Between these two lists there is a short paragraph giving Aaron's family; Aaron's four sons are named, and we are reminded of the deaths of two of them. What gives pause is the opening statement about Aaron's family, "This is the line of Aaron and Moses..." (Numbers 3:1). Nowhere in the verses that follow are Moses' sons mentioned, only Aaron's. How, then, is this Moses' line?

Rashi teaches us that Moses is included here because Moses served as the teacher to Aaron and his sons, teaching them how to perform their priestly duties and how to be leaders of the people. We learn that one who teaches another's child is like a second parent.

This message from our parasha is a beautiful compliment to the holiday of Shavuot we celebrate on Sunday and Monday. On Shavuot our ancestors brought their bounty, their first fruits, their words of blessing before God. They shared their bounty and their experience in celebration together, giving praise, knowing that all they accomplished was not by their effort alone. May we all, before the summer comes, take this time to also give thanks. For our blessings. For our ability to share our blessings within our community. And, mostly, may we give thanks of acknowledgement to those who helped us succeed and prosper in our careers and lives – our parents and our second parents, our teachers. We are quickly reaching the end of the school year; for many of you, you are already out for the summer. It is thus an opportune time to write an email, go back and thank your teachers for all the blessings they have given, all the parental-like support they have provided in guiding and educating us all. Doing so, we like Aaron with Moses, include them as part of our geneology and our lineage, demonstrating the permanence of their influence on our lives. Shabbat shalom.