DO NOT LOOK
The end of this week’s parsha describes the manner in which the Levites transported the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary in the desert.
Before carrying the various vessels, the Levites had to stand away from the Kohanim, whose job it was to disassemble the Mishkan and wrap each vessel in special coverings. Only then were the Levites instructed to carry the vessels.
The very last verse of the parsha therefore reads:
“Thus shall you do for them so that they shall live and not die: when they approach the Holy of Holies, Aaron and his sons shall come and assign them, every man to his work and his burden. But they shall not come and look as the holy is inserted, lest they die.”
Rashi explains that the Levites were forbidden to gaze at the uncovered vessels when they were ready to be transported. They had to wait for the Kohanim to cover the vessels. Only then would the Levites be summoned to transport the vessels. Violation of this law, the Torah warns, means death!
We must try to understand why the Levites were prohibited from seeing the vessels in their exposed state. Didn’t the Levites see some of these vessels when the Mishkan was erected and functioned? Why was it a crime for them to see the vessels when they were about to be transported.
VESSELS STANDING ALONE
A contemporary commentator, Avir Yoseph, attempts to resolve this anomaly by distinguishing between seeing the vessels when they were in the Mishkan and after they were removed from the Mishkan. In the former situation, the Mishkan and its vessels evoked a sense of respect and awe. When each vessel stood by itself, however, the beauty and distinction of these vessels was less apparent. The Levites might have disgraced these holy ritual objects by treating them as insignificant.
This answer begs another question. Why were the Kohanim allowed to see the vessels in their disjointed state? The need for somebody to cover them does not answer the question; it just shifts it. Why would G-d allow the possibility that the Kohanim might develop a less than reverential attitude towards those vessels?
KOHEN AND LEVITE: A STUDY IN CONTRASTS
One may offer two simple ways of distinguishing between a Kohen and a Levite in this regard.
First, the very fact that the Kohen was performing a Mitzvah by covering these vessels as a way of preserving their integrity guaranteed that they would not develop an irreverent attitude towards them.
The underlying rationale for this premise is that when people are involved in the service of G-d, in whichever way, it enhances their state of reverence for G-d and for all that is G-dly. This is true even if one’s formal service of G-d has nothing to do with this particular function of covering the vessels. How much more so would it be true when the act of covering the vessels by the Kohanim was itself an act of reverence. There was no chance that the Kohanim would become indifferent to these vessels.
The Levites, by contrast, had no responsibility vis-à-vis the vessels. Their role only began after the vessels were covered and were ready to be transported. Thus, there was a danger that they may look at the unclad vessels through fleshy and jaded eyes.
A second difference is that the Kohanim used these vessels as they performed the service in the Mishkan. Due to this use, they already had a holy attachment to the vessels. So, even when they were removed from the Mishkan to ready them for transportation, the holy attachment felt by the Kohanim would not be lost or diminished.
JEWISH VESSELS
One can derive an important moral lesson for today from this discussion: we must not allow ourselves to look at another Jew in a way that can lead to disrespect and even contempt.
The entire Jewish nation can be likened to the Mishkan. Our nation is made up of many vessels, or individuals, each with a different function. If one of the vessels of the Mishkan were missing, the Mishkan would not be functional. So too, each and every Jew is indispensable for the integrity and legitimacy of the entire Jewish nation.
IN AND OUT OF CONTEXT
When an outsider sees the interaction of all the different classes and roles, in the larger context of the nation, one is amazed at the beauty and grandeur of the nation. However, if the individual Jew is not in his or her active and interactive mode, it will tend to diminish that individual’s importance, at least in the eyes of the beholder. In order to appreciate something fully, one must see that thing or individual in context. The context paints a positive background for that thing or individual that may even cover up some small flaws. When viewed out of context the individual is left exposed to the scrutiny and judgment of outsiders.
The collective light of the Jewish people is so powerful that we cannot help but to be struck and overwhelmed.
STANDING IN FRONT OF THE MOUNTAIN
This indeed was the experience when 600,000 men from the age of 20 and up, with all of the women and youth amounting to several million more souls, stood together as one person at the foot of Mount Sinai to receive the Torah. It boggles the mind to think of the energy they generated. Indeed, the Talmud relates that the energy reverberated throughout the entire world.
This explains the enigmatic statement we made on Passover night: “If He would have brought us close to Mount Sinai and had not given us the Torah, Dayeinu, that would have sufficed.”
Commentators have puzzled over this statement. How could the mere act of standing in front of a mountain have intrinsic value?
One of the answers they have given is that the Jews stood at that mountain with unprecedented unity. All by itself, that was an incredible gift from G-d for which we express gratitude in reciting the Dayeinu.
In light of the above, this answer can be understood even more profoundly. It is not just the virtue of the unmatched unity that excites us and for which we express gratitude. It is also the collective power generated by so many Jews standing together harmoniously; every component was in total sync with every other component. An onlooker would have been stunned and overwhelmed by witnessing that phenomenon even without witnessing the actual giving of the Torah.
However, when a Jew stands alone, physically or figuratively, and is seen out of context, the outsider, who has no genuine understanding of the secret of the Jew, is likely to see the individual in a distorted and diminished light.
KOHEN AND LEVITES: LOVE VERSUS JUDGMENT
This explains why only the Levites were commanded not to see the naked vessels out of the Mishkan.
A Levite is associated with the Divine attribute of judgment. When he sees a (spiritually) naked vessel (read: Jew) his acute sense of judgment is activated. The Kohen, by contrast, is identified with the Divine attribute of kindness. The Kohen was therefore chosen to see the skin lesions of the Metzora to determine if he should be declared ritually unclean and quarantined. Only a man of kindness is permitted to look for and find fault in another. His discovery of the other’s lesions (shortcomings) is not judgmental. He is motivated by the desire to help and heal the other.
Thus, the Kohanim were permitted to see the uncovered vessels because of two abovementioned factors:
a) As agents of Divine kindness, it was their job to help cover the vessels/Jews. As the Kohen is dedicated to helping others he will not become desensitized even when he sees their all-to-human faults.
b) They were intimately involved with these sacred vessels (read: Jews) when they were part of the collective. When they saw an individual in context, as part of the whole, and only thereafter saw him alone in decline, knowledge of this individual’s original state will prevent the Kohen from judging him unfavorably now.
The secret to seeing the good in everyone is twofold. First, one must be able to see how this person is part of a whole healthy and vibrant organism—the Jewish nation. And one must also be involved in and dedicated to helping overcome that individual’s weaknesses.
HAKHEL
This year is a year of Hakhel, the post Sabbatical year, when in the Holy Temple era all Jews gathered during the Holiday of Sukkos to hear a reenactment of the revelation of Sinai.
The power of Jews gathering together in the spirit of healing the faults of individuals and giving them the dignity they deserve parallels the unity of the Jewish people gathered at Sinai. This is especially true on the Shabbos before Shavuos, the anniversary of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
MOSHIACH’S ROLE
All of this is also a prelude to the coming of Moshiach and the true and complete Redemption.
For the Redemption to be complete, Moshiach will gather together the Jewish people from the most physically and spiritually remote regions of the world. But Moshiach will be confronted by many Jews who are “isolated vessels” and have lost touch with the Jewish nationhood, the collective Mishkan. Ordinary observers would look at these lost souls and fail to see their true value. They would find it very difficult to see that these lost ones are holy vessels, connected to every other vessel, and that they are an integral part of the Mishkan collective.
Moshiach’s distinction is that he, like the Kohen, can see every Jew’s relationship to every other Jew and the Mishkan-Beis HaMikdash. When Moshiach observes the flaws in individuals, he seeks only to overcome the flaws and repair them so that the individuals can once more experience their connection to the Mishkan.
In preparation for the final Redemption and gathering of world Jewry in the third Beis HaMikdash, it behooves us to look for opportunities to bring many Jews together, reach into their hearts and souls and reveal their active identity as sacred vessels of the spiritual Beis HaMikdash.