Remember the LxMib Brier Home and Hospital bi your will
with a bequest to the
Louis Brier Jewish Aged Foundation
Telephone: 604-261-5550 Fax: 604-261-5565 www.louist)rier.coni
Support Jewish Day School Education
with a la>tiii^ Liilt or
l>l'l|Ul->t t(J
Tile \'aiK-(iuvcrTalimi(l Tnrali Foiindatiun
Kn>urt> .)i'\vi.-li ('(iiication ti>r future jiciU'ratioiis 604-230-2050
Relatives and Friends
are advised that the
UNVEILING OF
V HEADSTONE
.n .n .3 .n in loving memory of the late
J.B. NEWALL LEO
MEMORIALS
LOWY
will take place
Sunday, June 15 at1 p.m.atthe
Dedicated to our craft Schara Tzedeck
since I820 Cemetery
S096 FraserSt Rabbi Baumol
atSSth and Cantor Orzech
604.327.1312 www.jbnewall.com will officiate
Relatives and Friends are advised that the
UNVEILING OF HEADSTONE
in loving memoiy of the late
RICK! (HARRISON) COTTER
will take place Sunday, June 22 at 10:30 a.m. at the
Schara Tzedeck Cemetery
Rabbi Bregman will officiate
DEATH ANNOUNCEMENTS
LEONKAHN JUNES
cc cc
UJ
I—
CO UJ
S:
— UJ
10
OBITUARY NOTICES
The First 50 words arc FREE. Over 50 words will be $50 per every 100 words or less.
- Obituaries should be typed, double-spaced and mailed or faxed to the Bulletin attention:
3<a-e8East2ndAve. ; VsBI<iWlwiar,BCVSTlBl : Fax: ©4^1525 I
Please include contact name, daytime phone number and VISA or Mastercard number for billing.
For more information, call Cynthia at 604-689-1520.
Candlelighting:
Friday, June 13 8:59 p.m. Naso June 14,10:05 p.m.
Aish Hatmah 3636 Shclboumc St, Victoria. Call 250-592-4162.
Bellinghan Eytz Chaim 2116 Walnut St, Bellingham, Wash. Call 360-733-5961. 6-
Beth Hamidrash 3231 Heather St Call 604-872-4222. 6-
Betti Israel 4350 Oak St Call 604-731-4161.6t
Beth Shalom Sanctuaiy 108 North Glcnmore Rd., Kelowna. Call 250-862-2305.
Beth TIkvah 9711 Geal Rd., Richmond. Call 604-271-6262. 6^
The Centre for Judaism 2351128 St, Crescent Beach, White Rode Call 604-541-4111. 6.
Chabad-Lubavitch 5750 Oak St Call 604-266-1313. 6^
Chabad-Richmond 200-4775 Blun-dell Rd. CaU 604-277-6427.
BtzChaim8080Francis Rd.,Rich-mond. Call 604-275-0007. 6.
Emami-H 1461 Blanshard, Victoria. Call 250-382-0615. 6.
Har-EI 1305 Taylor Way, West Vancouver. Call 604-925-6488.6u
Kolot Maybn Call 250-477-7749.
Louis Brier Home 1055 W. 41st Ave. Call 604-261-9376. 6.
Ohr Emet (Orthodox) 8500 Saunders Rd., Richmond. CaH 604-689-8228.
Or Shalom 710 E. 10th Ave. Call 604-872-1614. 6-
Schara Tzedeck 3476 Oak St Call 604-736-7607.
Sha'arel Mizrah 2870 Dewdney Trunk, Coquitlam. Call 604-552-7221. b.
Shasrey Teflb* 785 W. 16th Ave., Call 604-873-2700. 6-
Temple Sholom 7190 Oak St. Call 604-266-7190. 6^
Torat Haybn Community 483 East-cot Rd., West Vancouver, Call 604-984-4168.
White Rock/South Surrey Jewish Comnunity Centre #105 -15284 Buena Vista Ave., White Rock. Call 604-541-9995. &.
Toralt Popti
Population count uplifts
The biblical census is a record of courageous people.
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN TORAH COLUMNIST
Numbers 421-7:89 Efrat
The two opening portions of the Book of Numbers (Bamidbar) deal with a census or coimt of the male members of each of the tribes who are eligible to serve in the armed forces of the Israelites and/or to function in the operation and movement of the Sanctuary. What is strange, however, is that the verb form naso, which is the most frequent verb in this sequence and is even the name of our portion, is usually translated as "count," but literally means "to uplift" What is uplifting about a census?
To answer this question, we must first digress. The Jewish calendar marks one day for the festival of Shavuot in Israel and two days for the veiy same festival in the Diaspora (as is the case with regard to Pesach and Sukkot as well). Rabbi Abraham Gumbiner, the 18th-centuiy com-mentarist on the Shulchan Aruch known as the Magen Avraham, suggests in his glosses on the laws of sefirah (the count of the days between Pesach and Shavuot) that, at least in the case of Shavuot, Moses himself added the second day of the festival from its very inception. What leads him to do this is a study of the calendar itself, according to most midrashim.
Consider that the paschal lamb was taken on the 10th of Nissan, a Sabbath according to our tradition (indeed, Shabbat Hagadol), so that when the Israelites went out of Egypt on the 15th day of Nissan it had to have been a Thursday. If then they began the omer coimt of each day until Shavuot or Friday, then the 50th day - the day of Shavuot -must have likewise fallen on Friday. But all of the midrashim insist that the Torah was given on the Shabbat, which would have been the 51st day of the count! Hence, concludes the Magen Avraham, Moshe must have added the second day to the festival, since Mt. Sinai was considered to have been outside of the promised borders of the land of Israel. Shavuot thereby became the initial harbinger of-and precedent for - the observance of a second day of the festival in the Diaspora.
Many arc the reasons offered as to why Moses would have established this additional day. Rav Samson Rafael Hirsch brilliantly suggests that since the sefirah are days of anxious anticipation
for the gift of Torah and since anticipation always engenders greater excitement than does realization, the period leading up to a mtgor acquisition or lifeq^e event is generally one of high and heady expectation, whereas the period following the achievement often brings lelndown in its wake. The Torah, therefore, celebrates and eternalizes the uplifting goodwill of the "day before," as wellasttie"dayof."
I have previously brought another explanation to your attention, that of Rav Shaya Levi Horowitz, in his classical ha-lachio-mystical work Shnd Luhot HaBrit (Shclah), where he suggests that it is doubly difficult to feel the gift of the Torah - or the gifts of freedom (Passover) and Divine protection (Sukkot) - outside of the land of Israel, which is the nuptial homestead, as it were, for the sacred marriage between G-d and Israel.
After all, in the land of Israel, whose produce is subject to the laws of tithes and whose very soil must ho fallow each sabbatical year, the very earth is hallowed ground. Indeed, we have noted Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kbok's explanation as to why we may/must reap the barley grain sacrifice even on Shabbat if the 16th day of Nissan falls out on Shabbat Just as prohibited Sabbath activities may be performed for the sake of ritual sacrifices on Shabbat in the Holy Temple, so may the grain be harvested for the sake of the omer on Shabbat in Israel. The entire land of Israel may be considered an extension of our Holy Temple.
Let us now return to our initial question. Naso primarily means to upUft, to ennoble, to elevate. Nisuin means marriage -not merely a physical lifting up of the bride into her new husband's home (carrying her over the threshold, as it were), but rather a spiritual ennobling and uplifting of two individuals imifc-cd in body and spirit with each other, with their nation and with their G-d.
The biblical census numbering the individuals serving as protectors of the nation of Israel, the Sanctuary of Israel and the Torah of Israel is at the same time a record of courageous and sacred individuals dedicating their very selves to the well-being of our people.
Shabbat shalom! □
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is chief rabbi of Efrat, Israel, and dean of Ohr Torah institutions in Israel
