Parshat Hashavua: Naso,  Numbers 4:21-7:89   

Continuing the census begun in last week's portion, Naso opens with a conclusion to the second census of the Levites and the religious responsibilities of the Levitical clans. As the Israelite camp moved from one location to another, the Levites dismantled the Tent of meeting and transported the structure and the special ritual items it contained.

Next, maintaining the purity of the camp was important. Severely impure individuals were to be removed from the camp. Anyone who bears or contracts impurity must eliminate it by ritual means or purification and sacrifice. Personal violations between Israelites were to be equitably resolved through confession and restitution of the principle plus 20%. Adultery, defined as a married woman having sexual relations with a man not her husband, was seen as so serious that the Torah devised a trial for ordeal for any woman so accused by her husband. By drinking a portion the results would demonstrate whether she was innocent or guilty. "The Talmud tells us that the ordeal of the sotah worked only in an age when people believed in its power to expose the guilty and exonerate the innocent. In the more cynical period of the Second Temple, it had to be discontinued. (M. Sot. 9:9)". Continue reading Rabbi Isaak's weekly Torah newsletter.