The Wonder of Reacting by Acting
I was tempted to begin this post with a comment on how the events of the last week have been so overwhelming. Then I realized that it’s not just the events of the last week. It’s also the events of two weeks before and all of last year, and even the year before that. I don’t think there are any of us who have not been impacted by current events—and that gives us something in common with the nazir.
This might sound a bit far-fetched, seeing as how the nazir is someone who chooses to take a vow to abstain from wine or grapes, cutting his hair, and coming into contact with a dead person. However, Rashi points out that the passage describing the nazir appears immediately after the passage of the sotah because the process of the sotah was so impactful that whoever saw it would respond by taking a vow to become a nazir.
This nazir was not related to the sotah. He was not privy to the meaning behind everything that happened to her and could not have known why her life unfolded the way it did, or what the deeper meaning was. But seeing her had an impact on him, and that was part of the plan. The things we experience are meant to impact us, even things not directly related to us. Hashem is aware of all the peripheral effects of everything that happens in this world. And He intends them all.
Rav Schorr tells us, in the name of the Ba’al Shem Tov, that everything we see is intended for us. It relates to us in some way. We therefore have the opportunity to pause and to react purposefully and individually to every event we experience. This was the greatness of the nazir. He allowed himself to be moved spiritually by the events he witnessed.
Specifically, the nazir’s response was one of action. At first glance, that action might seem extreme, even harsh. But Rav Schorr points out that the Torah uses a very specific verb to describe the way the nazir takes his oath (Bamidbar 6:2). The verb comes from the shoresh “Pey-Lamed-Aleph” and is related to the word pelah, a wonder.
We might be familiar with this verb because it closes the asher yatzar bracha. Each time we relieve ourselves, we thank Hashem: Blessed are you, Hashem, Who heals all flesh and acts wondrously. The wonder we refer to in asher yatzar is the continuous connection that Hashem creates between the body and the soul. Pelah is a verb that expresses the connection of the spiritual to the physical.
We find this verb again in this week’s haftorah, when an angel appears to Shimshon’s parents before he is born to tell them that their son will be a nazir. When they ask him his name, he answers, “Why do you ask? It is peli (literally, a secret, but from the root pelah).” And then the angel proceeds to perform a miracle, causing a fire from above to consume the goat offering brought by Shimshon’s parents. Of course, that miracle is described as “mafli la’asot” (See Shoftim 13:18-19). The angel brought the fire of heaven to touch the physical korban on earth.
We think of the nazir as someone who denies his physical desires. But Rav Schorr explains that what is happening is something much deeper. The avodah of the nazir is an echo of what we experienced at kriyat yam suf. We sang to Hashem (Shemot 15:11), “Who is like You, mighty in holiness, too awesome for praise, Who does wonders (pelah)?” The Meshech Chochmah explains that the wonder of kriyat yam suf was that even though Hashem is beyond anything in nature, completely indescribable and incomprehensible, as we stood at the sea we were able to point to the vision of Hashem and say, “This is my G-d.” It was the tremendous miracle of the spiritual expressed in the physical.
This is what the nazir accomplishes. He separates himself from his physical pleasures by revealing and connecting to the spiritual power that is within him. His ability to overcome his physical desires is drawn from his strong connection to his spiritual will. The wonder of the nazir lies in his ability to fully express his spiritual will in his physical body. This is what makes him holy.
We do not need to mimic the nazir’s exact actions in order to follow his example. Each of us have a wellspring of spiritual strength within. We can find our own path to holiness. We can choose to connect to our own spirituality and give it expression in our physical lives in whatever way feels meaningful for us. The wonder of the nazir is what we see all around us: the great beauty of many different individuals finding meaning in the events of life by expressing their own personal connection to spirituality.