Chevre, this week we have Shavuot which leads directly into Parshat Naso (נשא) (in Israel, outside Israel, Naso will be read next week). We have been counting the Omer since Pesach/Passover and we finished last night! Kol HaKavod to everyone that was able to count the entire 7 weeks with a bracha (you didn’t miss any days). Tonight starts Shavuot, the holiday of the giving of the Torah. It is customary to stay up late (or all night) learning.

The major part of Naso is taken up with the offerings from the princes of each tribe. Each tribe and Prince is read with their offering. And all 12 offerings were exactly the same. Not 1 tribe/prince tried to outdo the other. This very much reminds me of scrolling through logs. Especially as I fight with getting a cron job working and reviewing logs and logs to find why it’s not working. ;-)

The Torah is not a historical document, every word and every letter is critical to our understanding of what the Torah is trying to teach us. Here, we have the same thing repeated over and over. Our sages teach us that it is so critical for the princes to have the same exact offering, for the unity of the Jewish people, that we have this large section of the same text over and over again.

May we all come together and support each other and enjoy the long holiday weekend without distractions.

Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom.

(And yes, I got my cron job to work, we’ll see how it triggers overnight, this cron job is running on my Android phone).