“What’s going to be?!?!”
This is a question we often find ourselves asking as we look around and see all the problems and hardships in the world. There are so many things wrong with our society, we have many challenges here in our community, and we all know many people struggling with all kinds of difficulties. What’s going to be????
Parashat Naso, I believe, teaches us the proper, healthy perspective we should have when we see problems all around us.
In the middle of this parashah, the Torah presents two laws that, at first glance, appear to have nothing at all to do with one another. First, it speaks of the sotah – a woman whose husband has reason to suspect her of infidelity. In such a case, a special ceremony is performed in the Bet Ha’mikdash which miraculously determines whether she is innocent or guilty. If the woman is guilty, then she dies, and if not, then she and her husband resume their marriage.
Immediately after this section, the Torah discusses the nazir – someone who decides to elevate himself spiritually by vowing to abstain from wine and other activities for a certain period of time.
The Gemara explains the connection between these two sections: הרואה סוטה בקלקולה יזיר עצמו מן היין – “One who sees the sotah in her disgrace shall vow abstinence from wine.” If a person sees what happens to a sotah who is determined to have been guilty, he is urged to become a nazir and avoid wine.
The Torah here presents us with a crucial lesson for how to respond when we see trouble and crisis around us.
When we see סוטה בקלקולה, the dreadful downfall of somebody who ruined everything because of a terrible mistake, the correct response is not to lament, not to criticize, not to cast blame – but to look for the root cause of the problem and do what we can to fix it. In the case of the sotah, a woman who had a happy marriage and a happy life which she destroyed by committing a terrible sin, the root cause was wine, partying, acting too “loose.” We are to reflect on the cause of her downfall, and then make a commitment not to make the same mistake, to be careful about the way we socialize, having seen where inappropriate socializing can lead.
But this is true about other crises and problems, as well. For example, many problems in our society can be traced to the smartphone, to the amount of time people spend on their phones, and to the kind of things they see and do on their phones. By identifying the root cause, we can then make a commitment to use smartphones responsibly, and avoid these problems.
Problems and crises can cause discouragement and despair, but can also lead us to growth. If we see the root cause of the problem and do what we can to avoid it, then we transform the crisis into a blessing.
After the two sections of sotah and nazir, the Torah presents the mitzvah of birkat kohanim – the beautiful berachah that the kohanim give to the rest of the nation each day.
The Torah is telling us that if we respond to the “sotah,” to the problems and crises in our society, the way a nazir does, by finding the cause of the problem and trying to avoid it, then we experience great blessing. We should not be depressed when we see סוטה בקלקולה, when we see things going wrong all around. We should instead be energized and motivated to elevate ourselves, like the nazir, and strive to grow and improve. If we do this, then together we can turn the world’s problems into a great source of berachah, and make our world a little bit better.