We call them the Shalosh Regalim, the Three Pilgrimage Festivals – Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot.
There really is a fourth Yom Tov, the eighth day of Sukkot (aka, Shemini Atzeret), which is a holiday of its own (with its own Shehecheyanu).
So Sukkot is seven days plus one day, and Pesach is also seven days – plus one day, Shavuot, which is called Atzeret in the Mishna. Thus, one Atzeret is the day after the seven, and the other Atzeret is the day after seven sevens – i.e., seven weeks.
We have sources which say that Shemini Atzeret might also have been after seven seven-day periods, but Hashem showed kindness to the people and did not require them to ascend to Jerusalem in the middle of the rainy season.
Back to the Shalosh Regalim. Shavuot seems to get the short end of the stick, being only one day (two in Chutz La’Aretz). In the time of the Beit HaMikdash, Shavuot being only one day presented a problem for those who brought korbanot to be offered while they were in Jerusalem fulfilling the mitzva of aliyah l’regel. Pesach and Sukkot each had a good number of days of Chol HaMoed for people to be able to bring their korbanot. But what about Shavuot?
Chazal designated the six days following Shavuot as yemei milu’im, days that “filled out” the chag to a seven-day period, so that people would stay in Jerusalem and have the ability to bring the korbanot they brought with them.
Furthermore, whereas Isru Chag is the usual term for the day after a chag, for Shavuot, there is another name in addition to Isru Chag – Yom Tavo’ach, butchery day, because of the many korbanot brought then.
Today, the practice in Israel (and in some other communities, copied from Israel) is not to say Tachanun from Rosh Chodesh Sivan until 12th of the month, the last of the yemei milu’im. In Chutz La’Aretz, the standard practice (unless the practice of Israel has been adopted) is not to say Tachanun until after Isru Chag only.
Now let’s move on to our sedra of the week. Naso is the biggest of the 54 sedras of the Torah, in many categories, as you will soon see.
It has been said that the sedra that usually follows Shavuot, our celebration of the Torah, is the longest sedra, indicating our enthusiasm to really get into Torah review and study in a big way after Z’man Matan Torateinu.
Naso follows Shavuot about 80% of years in Israel and about 90% of the time in Chutz La’Aretz. In the other years, Naso immediately precedes Shavuot.
How long is Naso? Let’s start with pesukim. Naso has 176, a significant number. The longest chapter in Tehillim is 119, consisting of 8 verses for each of the 22 letters of the Alef-bet, for a total of 176 pesukim. The largest masechet of Gemara – Bava Batra – comes in at 176 double pages.
Naso is written on 311 lines (7.4 columns) in a Sefer Torah. The sedra has 2,264 words and 8,632 letters. Even though Naso’s pesukim are well below average in length (in number of words or letters), it still ranks #1 in all categories.
However, Naso is “only” in fifth place among the sedras for the number of parshiyot it has – 18 open parshiyot (p’tucha) and 8 closed parshiyot (s’tuma).
In case you’re not familiar with the term, parshiyot are like paragraphs in a Sefer Torah. A parsha p’tucha begins at the beginning of a new line, the previous parsha finishing somewhere on the previous line, with the rest of the line left blank. A s’tuma begins on the same line that the previous parsha ended, with a blank space between them.
The Torah has a total of 674 parshiyot, which averages out to almost 12.5 parshiyot per sedra. Sedras range from two (Vayeitzei and Mikeitz) which each consist of a single very long parsha, to Ki Teitzei, which is made up of 44 parshiyot.
With 5,846 pesukim in the Torah, parshiyot average 8.76 pesukim. They range from 148 and 146 p’sukim, respectively, for Vayeitzi and Mikeitz (the two parshiyot which are full sedras) to tiny two-word parshiyot, such as “Lo tignov” in the Aseret Hadibrot – which shares a pasuk with three other tiny parshiyot.
One other number for Naso is how many of the 613 mitzvot are found in it: 18 mitzvot – 7 positive, 11 prohibitions – the most among Bamidbar’s 10 sedras. Although 18 might not seem like that many, only 9 sedras (of 54) in the Torah have more mitzvot than Naso.
Let’s finish this week’s column with a gimatriya. Among the many topics in Naso, we find Birkat Kohanim, which consists of three pesukim – “Y’varech’cha…” “Ya’eir…” and “Yisa…” The total gimatriya (numerical value) for these three pesukim is 2,718. This matches a pasuk in Parshat Balak: “In the morning, Balak took Bil’am and brought him to the high altars of Baal, where he could see [as far as] the outer edges of the [Israelite] people” (Bamidbar 22:41).
We can say, numerically, that G-d’s blessing to His People, via the kohanim, protects us from the Bil’ams and Balaks of the world, who would seek to destroy us.
Gimatriya matches do not prove anything, but they do serve to call our attention to a point to ponder.
Shabbat Shalom and happy pondering!
