Repetition Does Not Mean It's All the Same

Parshat Naso

by Rabbi Avi Billet

The 12 princes each bring their respective offering for the dedication of the mizbeach. Aside for a few minor changes in the depicted offerings of the second and eleventh princes, both words and melody are mostly the same for all of the offerings.

Why all the repetition? Why not just say that each prince brought the same thing – the following series of animals that was copied by each man?

Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch explained that each gift is introduced with the word “Korbano” – meaning he brought “his own offering,” irrespective of knowledge of what each person brought before him (or what another was planning to bring later). It turned out that each offering was the same.

In Rav Shternbuch’s view, each Nasi happened to think alike. But they weren’t copying one another. In listing each set of korbanot, the Torah might have presented a different result from each Nasi had they actually chosen to be different. The fact is that each one came to his contribution on his own, without consulting others.

That they turned out the same is coincidental.

So what was the thought process that led each to the same equation?

The Midrash equates the “Par ben Bakar” (bull) to Avraham, who served “ben Bakar” to the 3 angels; the ram to Yitzchak, who was replaced with a ram at the top of Mt Moriah; and the lamb to Yaakov, who became wealthy with lambs.

Baal Haturim notes that the numerical value of Bull, Ram, Lamb (Par Ayil Keves) = Avraham Yitzchak and V’Yaakov (643/644).

The S’ir Izim (goat) – could be an atonement for the sale of Yosef, or it could also be a reference to Yaakov who brought S’ir izim to his mother to feed his father.

The Midrash explains that the two oxen for the Korban Shlamim (peace offerings), parallel Moshe and Aharon, who were Shleimim. As for the five rams, five Atudim, and the five Kvasim (sheep), the numbers five represent the Five Books of the Torah, the Five Dibros on Luchos I (first five "commandments" on Tablet A), and the Five Dibros on Luchos II (second five "commandments" on Tablet B). Daat Zekenim suggests the two Bakar parallels the two tablets.

Looking at these Midrashim, one could be a little cynical and say this is rather silly. How does the Midrash know what each prince was thinking?

In the end, I think that it doesn’t matter. If we accept the premise that the reason for all the repetition of the sacrificial offerings is because each offering was not exactly the same – each offering was brought with different intentions and different thought processes, we can understand why each set of korbanos had to be mentioned separately.

This is true for us on a regular basis. We know we don’t generalize, saying that God is the god of all the forefathers! We call Him “God of Avraham, God of Yitzchak, God of Avraham” - each one had his own special relationship with God. All the same God, but there are different ways of getting close to Him. Every one of us comes to God differently. Some of us have a wonderful grasp of Hebrew, some of us put great devotion into our prayers. Some of us don’t read Hebrew at all, and make our way through the translation. Some of us don’t have any conversations with others during davening. Some of us have light conversation, sometimes even for a purpose, and sometimes we forget to focus. Some of us talk a lot during davening. Some of us might come to shul to talk!

But anyone who comes to shul and makes one’s way through the siddur does have a similar technical davening experience. Emotions, however, are always going to create different experiences.

We could ask for our own prayers to be heard. We could also pray for others’ prayers to be heard.

We may try to create a uniformity in terms of atmosphere for prayer, but we don’t want to churn out prayer-robots. And we certainly should not be creating barriers to entry to synagogue. Every Jew should be able to find a place to pray.

The experience of the N’siim may have been that they didn’t plan to do everything the same. It merely turned out looking the same. But each, after being interviewed regarding what they brought and why they brought it, would have a very different explanation for how they got to where they got, and what they had hoped to achieve.

This is the strength of the Jewish people. May we be blessed to admire the different approaches that others have to getting closer to God. May we be blessed to be respectful and tolerant of others approaches to achieving that most lofty of goals.