Universal Mitzvos, Individual Experience2 min read

The seforim teach that our parsha, which begins with the words “Nasso es rosh b’nei Yisrael”, literally, “Lift up the head of b’nei Yisrael” and contains the blessing of Birchas Kohanim, has a special ability to strengthen the Jewish soul and fill our nation with a sense of confidence before the chag of Shavuos. While the parsha is packed with wondrous hints to avodah Hashem, perhaps the most fundamental idea may be learned from the offering of the Nesi’im, the offerings brought by the leaders of each shevet for use in the newly consecrated Mishkan.

The Torah goes to great lengths to describe the offerings of the Nesi’im, devoting eighty-three verses to delineate these gifts. Yet, the Lubavitcher Rebbe zy”a and other tzaddikim point out that each shevet brought an identical offering! If, as is well known, the Torah includes not a single extra word or redundant letter, why does it spend so much time discussing the offerings of the Nesi’im? Wouldn’t it have been far more economical to simply describe the offering and then explain that each of the shevatim brought these very same gifts?

The Lubavitcher Rebbe answers with a profound idea. He explains that this parsha of the Nesi’im presented an opportunity for the Torah to teach us an important lesson: While every member of our holy nation is commanded to follow the very same Torah and perform the very same mitzvos, the individuality of the Jewish soul gives rise to unique intention, imbuing the action with a singular, inimitable spirit. While the thirty Jews in a shtieble minyan may don identical pairs of Tefillin in the very same manner, each act, as a receptacle for the holy desire founded on gratitude, faith, and struggle unique to the individual circumstances of the one who performs it, is different from the next. Although it appears, on an external level, as if the Nesi’im all brought the very same offering, the Torah goes out of the way to mention each individual offering to teach us that b’pnimiyus, on a deeper level, each offering was entirely different, a universe of its own.  Sometimes it is easy to feel like there is no spirituality in a universal system like Torah and mitzvos. If spirituality is a personal experience, founded upon the individuality of each soul and a special perspective on the world which stems from the uniqueness of one’s situation, how can we build a relationship with Hashem by way of identical actions taken by the masses, as one? Based on this idea, the answer becomes clear. Seen as a mere action – a body without a soul – a common mitzvah may indeed appear to lack individual expression.  However, when we arrive at the understanding that the physical action of a mitzvah is merely a vessel for our intention – the knowledge, love, and awe of Hashem which, founded upon our unique life-circumstances and personal struggles and triumphs, we possess in a way nobody else ever will, we are able to realize that, in truth, the mitzvos provide the greatest opportunity for individual expression; the ability to wear our own tefillin, don our own tzitzis, and kindle our own Shabbos candles.  We all walk the same road – in our own pair of shoes!