Nasoh: The Haftarah

The Haftarah is usually related to the themes of the parsha. It is a section from the prophets, the canon that is outside the 5 books of Moses, that ( in our current Shabbat synagogue service) is read immediately after the portion of the week. 

This week, the Haftarah ( from the book of Judges) describes the annunciation of the birth of Shimshon ( Samson). The most immediate(apparent) reference to our parsha is that the parents of Shimshon are told that the baby would be a Nazerite from birth. This is a unique Nazerism. Becoming a Nazir is generally the voluntary decision of an adult for a limited time period, not imposed  at birth and life long. Another significant difference involves corpse contamination. Contact with the dead did not affect Shimshon's Nazerite status. For the ordinary Nazerite, contamination by the dead was the worst violation. If a Nazerite had pledged to remain in the Nazir state for many months, and he drank wine, he would be subject to lashes for the violation of his vow and the duration of his Nazirism would be unaffected.  If he cut his hair, he would need to have a 30 period of hair growth, no matter how long his vow had stipulated. But if he was contaminated by a corpse ( or equivalent) the Nazerite would need to perform a sacrificial ritual and start again, from the beginning, and complete the duration originally stipulated. 

The theme of the husband who suspects his wife of infidelity which is described in the parsha, is also in this Haftarah. The circumstances of the meeting between [Ha]Tzeleponi (the Talmud's name for Manoach's wife, the mother of Samson) and the angel [who tells her not to drink wine because she will bear a special, Nazerite child] could raise suspicion. When she informs her husband, she uses a phrase: Ba aylai, which could imply intimacy. With her current husband she had been childless.  This new entity, whom she identifies as a man ( although the [omniscient] author previously identified it as a maloch, an angel), comes to me and behold! she is pregnant. Her husband Manoach [a name that implies serenity] does rush to conclusions, he does  not make accusations, he does not invoke the Sotah ritual. The haftarah is modeling better behavior. A meeting between a spouse and a man need not lead to suspicion that requires a demeaning ritual for relief. 

There is also a very indirect reference to the Priestly blessing: the capstone of the section of the parsha that contains the Sotah and the Nazir. The blessing begins with Yivorechechah, usually translated as May the Lrd bless you. The word Baruch, blessing, comes with a fundamental meaning of bowing down. One meaning [that I hold dear] is the bending of a tree branch into the surrounding soil, replanting the tree. The generation of offspring is a fundamental blessing.  Perhaps that is why the sentence ends with v'yishmerecha: "watch over you." Soon, parents have no control over the behavior of their offspring and Divine help is welcomed. Samson was a fairly wild character. Without the restrictions of his nazerism, he might have been worse. Imagine a drunk Samson!

Lack of confidence is a thread in the Haftarah. Manoach needs to hear the instructions [already accurately transmitted by his spouse] directly from the "man of Gd"  The being then proves his liminal nature by jumping into the flames at the feast prepared for him. The insecurity that runs through the haftarah points out the insecurity implicit in the parsha

 The accusations of the jealous husband demonstrate his lack of [self]confidence.  The priestly blessing reassured the Israelites that Gd takes note of them. The parsha ends with the description of the 12 identical gifts bestowed on the Tabernacle by the chiefs of the 12 tribes. The uniformity of the gifts, and the completeness of the repetitions is a way to handle insecurity. The nazir uses a ritual to reinforce a longing for purity of spirit that cannot be achieved without help. 

I find it interesting that my spellcheck does not recognize nazerism.  It wants to correct it to Nazism. The Nazir and the Nazi actually have some aspects in common. Both demand a deep immersion into an illogical ritual for the purpose of self validation. Both reflect a deep insecurity

 Confidence is always based on fiction. It can come in handy.