A Thought on Parshas Nasso

"V'korbano ka'aras kesef..." "...and his offering will include silver..." (7:13) The wording of our verse, regarding the offering made on behalf of the tribe of Judah, differs from those verses describing the other tribes' offerings. For some reason, the verse begins with the word "and" which is written in Hebrew with the prefix letter "vov." Every nuance, every change in the Torah text, is noteworthy and requires interpretation. What does the word "and" or the letter "vov" add to the message here about this tribe, in that its offerings were no different than the others'? The Gan offers a midrashic treasure. The Prince of Yehuda was Nachshon ben Aminadav. The "vov" prefix has the numeric equivalent of six. It is the sixth letter of the alef-bais. There is something significant about six, then, in our understanding of this Nachson. The Gan brings us the tradition that six great and pious men were descended from Nachson. If we look into later Biblical history, we see that from Nachson of the tribe of Yehuda came Dovid, Doniel, Chanania, Mishael, Azaria, and there will also arise Melech HaMoshiach - the messianic king who will be from the tribe of Yehuda and a direct link to the Davidic dynasty. Moshiach ben Dovid. Moreover, each of these great men will be blessed with six blessings. If you examine the descriptions which TaNaCH offers us on each of these six descendants, we find that each one is portrayed with six unique attributes. Of Dovid, it is written (Shmuel I 16:18) that he was a skilled musician, of mighty valor, a warrior, of integrity, of favor, and pious. Of Doniel (5:12), we are told that he had an ascendant spirit, knowledge, wisdom, insight, analytic and problem solving skills. Chanania, Mishael and Azariah (Doniel 1:4) are depicted as unblemished, handsome, skillful with both wisdom and knowledge, discerning, and confident. Of the Moshiach it has been foretold (Yeshayahu 11:2) that Ruach HaKodesh will be upon him, as will the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might and fear of HaShem. Some of us at times tend to downplay these "midrashic drashos" as rather light and "cute" toying with the words of the Torah to bring out some barely related idea. Chas v'Shalom. The wisdom of drash is also a part of Torah, and particularly when introduced by the Gan, who so often addresses the overt meaning of our Torah passages, this foray into the realm of drash accounts for the appearance of a letter which we would either consider superfluous or of no actual function in interpreting the verse. The Gan shows us that every letter, every nuance, also adds to the "pshat" - the intended meaning of the Torah. By singling out the tribe of Yehuda and its prince, the Torah alludes to the princely and ascendant qualities of all of the great ones who would follow him, each blessed with the skills which mark one as a wise, stable, G-d fearing leader. These are the types of people whom we need to lead our nation during times of plenty, times of need, times of strife in exile, and to lead us out of exile b'me'haira b'yameinu. Good Shabbos. D Fox