In the 1800s in Russia, Jewish young men lived in fear of forcible enlistment into the army.
It was the law.
The fear of being in the army was the threat of a violent death coupled with the knowledge that it was impossible to maintain any form of Jewish identity.
The only way out of this awful situation was an exemption.
A young student, a protege of a famous Rabbi applied for such an exemption. The student’s friends and family, as well as the Rabbi, waited on pins and needles to hear if the exemption would be granted.
One day, the Rabbi, who was called Rabbi Yitzchok Elchonon Spektor, was engaged in a complex judicial matter. All of a sudden the door opened and one of his students brought the much anticipated news that the exemption was granted.
The Rabbi thanked his student with great joy and blessed him for being the bearer of good tidings.
A few moments later, the door opened again. Another student apologized for interrupting and shared the same news. Again the Rabbi expressed his joy and showered the student with blessings.
The same scene repeated itself over and over as students came to share the news and each time the Rabbi reacted as if he was hearing it for the first time.
Again and again, the Rabbi took care to make each student feel important.
Our Sages teach us that the attention to the honor of another is one of the most important lessons we can learn.
This is evidenced in this week’s Torah portion which is Naso.
If this is your Torah portion you need a lot of stamina, for it’s the longest Torah portion of all, clocking in at an impressive 176 verses.
But there is something really bizarre about this Portion.
As we have mentioned often, the Torah is succinct.
Brevity is the order of the day.
If a narrative is repetitive or longer than necessary, it instantly begs a question.
We immediately ask why is this letter, or word or verse repeated.
In Parshat Naso the Torah tells us about the offerings that were brought by the leaders of each Tribe. In a six verse narrative, the items brought for the offering are enumerated.

But here’s the peculiar thing.
Each prince or leader brought the exact same thing.
We hear the same details over and over, twelve times to be exact.
Information that could have been delivered in six verses is instead presented in seventy two verses.
Why would the Torah repeat the exact same paragraph twelve times? All that changed was the name of the donor.
Yaffa Palti shares a beautiful answer.
The gift may be the same, but the giver is different.
By listing each gift anew, the Torah is teaching us that each person is precious.
Each person’s struggle, each persons’s work matters.
As she says so beautifully - you are not just another.
You are a beautiful, unique, distinct individual who matters.
In fact each person is a vessel unto to themselves and what they bring to the table in any situation is unique, even if it LOOKS just like everyone else’s.
The number 176 is not random.
There are 176 verses in this longest Torah portion of all, there are 176 verses in Psalm 119 which is the longest Psalm and there 176 pages in the longest Talmudic Tractate called Baba Basra.
Yaffa Palti calls this a “whisper from Gd teaching us that what may appear repetitive is actually sacred detail”.
“Repetition isn’t redundancy it’s reverence “.
Gd is appreciative of each persons work and “offering” as if it is the only one in the world.
Because to Gd, it is.
So we now understand why the repitition of the verses is in fact not redundant at all.
Gd was treasuring each gift and the unique intentions that accompanied that offering, recognizing the worth and value of the donor being listed.
What was being brought was in fact the same, but accompanied by the unique thoughts, prayers and intentions of the donor, made it a stand alone gift.
Rabbi Spektor understood this lesson as he celebrated the news of his student many times, because each telling was shared by another person whose value was of infinite measure.
That is what he was honoring.
Because the lesson of honoring another is worth repeating.
Shabbat Shalom and so much love!