We read: וְלִבְנֵ֥י קְהָ֖ת לֹ֣א נָתָ֑ן כִּי־עֲבֹדַ֤ת הַקֹּ֙דֶשׁ֙ עֲלֵהֶ֔ם בַּכָּתֵף יִשָּֽׂאוּ׃ | Vəlivnei Qəhat lo natan ki avodat haqódesh aleihem bakateif yisá’u. | “And he didn’t give [any oxen and carts] to Qəhat’s sons, because Holy service was on them; by the shoulder they would carry.” (Bəmidbar 7:9)

All the other Levites charged with carrying the dismantled Mishkan around the wilderness wanderings get oxen and carts to bear the load, but Qəhat’s sons, charged with carrying the Holiest of holy things, don’t get that help; they have to do their schlepping on their own shoulders. Why?

It takes a tremendous amount of work to carry a holy community along the path of life. Ultimately, it amounts to seeing to all the needs of all the people in the community — you cannot have a congregation if you have no congregants to constitute it. Much of this work, perhaps most of it, can be outsourced. You do not have to singlehandedly construct an entire water treatment network to bring adequate plumbing to every member of your community. There are other people and other institutions in the world whose proper task is taking care of some of these things. Gerəshon and Mərari’s sons have oxen to carry those loads.

But there is some beating heart, some central Holy nexus, that cannot be outsourced, that cannot be left in the charge of others. Some aspects of carrying sacred community thru time are too central, too Holy to be delegated; you must see to them yourself. Bakateif, on the shoulder.

This is difficult, dangerous work. We know that sometimes the carriers get too close to these Holy things and, even if their intentions are nothing but good, get destroyed utterly, incinerated into ash. We pour too much of ourselves into the work of carrying community, and we burn out; we run out of self to give, and fall away, unable to carry things further. It is a real danger, very much with us.

And yet the obligation remains: If we want Holy community to come with us on the way, we cannot wholly outsource it to others. The work of carrying it is directly ours. עֲבֹדַת הַקּֽדֶשׁ עָלֵֽינוּ בַּכָּתֵף נִשָּׂא׃ | Avodat haqódesh aléinu bakateif nisa. | The Holy service is on us; by the shoulder we will carry it.

[This has been an installment of one-word Torah. You can read the full series here.]