You shall make an aron…and you shall make a gold crown surrounding it[2]
Everyone knows that there are three crowns regally placed upon the Jewish people. Or are there four?
The familiar Mishna[3] lists three attainments of distinction: the crowns of Torah, kehunah, and kingship/malchus. Immediately, however, the Mishna adds, “The crown of a good name rises over all of them.” Wouldn’t that make it four crowns?
When the nesi’im/princes of each shevet offered their korbanos at the dedication of the mishkan, each brought three kinds of olah: a bull, a ram, and a young sheep.[4] A midrash connects them to the crowns we have talking about. It links keser Torah to the aron, keser kehunah to the mizbe’ach, and keser malchus to the shulchan. Each of these kelim of the mishkan had a zer zahav/a crown-like rim around it. The midrash then links the chatas goat that the nesi’im brought to keser shem tov/the crown of a good name, which comes about through a person’s actions. Again, that should up the number of crowns to four, not three.
Puzzling also is the Mishna’s assertion that the value of a good name rises above all the other crowns. Are we meant to understand that it is worth more than Torah?
A teaching of R. Yehoshua ben Levi gives us some perspective: See how great are the lowly of spirit before HKBH. When the beis hamikdosh stood, if a person brought an olah, he was credited with bringing an olah. If he brought a mincha, he received credit for a mincha. However, one whose approach is humble, Scripture regards as though he brought all the different korbanos.”[5]
What is the greatness of humility, by which it is the equivalent of so much more? Because if complements and fulfils any other distinction. As the author of the Toldos writes,[6] “Even chochmah and yir’ah, when not accompanied by humbleness, are not achievements but deficiencies.”
The fourth crown is earned when people take note of his praiseworthy actions, and he remains humble. This gives him his good name. This crown really stands apart from the other three. Without it, none of those three have real meaning. It creates the foundation for the other three.
The midrash cited above concludes that the keser shem tov also finds representation in the major kelim of the mishkan. It corresponds to the menorah – the place from where the Torah’s illumination shines.[7] Without the shem tov that comes through humility, the Torah of the aron cannot bring bursts of dazzling enlightenment to the neshamah.
- Adapted from Be’er Moshe, by the Ozharover Rebbe, zt”l ↑
- Shemos 25:10-11 ↑
- Avos 4:13 ↑
- Bamidbar 7:75 ↑
- Sotah 5b ↑
- Toldos Yaakov Yosef, Tzav, s.v. u-vazeh yuvan ↑
- The commentators observe that the menorah itself does not have a crown/zer zahav. It’s crown is that of the aron, whose Torah is the source of the menorah’s illumination ↑