Is there more sameness to our differences or are there more differences in our sameness? There is no question that every person has their own unique personality, and uses their own talents to contribute to society. On the other hand, the question arises, when we do the same thing day in and day out, how do we make our mark in this world?
Some career roles clearly give us the opportunity to make our mark more than others. For example, if someone works on an assembly line and they do the exact same thing over and over again, even if someone else steps in and takes over, nothing will change. In such a case, is sameness the same, or can we find some differences in the sameness?
In this week’s Torah portion, Naso, we read about the twelve tribe leaders who brought their dedication offerings to the Tabernacle, one each day for twelve days. Each one brought the same exact set of offerings. The fact that they brought the same thing is not so amusing; what is interesting to us is that the Torah repeats verbatim what each one brought as if it were something new, when in reality it was the same exact thing as the day before. This happened for twelve days straight. Why does the Torah do so, especially when the Torah is usually short on its words? Why the repetition?
Each of the offerings presented had significance to it. For example, they each brought a silver bowl. By attributing a standardized number to each letter, a silver bowl, Ka’arat Kesef in Hebrew, has the numerical value of 530. In addition, if you change around the letters of Ka’arat, it reads Akeret, meaning ruler. This is a reference to Adam, the first person who lived in this world and ruled this world. Perhaps not coincidentally, he lived for 530 years. Each of the items that the tribe leaders brought have similar significance.
However, not every person—and definitely none of the twelve tribe leaders—could relate to each of the years of Adam’s life equally. So, although each of them related to the general idea, and therefore brought the same gift, they didn’t have the same intention when they did so. One tribe leader might have related to one period of Adam’s life, while a second tribe leader, to another.
The same is true in our own lives as well. Each and every one of us has unique qualities. Even if we are doing the exact same thing, we are still thinking different thoughts, doing things our own way, putting in our own effort, etc. So, although from the outside it might look the same, each and every one of us has something different to gift to the world.
That is why the Torah goes to such lengths to repeat the same exact thing over and over again—to teach us that each and every one of us is unique. It doesn’t matter if it looks like we are doing the same thing as someone else or if we are doing something different. At the end of the day, we are always investing our own flavor.