ספר במדבר

Numbers 18,7. “I make your priesthood a service that ‎is presented as a gift.” When man serves the Lord this ‎is not a gift to G’d, as he is obligated to do so from the moment he ‎has been born. When man, in the process of serving the Lord, ‎tries to elevate other creatures spiritually at the same time, this ‎does constitute a gift he presents to the Lord.‎When the Talmud in Shabbat 31 describes that the first ‎question the soul is asked when appearing before the heavenly ‎tribunal is: ‎נשאת ונתת באמונה‎, commonly translated as “have you ‎been fair and honest in your dealings with your fellow man,?” the ‎real meaning is: ”when you engaged in business dealings with ‎gentiles and you benefited financially by these dealings, did you ‎use the opportunity of displaying fairness as an opportunity to ‎bring the gentile closer to G’d the Creator?” If you did so you ‎succeeded in rescuing these “sparks” that had strayed from their ‎original path since they had been encased in a body. The word ‎נשאת‎ from the root ‎נשא‎ to raise, elevate,” in the line we quoted ‎from the Talmud, refers to whether the Jew whose soul now ‎appears for judgment in the celestial spheres being asked whether ‎it had been instrumental in helping stray human beings to return ‎to their sacred origins. When the Israelite, be he a priest or not, ‎succeeds in bringing about conversion of pagans for the right ‎reasons, he can claim to have presented his G’d with a gift, ‎מתנה‎.‎