Shemini: the crux

Shemini: the crux

The middle letter of the Torah appears in this weeks parsha-גָּחוֹן -  the belly. This is an echo to the serpent of Eden, the animal that is relegated to crawl on its belly for the sin of tempting Eve into eating form the tree of knowledge. The opening of new knowledge is the crux of human history. The self realization of nakedness in Eden, the establishment of the permanent record of writing, the steam engine, random access memory - for each crucial discovery the Human stands taller and another army crawls on its belly. 

The middle word of the Torah also appears in the parsha: דָּרֹשׁ דָּרַשׁ - yes, the word is repeated. Moshe investigated.  He used that curiosity (that can be perverted by the serpent) to find out what had happened to the sin offering that was to be eaten by the surviving Cohanim. 

Nadav and Avihu, two of Aaron's sons, had just been killed by the Heavenly fire because of their trespass into the sacred.  They had violated the arbitrary but absolute Divine law.  Moshe probably suspected that their father and brothers might not have much of an appetite for sacred meat , under the circumstances.  Indeed, they had burned the flesh that was to eaten 

Moshe confronts Aaron.  How could he have violated the Holy Instructions? 

Aaron answers:  Would it have pleased the Lrd  if I had eaten the offering on a day like this?

And the answer pleased Moshe. 

But Gd is silent

This is the crux of the Torah: 

      Divine (unintelligible) command; 

       Human action

          some mixture of rebellion and terror

          thought and action that come from the human essence

      Human Compassion

      Gd is silent