Acharei Mothe: The Performance

Acharei Mothe: The Performance

The parsha is introduced by the recollection of the death of Nadav and Avihu, and the relationship between their deaths and the unauthorized, erroneous, untimely service they performed in the Holy of Holies is emphasized. If you don't follow the rules, you die. 

The details of the Yom Kippur service are then outlined.  A series of bulls, goats, incense, a lottery, are presented.  . The service is to be done annually ,on The day of Atonement, solo, by the high priest. 

The instructions are elaborate and the Talmud points out that the manipulations  are difficult and the pace is very demanding. There is a tradition that, in the second temple, they often did not do it right, with the stated consequence: the high priest would die in the attempt.  This is said to have occurred so frequently in the later years of the temple that the High Priest ( which had become a purchased honor) would wear a rope around his foot so that the dead body could be dragged out of the inner sanctum. 

The High Priest has to surrender his aesthetics, his sense of how things should be done and submit to the stated rules.  No deviations are permitted.  There is some value in realizing that there are situations in which it does not mater what you think, you simply must do the procedure in the prescribed, hence correct,way.
The Yom Kippur service is a command performance.  The audience is the Supreme Being.  The consequence of error is death.

There have been perhaps 5 times in my life that a musical performance has thrilled me so deeply that I cried.  A composition, presented as it is written, perfectly performed can be the most moving experience  

In  the  ritual Done correctly, the actions impact the performer and her audience. Error is grating, fatal to the performance.  We see that in music and neurosurgery, In a broad sense that may be  true in life, and in general.