Shmini: Instructions

Shmini: Instructions

The holocaust is central to my Jewish ( and general) identity.  The death of Nadav and Avihu, sons of Aaron, is an often quoted passage to mollify the rage and sense of abandonment that follows in the aftermath of the Shoah.  We are invited to imitate the nobility of Aaron, as he was silent after the deaths, by erroneous ritual, of his loved ones.  There is some analogy to the cruel and wrongful death of so many who were so careful in their rituals.  In my world, it is fitting that this story comes in the middle of the Torah.

Rashi on 10:2 tells us that Rebi Eliezer attributes the death to Nadav and Avihu's ( presumptuously) deciding questions of ritual rather than asking Moshe .  Their initiative  was too daring, they were inappropriate.  Rabbi Ishmael says that they were intoxicated.  This opinion is based upon the coda of this story.  Immediately following the removal of the bodies, after  Aaron is told not to publicly mourn the deaths of his sons, he is told not to drink wine prior to the service....so that the proper separation between the holy and the profane is maintained...so that are no more presumptuous misjudgments.  Perhaps this is practical advice to the same purpose.

As instructed, Aaron and the remaining sons proceed with the prescribed ritual activities - mostly eating the assigned portions of the meat and meal offerings.  However, they do not eat the chevon  of the sin offering.  This deviation from protocol angers Moshe. Moshe asks for a reason for this violation.  Aaron explains that they had carried out all of the other prescribed activities, but would it have been good in the eyes of Gd if he had eaten the sin offering after the event that occurred that day?

On a day when the deadly seriousness of deviation from the commands of Moshe had been so painfully demonstrated, Aaron seems to be applying his own judgement! It would seem that out of sadness, he is tempting the force that killed his sons because of  the same sin.  But this time, Moshe approves, it is good in Moshe's eyes.

Rashi channels the Talmud on this subject and makes the conversation between Moshe and Aaron about the the details of the laws of performing the rite in a state of bereavement.  The Talmud [Zevachim 101B] sees Aaron reminding Moshe of the rules governing the performance of the service on the day of death of a close relative and Moshe admitting that  Aaron remembered the rules correctly. Perhaps the point of pivoting to Aaron reminding Moshe of a detail in the regulations is that one should not try this kind of behavior at home.  Do not let the emotional or rational or any self-validated reasoning guide you against the rules . 

Still, Aaron defied Moshe's instructions.  My mother (A"H) used to tell me, in her role as parent... "Even when I am wrong I am right."  But sometimes she admitted that I had a point.  This time Moshe thought deviation from his instruction was the right thing to do.

The behavior of the bereaved Aaron and his sons may reflect the limitations of humans.  There are things, including emotional things, that  lie beyond the scope of capability.  Thus, the Torah does not demand these things, and Moshe needed to be reminded.

Do what you can.  Do it right

Tzav:Esoteric

Most of the parsha deals with rules that, at the time. applied to only 1 in 120,000 of the male population. Most of those rules apply to only one individual: the high Priest.  These are some of the details of the sacrificial rite and the induction into the priesthood. Why are these very esoteric rules made eternally public? 

The open source nature of these instructions assures that they are followed. It leads to the entire people guarding the details, discouraging deviation and drift.  The mishna describes how the lay scholars would instruct the priest, cram the details,  in the days preceding Yom Kippur, so that he would not make a (potentially fatal) error.  The aristocracy of the priesthood is supported by  the meritocracy of the sages, and the law, delivered on Mt Sinai, is available to all. 

The description of this esoteric service lets the lay person, who will never come close to this spectacle, perform these actions in imagination. Whatever these activities mean for the Gd who is served, for the human actor, they are a memory for all but a tiny part of his life. For the last 2000 years, they have existed purely as an idea.

The parsha also contains the prohibition on eating blood and the forbidden fat. Putting these  broadly applied restrictions in the context of the sacrificial rite is a kind of participation that is available to all. The blood and (forbidden) fat are Gd's portions of the carcass.  To eat them is a violation of territory. The herdsman's rights in the animal include the power over life and death, but they do not extend to the blood and fat. 

All of this is quite mysterious ( the same mys as in mystical). These are instructions that do not appeal to  and do not appease logic. But as the machines ( of the G-MAFIA*) become more omniscient, we see the illusory nature of our "feeling" of logic and will. Does the addict have free will?  Sometimes there is no act of liberation greater than obeying.

*Google_- Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, IBM, Apple

Vayikra: relating

This weeks parsha describes  some of the core sacrificial rite, The olah (holocaust) offering, the shlomim (peace) offering, the chatos ( sin) offering, etc are described.  This is a section of the Torah that is alien to me.  Although through my study of talmud I have learned some of the details, the rules and regulations, of the sacrificial rite, it remains a little beyond the edge of my imagination. When I visualize the defecting, hard to control, strong, horned bull (not the docile steer that is slaughtered for meat ), drooling and snorting, as he is brought to the side of the altar. The carotid arteries are cut and blood spurts out in random directions.  Some of the blood is collected, sometimes it is applied to corners of one of the two altars, sometimes it sprayed toward ( or on) the embroidered curtain that shields the ark of the covenant- I try to imagine the cleanup that must follow. Manure needs to be shoveled away.  How did they get those blood stains out? Who populated the clean up crew? Did they wear blue uniforms like the pros in our day? 

The whole process is so foreign to the shabbat candles and kugel Judaism that is familiar to us. 

It should not be surprising that the sacrifical rite is unfamiliar.  It is a method for relating to Gd, an entity that can never be familiar The strange character  of this ritual  with it death and blood and mess, is a reminder that our world view is not the only possible way.  The sacrificial rite is a submission to a behavior, prescribed by Torah, that is difficult on many levels.  It was never routine. 

Among the offenses that require a chatoth or asham are fraud, withholding testimony... civil offenses, Gd is also offended when people are not honest with others or themselves. Gd knows the secrets of the heart. 

Don't mess with Gd

Pikudei: Completion

Pikudei: Completion

No project is ever complete.  Every detail can be improved. But every project must end. Time and resources are finite. 

In Pekudei, this week's parsha, the structure of the mishkan is finalized.  The parts that have been described and produced, are finally assembled by Moshe.  The structure and implements, presented as visions to Moshe on Mount Sinai become a reality.  Everyone seems satisfied with the product. 

The mishkan, and its descendants , the Temples, are the symbols of redemption. The amidah,the silent,  three times daily, entreaty that is the core of prayer service, is a replacement for the temple service.The rebuilding of the  Temple is the climactic request,  and the coda, of the  amidah, . The hope for rebuilding the Temple  is the paradigm of learned yearning.  A part of that aspiration  is the completeness that the structure represents.  

Since the Babylonian exile, the meaning of (re)building the Temple has evolved from a construction problem ( which it represents in the parsha) to a political problem.  The longed for rebuild involves a major real estate problem.  The land is not for sale.  With the construction of the Temple of Solomon ( and Hiram), the sanctity of the grounds has become an integral part of the sanctity. Holiness is no longer portable. 

For all of the time that Judaism has evolved into the form we recognize now, the Temple has been a dream blocked by insurmountable obstacles. Perhaps it has served us well that way.

(Maybe  today's divar is short... but it is done.) 

Vayakheil: technology

Most of the second half of the book of Shemoth is a description of the construction of the Mishkan, the portable Temple and its vessels. This orthogonal edifice has was a product of the technology of its time It surrounded a mystical inner sanctum.  The activities inside this structure make up much of the next book of the Torah, Vayikra. 

The mishkan described in Shemoth has almost nothing that is round ( perhaps the laver and the decorations on the menorah).  The temple built by Sholomo, with the assistance of Hiram, had cylindrical columns.  It also had the Yam, the huge basin of water ,that was 10 amoth  across and 30 amoth around.  We, who are familiar with constant  relationship between  circumference and diameter of a circle ( π), see this as a rounded estimate of a number that cannot be expressed exactly as a ratio between whole numbers ( 3.14159265358.....).  The disclosure  of this relationship is noted by the Talmud (Eruvin 14a) and the commentators  begin to correct the estimate. 

The Temple of Solomon was more advanced technologically than that of Moses. Its sanctity was not compromised  by the advances that it incorporated. Why didn't the Omniscient  bestow the advances of Hiram  on Bezalel, the architect of the mishkan?  Why was there no Temple-cam so all the people could witness the sacred rite?  The development of science and technology is a challenge to our understanding of the powers of Gd. Clearly, Gd's plan was not to bestow these advance early. 

The first instruction in Vayakheil is to keep the Sabbath.  Specifically, not to use fire. Fire is the archetype of technology.  It is the basis of smelting metals, thus making tools.  Fire is an insubstantial that makes great changes. The control of fire - and its descendants- steam and  electricity - give us the amazing world that is familiar to us.  We are told to relinquish this power on the Sabbath, as Gd relinquished Creation on that day. Perhaps this verse is an element in the construct that the forbidden "labors" of the Sabbath are those that were involved in the construction of the mishkan, a bond between the Temple, the Creation and the Sabbath.  

Technology without values is terrifying. So is belief.