Shimini: steel

 

Shimini: Hard or malleable. 

It takes seven days to complete the preparations. The inauguration of Aaron and his four sons into the priesthood took 7 days. The eighth day was the graduation. Two of the sons, Nadav and Avihu, went too far. They tried something new. The outcome was fatal for them and solidified the priesthood of Aaron and the remaining sons.

The inauguration had been carried out on the orders (Tzav, meaning order, is the appellation of the preceding Torah portion). The lethal consequences of following some orders and ignoring others are described in this week’s reading. The persistent obedience (to a great, but incomplete, extent [they did not eat a prescribed portion of sacrificial meat after the death of their son/brother]) proves the soldier-like loyalty of the remaining three priestly initiates. Perhaps the deaths of Nadav and Avihu were needed for this trial and the proof that devolves from it.

The eighth day of Passover (yesterday) is one of the four days in the year when Yizkor [remembrance of the departed] is intoned. Yom Kippur, celebrated by many Jews, draws more people than usual to the Synagogue. Yizkor on Yom Kippur is a fund-raising opportunity since the text of the service calls for a charity pledge. The other three occasions for Yizkor are on the last (extra) days that end the pilgrimage festivals that were added by the Rabbis (and have never been celebrated in the land of Israel)

When I was a boy, Yizkor was a huge draw to synagogue. As the child of holocaust survivors, I lived in neighborhoods where there were many survivors and many other Jews who had (relatively recently) lost close relatives in the Shoah. Everyone came to Yizkor. Most did not observe the Sabbath; many had abandoned other Jewish traditions. The crowds were huge. Additional seating and special services were arranged for the overflow. Most left in tears after remembering. Now, I, too leave Yizkor In tears mostly for how I imagine: my cousins being murdered as children, my uncles and aunts shot and gassed, my grandparents tortured and killed. There was no one left to teach me how to be a grandfather.

These Yizkor Jews were experiencing the test of Aaron: could they maintain a connection to an identity that is so dangerous (it had decimated their numbers)  and so painful?  The answers varied in detail, but many (perhaps most) kept the identity despite the cost. 

The loyalty of the veteran soldier is special. Steel  is hardened by bringing It to high temperature  and then quickly cooling (quenching) it. On a molecular level, the iron atoms are set into random motion, they are disordered and then fixed in place. That process makes the steel harder, but more brittle; it breaks and does not bend.  Relief from trauma often  resets the order( of thinking) in a less changeable mode.

This trick of heating and cooling to reset opinion is put to use by the manipulators: politicians, commercial interests, social media. The heat of war creates implacability. Sometimes, shaking up ideas is good. There is a role for strong ( but brittle) steel. Slow (thoughtful) cooling leaves the metal more malleable and capable of a better reaction to future stress. The bendable reed survives the wind that breaks a tree.