SHEMINI
By Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum
Torah Reading: Parshas SHEMINI, Leviticus
9:1-11:47
Haftara: II Samuel 6:1-7:17 (Sephardi ritual: II
Samuel 6:1-19).
THE EIGHTH DAY
The
"eighth day" with which our parshah of
SHEMINI opens was the first day of the month of Nissan, one year since the
Exodus from
The
rabbis stated that the first day of Nissan "took ten crowns": It was
(1) the first day of creation; (2) first day of the first of the months of the
year; (3) the first day of the priesthood; (4) the first day of the Sanctuary
service; (5) first day of the inauguration sacrifices of the princes of the
twelve tribes; (6) first day for the descent of fire from heaven on the altar;
(7) the first day that sacrifices were eaten; (8) the first day that all other
altars (such as private altars) other than the Sanctuary altar became forbidden;
(9) the first day that the Divine Presence dwelled in Israel; (10) the first
day on which the priests blessed the people (Mechilta,
Shemini 1).
In
calling this the "eighth" day, the Torah alludes to the fact that,
with the inauguration of the Sanctuary, it was the day on which the Israelites
completely transcended the natural order, which was brought into being through
the "seven days of creation". The latter correspond to the lower
seven of the ten sefirot of which the Kabbalah speaks, corresponding to the "body" (as
opposed to top three, which are the "head").
As
long as man does not recognize his true mission in this world and spends his
life trying to satisfy only his bodily needs and desires, he is locked within
nature, like an animal. However, when he embraces his destiny, willfully
configuring and using the material world as a means of drawing closer to G-d,
building a Sanctuary and bringing the natural, the animal, as a KORBAN, a
"sacrifice" (lit. "a drawing close"), man attains a level
that transcends nature. This is the eighth level, that of BINAH (the eighth Sefirah counting up from Malchut,
which is the bottom Sefirah). BINAH is the
"gateway" to the "head", the brain and the soul (consisting
of the top three Sefirot).
When
we use our soul-powers -- our willpower, wisdom and understanding, to assert
our control over the material and the animal, we can "pass through the
gate" into the world of the spirit. This is governed by a law different
from that which governs the natural order. The world of the spirit is governed
by Torah law. When we pass through the gate, we can know and understand (with
BINAH) that the natural order is nothing but an arena of challenge created by
G-d in order for us to use it to connect back to the Source. As long as we are
under the power of nature, this world stands as a barrier holding us back from
G-d. But when we assert our spiritual power, this world turns into a gateway
through which we can draw closer to Him.
* * *
THE PRICE OF CLOSENESS
So
great is the significance of the day of the inauguration of the Sanctuary, the
day of man's birth as a spiritual being, that the
Torah returns to it in several portions in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers.
("There is no 'before' and 'after' in the Torah"). In PEKUDEY at the
end of Exodus, we had the account of how Moses erected the Sanctuary on 1st
Nissan, drawing G-d's "cloud" to descend so
that "His glory filled the Sanctuary". Our present parshah, SHEMINI, narrates how Aaron and his four sons
inaugurated the Sanctuary with special sacrifices, and how G-d's fire descended onto the altar. SHEMINI continues with
the dramatic story of the offering of "strange fire" in the Sanctuary
by Nadav and Avihu, Aaron's
first and second sons, leading to their death by fire from heaven. Finally, in
NASO, second parshah of the book of Numbers, the
Torah tells of the special offering of Nachshon,
Prince of the tribe of
It
is one of the profound paradoxes of the Torah that this auspicious day should
have been so horribly marred by the death of the two older sons of the leading
protagonist in the Sanctuary, Aaron. In the world in which we live, the world
of nature and separation, there is no explanation of such a tragedy. As far as
this world is concerned, death is the end: how can it be good? If any meaning
is to be found in such an occurrence, it can only be through "the eighth
day", the level of BINAH, understanding, which is the gateway to the
transcendent realm of unity, where there is no separation and no death.
If
closeness to G-d and entry into the realm of unity came cheap, we would not
value them. They come at a price. In what currency can we pay G-d? He does not
need our money, our oxen, sheep and other "sacrifices". The price is
often paid in pain (LO ALENU -- not on us!!!). Pain robs man of his ability to
feel comfortable in this world of separation to which he becomes so attached.
Pain drives him to seek relief by trying to transcend the world. Pain is a
teacher, a very harsh one.
An
event as great as the erection of the Sanctuary and the drawing of G-d's presence into the world could not but come at a great
price. The Sanctuary "will be sanctified by My
glory" (Ex. 29:3) -- "by those who are my glorified ones"
(Rabbinic drush, see Rashi
on Lev. 10:3, "I will be sanctified by those who are close to Me").
The price was paid by Aaron precisely because his was the pivotal role in the
Sanctuary project, which is to configure this refractory material world in such
a way that it becomes a vessel holding and revealing G-dliness.
Aaron had all the glory and splendor of this world (HOD), as represented in his
gorgeous garments. He received the choicest share of the priestly gifts and
portions. All this glory had to be elevated to G-d, it could not be allowed to
stay in this world and turn into self-glorification.
When
we use the wealth of this world for self-glorification, it turns into a golden
calf. Aaron is on the very edge. He has all the glory,
he wears the wealth of the world on his very person. In order to keep him from
going out of his mind with pride, he is struck with a terrible blow, the loss
of the flower of his children (their loss in this world, though not in the
world of unity). The pain forces him to transcend the world of separation, the
material world. Aaron must remain in the world of unity: he must not show
mourning or rend his garments. He must stay in the Sanctuary, the Sanctuary of
the soul, the world of unity: Keter-Chochmah-Binah.
There, the language of our world, the world of separation and pain, does not
apply. We can enter that exalted realm only through silent acceptance of G-d's decree. "And Aaron remained silent."
* * *
SEPARATION AND DISTINCTION
Aaron
and his surviving sons could not show mourning, because their role was to
remain in the world of unity in order to connect others to it. But the Children
of Israel had to mourn, because they are the ones who live in the world of
separation from which Nadav and Avihu
had been torn. It is said that the sin of Nadav and Avihu is that they wanted to dissolve the separation
completely and bring the entire world back into immediate unity with G-d. They
wanted to redeem evil. They wanted to break through all the barriers. They were
drunk with the unity of G-d -- and they went beyond bounds until they were
totally burned up inside with G-d's fire.
But
G-d does not want us to go altogether beyond the bounds. We may not embrace
evil, for G-d created it precisely so that we should reject it despite the
temptations. G-d established the world of separation and evil as an arena of
challenge for man, in which he must steadily refine and elevate his earthly
materialism until he turns himself into a vessel fit to receive G-d's unity. This cannot be done all at once: it must be done
step by step, stage by stage.
As
an arena of challenge to man, the world consists of good and evil, pure and
impure, holy and unholy. Man's task is to use his powers of mind and soul to
discriminate between them, to embrace the good and holy while rejecting the
impure and unholy. The world is a very deceptive place. The pig displays its
cloven hoof as if to say, "I am pure". But the truth is that it is
impure, for it does not chew its food over. It does not want to confront its
food again, since it always has its nose in the filth.
We
cannot allow ourselves to go by appearances in this world: we have to penetrate
beneath the surface. The only means we have of doing so is with G-d's Torah, the Tree of Life, which teaches the truth about
good and evil in every area of life -- be it what we eat, how we do business,
whom we marry and all other areas. Only with objective, outside guidance can we
sort out the confusion that came from Adam's eating the fruit of the Tree of
Knowledge. When man in his arrogance thinks that he knows -- when he relies on
his personal judgments about what is good and bad -- he can go terribly wrong,
because there is a serpent within him, the YETZER RA, that
is liable to deceive him. Making the correct distinctions in this world is at
the very center of what we must accomplish here.
Thus
the middle letter of the entire Torah, which is in our parshah
(the letter VAV -- signifying "connection" -- in the word
"belly" Lev. 11:42), is in a word that alludes to the humiliation of
the serpent, who was cut down to size and made to go on his belly (Gen. 3:14).
Only by humiliating the serpent and rejecting evil is it possible to connect
with G-d. There is no middle word in the Torah, since the total number of words
in the Torah is even. The center of the Torah in terms of words comes between
the words DAROSH DARASH (Lev. 10:16): "and Moses SEARCHINGLY
SEARCHED". Only by searching very hard can we penetrate to the real truth!
The
priest is not allowed to drink when he serves in the Sanctuary. Intoxicants and
instant religiosity do not bring genuine connection with G-d. Similarly, the
rabbi may not drink before giving an halachic ruling. It takes sobriety to distinguish between
truth and illusion.
The
latter half of our parshah teaches us to discriminate
between pure and impure foods, while most of the remainder of the book of
Leviticus is taken up with the detailed Torah code through which we separate
and distinguish between good and evil in all other areas of life.
Through
our assiduous study of the Torah and its teachings, may we find the spiritual
strength to take our destiny in our hands and rise to our true mission:
"And you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am holy..." (Lev. 11:44).
Shabbat
Shalom!
Avraham Yehoshua
Greenbaum