A Thought on Parshas Shmini

"...v'al kol ha'aida Yiktzof v'achecheim kol Bais Yisroel yivku es ha'sraifa..." "...lest He exact wrath over the nation, and all of the Jews will cry over the burning..." (10:6) Aharon HaKohen posed a dilemma to Moshe Rabbeinu. There appeared to be a clashing of obligations following the death of his sons Nadav and Avihu, which was during the time of bringing offerings to consecrate the Mishkan. On the one hand, grieving was in order - two Kohanim had perished, in a tragic and traumatic manner. Surely this triggered deep hurt for which the only outlet was mourning. Yet, there were sacrificial offerings which needed to be brought. That requires an undistracted and pure focus, something which cannot happen when mind and heart are occupied with the sadness of sudden bereavement. True, one of those two priorities was a Heavenly one, for HaShem must be served at all times, and served properly; the second of those two priorities was a human one, that of managing one's internal reaction. We can understand that at times one's personal needs are set aside in order to address higher spiritual responsibilities. So, the choice seemed to be "shall we bring the offerings as if nothing else is troubling us, or should we refrain from offerings, even at this auspicious point in time, in view of the pain which we feel?" The Gan interprets the exchange between the exalted brothers, Moshe and Aharon, in view of the above dialectic. In our verse, the words "HaShem will exact wrath on the entire people", mean that "if we go ahead and offer sacrifices according to the Divine order, we are bound to fail, for our grief will cause us internal distraction, tainting the purity of our kavanoh, which will bar the offerings from being received and accepted Above with ratzon. We will fall short of the necessary kavanos and will not succeed in bringing Divine favor to the entire nation". Still, the time for those offerings has come, and is here now, and our responsibility is to bring them. Yet, to do so with undistracted spiritual focus would be a disgrace to the memories of Nadav and Avihu, whose passing, under any and all circumstances, cannot be ignored and must be marked by proper grieving. Are we at a standstill?" The second part of our verse, "and all of your Jewish brethren will cry over the tragedy" was Moshe Rabbeinu's solution. The challenge of how to bring offerings with absolute kavanoh and to concurrently mourn the loss of the two Kohanim was dissected into two elements of avodas HaShem . The avoda challenge for the surviving Kohanim was to go ahead, in this moment of unparalleled magnificence in inaugurating the Mishkan, with an intense unequivocal focus on bringing the offerings. That was the sole key to assuring that these offerings would be accepted b'ratzon. Meanwhile, the avoda of the nation was firstly, to consign all of that spiritual/ritual process to the Kohanim as of that moment, and secondly, for themselves, to take on the challenge of feeling grief over the lost Kohanim. The Kohanim would take charge of the spiritual rites, and the nation would take charge of the mourning processes. It is almost like something a friend of mine told me at my chasuna long ago. He had just returned from years of learning in Israel and was very sad about saying goodbye to the Holy Land. He said that he was unable to hold back his tears upon seeing the glass break, because it made him think of Jerusalem. For me and most of the guests, the avoda challenge was to focus on the simcha of the wedding despite the breaking of the glass. For him, it seemed like his avoda was to tune out the joy of the moment and sort of become the "designated mourner" of churban Yerushalayim. The Gan closes our parsha with a thought on the words (11:44) "and you shall be holy because I am Holy." Many interpretations have been offered to grasp the analogy between our "holiness" and HaShem's Holiness. The Gan takes a different view: the lesson here is not in analogy; it is much more basic. "It is fitting that the Holy One should have servants who are holy." HaShem's Holiness is defined by His being a separate Reality, accentuated by His being another dimension of Being, far removed from all things material, corporeal and worldly. This is also the role that HaShem demands of His people. We too must live a separate existence, far removed from immorality, greed, lust and dishonesty. We sanctify ourselves by consecrating our lives to good. As His servants, we too aim for holiness. The message of the verse is "I am Holy so you can only be My servants by living according to holy practices and standards". Wishing you a good and holy Shabbos. D Fox The Gan was written by 13th century Rabbeinu Aharon ben Yosi haCohen, Baal Tosfos More pirushim presented by Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox at http://thoughtonparsha.blogspot.com/