Shmini Parshah Thoughts
Kosherizing
Non-kosher food clogs the soul. (Rashi). What blocks the soul; the stuff itself, or the fact that it is forbidden?
Rashi tells us that worms in drinking water are forbidden only after they separate from the water. Until then they are permitted. The Torah permitted the Jews entering Eretz yisroel to eat all they found, even pig neck. The Ramban explains that even were it not a matter of life and death there was a special dispensation to eat non-kosher. Food has a two to one ratio of kosher ingredients it is permitted to eat, on principle. The non-kosher part is negligible. Does it harm one spiritually?
The Mesilas Yesharim explains that sin causes impurity in a person. Eating non-kosher causes more impurity than usual since it becomes part of its eater, but in principle any sin causes impurity. The impurity distances Hashem from itself, and the eater loses wisdom drawn from Hashem’s presence. It would seem that if the torah permitted something, it would not cause spiritual clog.
(However if something is forbidden, but one relies on a hechsher, then it would cause spiritual problems.)
Others (see Meshech chochmah in Ekev) feel that non-kosher food itself causes trouble, even had the Torah permitted it openly. (Shulchan Aruch siman ?”? rules that a baby should not eat treif, nor nurse from someone who has eaten treif even when that person was halachikly permitted to, supports the idea that treif food, even if permitted, harms spiritually).
Animal or Bird?
Biology has enough trouble trying to sort out what is an animal, what is a bird and what is a fish. The Torah gives us different signs of what is considered kosher by each one, but doesn’t delineate the classification so that we know what to look for by each animal.
What is a platypus; is it a fish since it lives in the water, a bird since it has a beak and lays eggs, a mammal because it has fur and nurses? Is a sea anemone a plant as it appears, or an animal because it catches fish and eats them? What about the fly-trapping plants, do they need split hooves and to chew their cud, or are they plants and permitted (not during shmittah!)?
Lets see what the kinderlach say…
Answering An Angry Man
Aharon defended not eating the Rosh Chodesh Chatos, burning it instead. He merely told Moshe “If I would have eaten Chatos today after this [-my sons dying] happened to me, would it have pleased Hashem?”. Rashi explains that he was really saying “Even though you heard that I continue my regular routine, that was only for the special korbonos brought today, the day the Miskan was inaugurated. This does not apply to korbanos which are always brought, such as the chatos Rosh Chodesh”.
Okay, so why didn’t he say so, if that was his reason?
Answers the Shlah: The reasoning is obvious. Only Moshe’s anger prevented him from seeing it. Aharon simply cut the tension with his understated answer, and Moshe immediately saw the reason. That’s a lesson to us in the how anger clouds the thinking of even a titan like Moshe, and certainly ours too!
Fallibility In Greats
Nadav and Avihu died for bringing a ‘strange fire’ to Hashem. Rashi details a bit: they were drunk during their service or had decided a halacha, usurping Moshe, their teacher.
When Nadav and Avihu died, Moshe said to Aharon ‘this is what Hashem said “Through My holy ones I will become feared!” I thought it would be me or you, but it seems that they were greater than us both!’
They were they holy? They had sinned!?
The answer is that one can sin and still be holy. Sometimes when a Gadol makes a mistake we tend to discount him thereafter. Not so. Only the pope is infallible.
Bircas Kohanim
At the end of the Avodah that Aharon performed on the eighth day, he blessed the people. Rashi explains that this was the normal priestly blessing. And the pasuk tells us that he then descended from the Mizbeach. This is the source that the bircass kohanim is associated with the avodah. In the Beis HaMikdash the bracha was given at the end of the Tamid. During prayer we have the bracha at R’tzei, the Avodah. Avodah means bringing korbanos, sacrifices. Again, we see the clear connection between the priestly blessing and service. What is the relevance?
Perhaps the Birkas Kohanim is not an extension of the Avodah. Rather it is a RESPONSE to it. When we serve Hashem, the response is blessing. The Kohanim are designated as go-betweens, the agents who sacrifice the offerings of the Jewish people to Hashem. And then they confer the blessing of Hashem back to the people in response.
The name and nature of Birkas Kohanim is a reciprocal blessing: a response to our service of Hashem.
A Double Edged Time
The sin of Aharon’s sons is described as bringing ‘a strange fire, which they had not been commanded them’. Rashi in the beginning of Vayikra tells us that a Korban is a ‘pleasing scent’ to Hashem because it bespeaks devotion: ‘I spoke, and My will was done’. Korbanos is doing Hashem’s request. That is what makes them work, not because they are meaningful in themselves. (Oversimplified, obviously; the Torah calls the Korban of Hevel a ‘pleasing scent’ with no command to sacrifice. So there must be value in the Korban itself. I don’t know the answers.) Bringing a Korban uncommanded undermined the entire basis for Korban. They showed that the Korbanos were not expressions of blind devotion to Hashem, rather something they appreciated too, to the point where they felt comfortable adding to them. This was subtracting, in fact, for it meant that their service was doing their own thing, not the negation of their own intellect before Hashem’s, ‘I spoke and My will was done’.
(BTW, The Torah has told us the story of the sons of Aharon. We ourselves don’t even know if they existed. Neither does it matter. The point the Torah is trying to bring home is to say ‘Take example from these mistakes; don’t repeat them’. So we neither judge Aharon’s sons or attribute guilt to them. We merely interpret the Torah’s message to us, using them as an allegory.)
The surviving brothers were told to hold off mourning their dead brothers. Rashi explains that this was ‘the day Hashem will appear to you’; a day of closeness and joy. Mourning would disturb Hashem’s happiness.
It seems as if coincidentally the Hashem came to dwell amongst the Jewish people and the Aharon’s two sons died. Perhaps there is a connection: Hashem’s coming has a great and beneficial impact. But it cuts to the quick when something is wrong. Everything is intensified.
One of the children related this to the Sotah ceremony, where if the woman was innocent, the drinking of Hashem’s name dissolved into the waters caused her to have children. Why? She was no Tzaddekkes; after all, she had secluded herself with a strange man even after being warned not to. Why was she the recipient of this blessing? One answer is that indeed, she is nothing special. However the direct contact she had with Hashem cannot fail to effect. If it is not a bad effect, it perforce will be a salutary one.
So too here, the contact with Hashem leaves a mark. It is both a great joy, and the occasion of death to those who misstepped. Were it not for the Schina coming, perhaps the sons of Aharon would not have died. Their sin was so small.
We suggested that there are times, such as Yomtov and after doing a mitzvah, or places, such as in a Shul or by a tzaddik – live or dead – where the Sh’china is especially present. Those places and times are like everything is on steroids; a mitzvah is doubled. However, so is an aveirah. Its a double-your-tickets time. Lets make sure to watch our step by these places and times!
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