Shemini 5767 – Gilayon #492
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Parshat Shmini
BUT THESE YOU SHALL NOT EAT
AMONG THOSE THAT BRING UP THE CUD AND THOSE THAT HAVE A CLOVEN HOOF: THE CAMEL,
BECAUSE IT BRINGS UP ITS CUD, BUT DOES NOT HAVE A [COMPLETELY] CLOVEN HOOF; IT
IS UNCLEAN FOR YOU.
(Vayikra 11:4)
From
every clean animal…
R. Yudin
said in the name of R. Yohanan and R. Brekhia said in the name of R. Eliezer,
and R. Ya'akov of Kfar Hanin said in the name of R. Yehoshua
ben Levi: We find that the Holy One blessed be He "twisted"
twenty-three words of the Torah in order not to emit an impure utterance from
His mouth. Thus it is written: Take seven and seven, male and female, of
each of the clean animals. However, it does not say and of the unclean
animals, but rather of those which are not clean.
R.Yudin son of R. Menashe
said: Even when He came to tell them the signs of unclean animals, He began
by telling them the signs of the clean animals: it is not written, the
Camel for it does not have split hooves, but rather for it chews its cud
(Vayikra 11);
it is not written, the hyrax, for it does not have split hooves, but
rather, for it chews its cud (ibid) it is not written, the pig for it
does not chew its cud, but rather, for it has split hooves (ibid).
(Bereishit Rabbah 32:4)
…and the reason is not preservation
of health, since camel-meat is indeed healthful and well-loved by the people of
the East…
The multiplication of
commandments and laws is useful for the improvement of character in all places
and times. This is for two reasons: First, the divine commandments that a
person observes constantly remind him of the God who commanded them, and of God
and His providence and reward and punishment; all of these bridle and restrain
man's overwhelming appetite, establishing the fear of God in his heart so that
he will not sin. The second reason is that the only stratagem a person can use
to overcome his inclination and govern his own mind is to accustom himself to
abstaining from pleasures and to suffering sorrow and duress, as in the verse, It
is good for a man to bear a yoke in his youth (Lamentations 3:27).
(ShaDaL)
And Aaron was Silent
Rami Pinchover
[In the 5765 series of Shabbat Shalom, Prof. Nahem Ilan presented and
discussed the various philological aspects of the term vayidom
– "was silent" – and the various traditions of its translation by Onkelos. Basing my analysis on Scripture and the writings
of the Sages in various generations, I shall attempt to understand the
psychological nature of Aaron's silence]
The
priestly ceremony of the Tabernacle's consecration reached its height in the
priestly blessing offered jointly by Moses and Aaron [this occurred at the very
moment that Moses completed his priestly role and transferred it to Aaron], as
it is written: Then Moses and Aaron came to the Tent of Meeting and came out
and blessed [plural form] the people (Vayikra 9:23). It may be understood that when the
blessing was given, the Divine Presence revealed Itself
in all Its glory, for it is written: And the Glory of the Lord was shown to
all the people (loc cit). The Glory
of the Lord appeared to the people as "divine halo and illumination
breaking forth from the covering fire" [see Abarbanel's comments
to Shemot 24:17 and the sight of the Lord's Glory
pg. 362, and Weinfeld: "Ha'El
ha'borei bi'vreishit alef u'venevu'at Tishayahu ha'sheini" in Tarbiz 37:131]. However, the people did not yet understand what they saw and were in
need of a clearer and more tangible expression, a divine presence on earth. This
is immediately found in the next verse: A fire came
forth from before the Lord and consumed [that which was] on the
altar… The shining halo suddenly broke out in a kind of "solar-storm."
It was only then that the people began to appreciate the greatness of the hour:
and the people saw and sang-out, and later: they fell on their faces.
First joy and immediately afterwards, trembling. "Falling on
one's face" – this is the ultimate expression of human submission upon
viewing the Divine Presence, exactly as had occurred when God was revealed to Moses
on Mount Sinai, and the people bowed and prostrated themselves (Shemot
34:8).
However,
the event did not end with this. Since the fire was permitted to come forth
from before the Lord, the fire did God's bidding. It was unsatisfied
with the sacrifice of animals upon the altar, and the moment it recognized a
strange, human fire – and was perhaps angered by this human lack of
understanding of the Creator's greatness – the divine fire went forth again and
sought a more significant victim, one more important and more painful. And so,
it attacked those who had offered the strange fire – Nadav
and Avihu (who, apparently, shared the people's
incomprehension of the Glory of the Lord's power) – and so the Torah employs
the same formulation: then fire came forth from before the Lord and
consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
The
combination of song with fear and calamity characterize the climax in which joy
is erased by sorrow and mourning. Rosenzweig's words
seem appropriate: on the one hand, God "demands the visible signs of
offering and prayer brought in his name…" and almost in the same breath
he rejects them both; "And the strands of suffering and guilt, of love and
judgment, of sin and atonement, are so inextricably twined that human hands
cannot untangle them (Star of Redemption, Hallo translation pp. 306-7).
Two
immediate responses to this terrible event appear in our parasha.
One is Moses' attempt to understand what had happened and to comfort Aaron with
the words, This is that of which the Lord
spoke… The second is Aaron's mute [?] response to his sons' deaths and to
Moses' attempts at explanation – and Aaron was silent.
At
first it seems that Moses' response lacks empathy and sensitivity to the
magnitude of the tragedy; his words may be more painful than helpful, a kind of
"I told you so." Moses' lack of connection seems to have resulted
from his isolation from human beings (see Shemot 33:7 and
34:30). It reappears in full
force in his sharp exchange with Aaron, in which he is enraged by the latter's
remaining sons' lack of attention to detail in their offering of sacrifices
[burning the sacrifice instead of eating it (Vayikra 10:16-20)]. Aaron's resulting emotional outburst,which reveals something of his hidden feelings: and such will befall me… will
that be good in the eyes of the Lord? This traumatic encounter ends with a
verse in which Moses seems to begin to understand Aaron's feelings: And
Moses heard, and it was good in his eyes
(verse 20).In the light of al the above, we may now
enquire after the significance of Aaron's silence.
I believe that we can achieve a deeper
understanding of our parasha by considering a famous
biblical parallel – the story of Job's calamity. In the wake of the tragedies
that befell him, Job also remained silent before God, as Weiss (Mikra'ot
ke'Kavanotam, pg. 379) claims: "Job fell silent" because
"thoughts, doubts, questions ate away at his soul, but he remained silent
in order not to utter that which was in his soul" and as "a defense
against outburst, against making accusations against Heaven." However,
this does not seem to be the only point of comparison between these two
biblical figures.
Job is rebuked by his friends, who cannot
understand him and his situation. So it is also with Moses, as we have explained
above. Just as Job does not accept his friends' words of rebuke regarding his "sins,"
Aaron does not agree with what Moses says to him regarding the "sinful"
manner in which the sacrificial service was executed following the tragedy.
It seems that the most important comparison
between Aaron and Job is the escape from or solution to the terrible unease of
the Book of Job. Job finds an answer to his torments and a balm for his
catastrophe. He is consoled for dust and ashes (42:6) immediately following God's revelation from
the storm (40:6). So it is in our own story. Immediately
following the catastrophe and uniquely in the entire Torah, God speaks to Aaron
privately and in the same manner as He speaks with Moses. It is a category of revelation
achieved by only one person besides Moses himself – a revelation of speech mouth
to mouth. This revelation answered Job's existential questions, which
stand at the center of the believer's world: Does the Creator exist? If so, why
does He treat His handiwork in this way? Where is He in times of trouble? Here
too, in response to Aaron's silence, a silence that contained a struggle
similar to that of Job, God arrives to speak to Aaron individually [about
drunken priests and perhaps about other important topics].
The question is: how does revelation "solve"
the "problem"?
Feiffer ("Hasjkafat
ha'olam shel Sefer Iyyov" in T. Adar,
Hashkafat ha'Olam
shel ha'Tanakh, pg.
293) claims that the Book of
Job expresses the view that "the chasm that separates man from God is not
to be bridged, God is not an ideal human character to whom inconceivable power and
fury has been added. He is rather a being so exalted above man that the latter
is completely insignificant before Him." In contrast, Otto (The Idea of the Holy,
Harvey translation pg. 78) claims
that, "Latent in the weird experience that Job underwent in the revelation
of Elohim is at once an inward relaxing of his soul's
anguish and an appeasement, an appeasement which alone and in itself would
perfectly suffice as the solution of the problem of the Book of Job, even
without Job's rehabilitation in chapter xlii…" As a continuation to his
words it can be said that the catastrophe that befalls a person can damage his
belief in the Creator's existence and in the His mode of ruling His world. Thus,
the ultimate answer to this crisis is to be found in a personal revelation. So
it is both with suffering Job and with Aaron. Job says: I have heard of you
by ear, now my eyes have seen you (Job 42:5). Until this point, Job had only heard of revelation – now he experiences
it himself! It is true that in contrast to Job, Aaron had already experienced
many revelations, but he had never experienced a personal revelation in the
manner of the direct speech which his brother Moses experienced daily and mouth
to mouth!
The frame story of Job involves God testing
man; was Aaron also put to a test? According to RaShBaM
(Vayikra 10:3),
Aaron passed his test and sanctified the name of Heaven by continuing his
service of God in the Tabernacle despite the catastrophe he suffered and his
mourning.
We stand now on the eve of the Holocaust
Memorial Day and ask: does every catastrophe that befalls the believer involve God's
test of man? Moving from the individual to the collective: is the Holocaust the
Creator's test of His people?
In response, I shall cite three personal perspectives
in the wake of the Holocaust, belonging to a writer, a poet, and a philosopher
respectively. Their words cry out to heaven, rising up in the flames of
Eli Weisel's
strong words are well known: "I shall never forget the flames that burned
up my faith forever. I shall never forget the silence of night that forever
stole from me my desire for life. I shall never forget those moments which
murdered my God and my soul and my dreams that became a deserted wilderness"
(Translated
from the Hebrew, "Ha'Layla" [Night]
in Im Shahar,
pg. 28)
Less well known is Abraham Sutzkever's terrifying poem, "The Witness": "Ever
since I was witness to the power of one little match/ to extinguish a synagogue
full of old people and children [note the oxymoron – a fire that extinguishes –
and compare it to Hanah Senesh's
last poem, "Blessed is the Match"] …since then, I have been unable
to enter any synagogue… "
Weisel's words may be directed at Abraham Joshua Heschel – whose hundredth birthday is currently being
celebrated. In his book Israel: an Echo of Eternity (pg. 12), Heschel wrote: "We
all died in
We knew that to repudiate God would be to continue the holocaust."
The above seems to shed new light on the famous dictum of R. Pinchas ben Meir (as formulated in the RaMHaL's Messilat Yesharim, following Avodah Zara 20b): "Holiness
brings one to acquire the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit
brings about the resurrection of the dead." When someone reaches the level
of holiness, sanctifying God's Name by withstanding the most terrible of trials
– as did Aaron and Job – he is worthy of experiencing the Holy Spirit. Then, in
the "storm of revelation," he suddenly discovers those dear to him
who had been taken in the test, resting beneath the Throne of Glory!
Blessed
is the Match
Hannah Senesh
Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the heart's secret
places.
Blessed is the heart that knows, for honors sake, to stop
its beating.
Blessed is the match, consumed in kindling flame.
Rami Pinchover
is an engineer
Reality follows
its Usual Course – a Person's Fate is not Indicative of his Moral Worth
After the death
of Aaron's two sons – Rabbi Shimon
opened his discourse: For the same fate is in store for all: for the
righteous and for the wicked [; for the good and for the pure, and for the
impure; for him who sacrifices and for him who does not; for the good and for
the sinner…] (Kohelet 9:2). For the
righteous – that is Noah, who is called a righteous man (Bereishit 6). R. Yohanan said in the name of R.
Eliezer, the son of R. Yossi
HaGalili: When Noah exited the ark, the lion bit him
and maimed him, and he was no longer fit to offer sacrifices, so his son Shem
sacrificed in his stead.
For the wicked – That is
Pharaoh Nekho, when he tried to sit on Solomon's
throne he did not know its ways, and a lion bit him and broke him – they both
died with limps, as it is written: For the same fate is in store for all:
for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good and for the pure, and for
the impure.
For the good: That is
Moses, for it is said and she saw that he was good (Shemot 2); R. Meir says that he was born circumcised.
And for the
pure – That is Aaron,
who was occupied with the purification of
walked with Me in peace and integrity, returning many
from sin (Malachi 2)
And for the
impure – Those are the
spies; these praised the
of
it, neither group entered the Land, as it is written, for the good and for
the pure, and for the impure…
For the good
and for the sinner – the good – that is David, for it is said, and he sent and brought
him, and he was good to look at (I Samuel 16). R. Yitzhak
said: Good to look at for halakhah, anyone who
looked at him would recall the material he had studied.
For the sinner – That is
Nebuchadnezzar, for it is said, redeem your sins (Daniel
4:24),
this one built the Temple and reigned forty years, that one destroyed the
Temple and reigned for forty years – that is one fate… Another
opinion: One fate – That is Aaron's sons, for regarding them it is
written, in peace and integrity (Malachi 2).
For the wicked – That is Korah's congregation, of whom it is written move away.
These entered to sacrifice in controversy and ended up being burned, while
those entered to sacrifice without controversy and also ended up being burned.
(Vayikra Rabbah 20)
The Death of
the Righteous is Troubling for the Holy One blessed be He and Effects Atonement
R. Abba bar Avina said: Why is the
story of Miriam's death placed next to [the passage regarding] the [red] heifer's
ashes? To teach that just as the heifer's ashes atone, so too the death of the
righteous atones.
R. Yudin said: Why does [the story
of] Aaron's death appear next to [the story of] the
breaking of the Tablets? To teach that Aaron's death was as troubling for the
Holy One blessed be He as was the breaking of the
Tablets.
R. Hiya bar Abba said: Aaron's sons
died on the first day of Nisan, so why are their deaths mentioned in connection
with Yom Kippur? This is in order to teach that just as Yom Kippur atones, so
too the deaths of the righteous atones. From whence do
we know that Yom Kippur atones? Because it is said, For
on that day [He] will atone you to purify you (Vayikra 16). And from whence do we know that the death of the righteous
atones? Because it is written, And they
buried Saul's bones and it is written, After that, God responded to the
plea of the land (II Samuel 21).
(Vayikra Rabbah 20)
The Limitations
set by the Rules of Impurity of Animals and the Laws of Slaughter are Steps to
a Higher Spiritual Ascent
This is the animal that you shall eat: It starts by
permitting those which may be eaten, as we find with [the lists of] fish and
grasshoppers, implying that it would be proper not to eat living things at all,
and so it had to begin: Speak unto the Israelites and say: "This is the
animal that you shall eat" since the granting of permission is itself
the innovation there.
(From the HaTaM Sofer's commentary, Torat
Moshe,
as
quoted by Prof. Nehamah Leibowitz
in
her Iyyunim Hadashim
BeSefer Vayikra, pg.
127)
A Torah scholar, a spiritual man, and at the same time he is
regularly employed in the slaughter of animals and the taking of their souls –
this does not agree with the heart's pure emotions. Even though slaughter and
the eating of animals in general must still be practiced in the world, in any
case it would be preferable that this work be performed by people who have not
yet achieved emotional refinement. Learned, ethical people, who are
knowledgeable and religious, are appropriate to serve as overseers who
guarantee that animals not be killed in a barbaric fashion, and that the whole
matter of flesh-eating should be infused with a noble light which may, in its
own time, light up the world. This is truly contained in the laws of slaughter
and forbidden meat.
(From Rav Kook ztz"l's Igrot HaRAYaH, vol. 1, letter 178)
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