for Parshat Tazria / Mezora
i
In the midst of the rapture
of the inaguration of God’s Tent
Aaron’s two sons
bring a strange fire that was not commanded
before God.
God burns them in fire.
*
Then God offers
a series of Laws
and God teaches Aaron
how to approach His holy place
and not die:
how to approach Him
where his sons could not.
ii
One of the Laws
of this interim series
is the Law of circumcising sons.
It is couched in the Laws of a woman after childbirth:
the first Law of masculine life
made womanly.
iii
Men live with rules
but women know feelings
beyond what is commanded.
God commands Adam away from the Fruit
but Eve sees in it
a pleasure to the eyes.
*
Not unlike the worldview
of Aaron’s sons,
approaching from rapture,
bringing a strange fire that was not commanded.
iv
This worldview can be tragic
(we saw this with the Fruit,
with Aaron’s sons)
but enveloping the Law,
made a framework for the Law,
it can change Law from mere rules
to a bridge
that runs straight from the heart to God.
____
Shabbat shalom,
Abe
To my friends in Israel: my apologies for writing about the parsha in chutz laaretz this week and last.