TorahParsha

What does God think of your life?

for Parshat Acharei Mot 

        

 

i

After he loses two of his sons, Aaron’s family refrains from partaking of a sacrifice—a goat—though they have been commanded to do so.

 

Moses is angry over this. But Aaron says: Such things have befallen me today; would God want me to eat of the sacrifice?

 

 

ii

After the death of Aaron’s two sons, God introduces the day of Yom Kippur—the day of forgiveness, the day that is framed by the sacrifice of goats, by the symbol of Aaron's argument.

 

 

iii

Perhaps we should see these events like this:

 

Aaron thinks: God gives us rules. But God, also, sees us through the lens of our actual life.

 

And God agrees.

 

 

___

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

 

Sent from Los Angeles (before Shabbat)

www.TorahParsha.com 

 

Where imperfection can take us

I hope this late piece on Acharei Mot is, at the least, an enjoyable welcome to the new week. -Abe

 

 

i

God teaches us of Yom Kippur,

our holiest day,

the day we face our own sins.

A whole holy day

dedicated to human imperfection.

 

ii

Then God says:

Do not sacrifice to God

out in the field.

Bring your sacrifice instead

to God's Temple.

He teaches us to transport

our yearning for Him in the field,

to take that yearning to God's home.

He teaches us to draw a straight line

from our own field

to God's house.

 

iii

Finding the holiness in our imperfection,

we can find the pathway to God in our own fields

the pathway to God

in our own imperfect lives.

 

___

Shavuah Tov,

Abe

Leviticus Chapter 16-17

www.TorahParsha.com

 

How choice is dangerous

for Parshat Acharei Mot / Kedoshim 

 

i

Two of Aaron’s sons

rush up to God

against God’s instructions

and they die.

*

After this, God says:

on Yom Kippur

Aaron

or Aaron’s descendant

must bring two goats—

one to offer to God,

another to send away.

Which goat is which

is decided by casting lots.

*

And Israel’s sins are forgiven

in this ceremony.

ii

We sin when we think

that all of life is our choice:

that we may follow our hearts

over what God has said.

*

Drawing lots is the opposite—

we let God decide

which goat is God’s

and which will leave us,

how we must come to Him

and how we must not,

which sons we keep

and which sons we cannot keep.

 

iii

Such a hard lesson,

this opposite of sin,

this acknowledgement

that God rules the world

and God rules us.

It is no surprise

that the hard task of accepting it

brings forgiveness.

 

____

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com 

 

What if our approach to God is wrong?

for Parshat Acharei Mot / Kedoshim

 

i

It was after the death of Aaron’s two sons

that God introduced Yom Kippur:

the day the High Priest enters the holiest room

in the Temple of God,

the day each year God forgives us.

*

Aaron’s two sons

are the sons who brought a strange fire

that was not commanded them

before God;

God burned them in fire.

 

ii

Our yearly day of forgiveness

is not a response to all-out sin,

to an utter departure from God.

It is a response to approaching God

in the way that was not commanded,

in the way we please.

This is the wrong way to approach.

*

But God asks us back,

He invites us in

to His holiest place.

*

This process of failure

of being invited back

is enmeshed within the warp and woof of the closeness

between us and God:

it is part of our calendar.

 

iii

Not that God wants us to seek the wrong channels

the wrong path

the wrong door

but after He shows us

how the wrong door is closed to us

God says:

Come again,

still come to reach Me.

 

___

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

www.TorahParsha.com

How can you discover yourself?

for Parshat Kedoshim

 

i

God tells us: you shall be holy:

- Honor your father and mother.

- Do not mix wool thread and linen thread in a single garment.

- When you plant a tree, let it grow for four years before you take its fruit.

Honor the other people, the other things, for what is unique within them.

*

Honoring others, you cannot say: I am the center of the world.

Honoring others, you say: These others aside from me matter.

 

ii

God says: you shall love the immigrant like yourself,

for you were immigrants in the land of Egypt

(coming to Egypt in the time of Joseph,

fleeing hunger).

Do not say: I am very different from others.

Even with those who come from far away,

say: They are like me.

 

iii

So others become the focus of the world—and not you.

And you do not cut yourself off as different from all others;

you love others,

you know you are one of them.

*
You do not discover yourself.

You discover the world,

you discover that you are a part of the wider world.

This is what you must discover if you are to be holy.

 

 

 

____

Shabbat Shalom,

Abe

____ 

Please pray for the infant Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama, and register for bone marrow for Ayelet. Please pray for the premature infant  Baer Yakov ben Emunah, who has finally come home from the hospital. Please also pray for  Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther, and Daniel ben Arella.

 

 

Before HaShem (for Parshat Acharei Mot / Kedoshim)

i

Aaron’s sons Nadav and Avihu came before HaShem with a strange fire… which God did not command them.

And they died.

*

God says: let the remaining priests—Aaron’s remaining family—guide the people through the Laws of pure and impure; through what is fitting before God and what is not.

 

ii
After the death of Aaron’s two sons, God introduces Yom Kippur.

Aaron will atone upon God’s dwelling-place, that dwells amongst the people in the midst of their impurity.

Aaron will enter, alone, into the holiest chamber of God’s dwelling-place.

 

iii

Nadav and Avihu come before HaShem with their own personal fire.

And they died.

*

God says: let the priests guide the people across into purity.

Let the priests allow God to dwell amongst an impure people.

The priests will allow the people and God to dwell together.

Only in this way is Aaron (the head of the priests) let in before HaShem.

 

 

 ______

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

___

Verses cited: Lev 10:1 and 16:1 (I conflated these two verses for simplicity), 16:16.

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Please continue to pray for Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah, and for Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther