TorahParsha

Correction & Clarification to my Yom Kippur Post

More than one reader noted that, in the piece I sent for Yom Kippur, I incorrectly mentioned the 10^th of Nissan as the date of Passover. I’d like to explain the original idea that I was trying to describe (an idea that I may have read at least part of in one of Rav Mordecai Breuer's works).

 

***

In Egypt, just before the Exodus, God tells the people to begin their calendar with the month of Nissan. They are to set aside the Paschal lamb on the 10^th of Nissan. Which is five days before Passover, the seven-day holiday that begins on the 15^th. 

Today our calendar begins not in Nissan, but with the month of Tishrei. Rosh HaShanah comes at the start of Tishrei. Yom Kippur comes on the 10^th. And Sukkot, a seven-day holiday, begins on the 15^th.

Obviously the dates of Tishrei -- our season of repentance and forgiveness -- run parallel to the dates Nissan, our season of freedom.

Perhaps because repentance and freedom are variations on a single theme.

 

___

Chag Sameach,

Abe 

Note that, outside of Israel, Passover and Sukkot are observed for one extra day.

Why we need others

for Yom Kippur

 

i

On the day the priests

—Aaron and his sons—

are inaugurated to serve

in God’s beautiful Tent

two of Aaron’s sons

approach God with a strange fire

they are not commanded to bring.

And fire devours them.

*

Soon after, God commands the priests

to teach the people:

which animals are impure,

about Laws of childbirth

and Laws of menstruation;

and God commands the priests

to help lepers find their way

through their disease

and back to their brethren,

the people of God.

*

Then God teaches of Yom Kippur:

the day the high priest 

enters alone

into the holiest chamber

of God’s Tent

to atone on the people’s behalf.

 

ii

Aaron’s sons attempt

a personal closeness with God.

*

Sin comes

of our viewing God’s world

as the place for our own private experience.

*

So that Aaron’s sons attempt

something close to sin.

 

iii

God says:

Let the priests bring their work

beyond the cloistered Tent

to the world of animals

of birth

of flesh

of sickness

of others.

Let them move far beyond the private.

*

Through this religion of selflessness

sin is upended.

And God brings us to Him.

 

 

___ 

Gmar chatimah tovah,

Abe

___

For the complete list of mitzvot that God commands between kashrut and Yom Kippur, and their correct order, see parshiot Tazria and Mezorah

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 

 

Booklet for Yom Kippur, 5772

Friends,

As I have done in years past, I'm sharing a booklet of pieces I've written throughout the last few years that relate to Yom Kippur. View the booklet here.

May HaShem inscribe us all in the book of life and happiness.

Gmar Chatima tova,

Abe

 

Please pray for for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama 

TorahParsha.com

How do we keep piety in check?

for Parshat Metzora

 

i

When a man is cured of the skin-sickness

that makes him impure,

the priest conducts a ceremony.

The priest shall command that two birds are taken,

and he shall command that one bird be slaughtered,

and he shall send the living bird loose into the open field.

*

The skin-sick man returns to purity.

 

ii

On Yom Kippur,

the day we are forgiven,

the High Priest conducts a ceremony.

He take two goats

and puts his hands in a box

and pulls out markers for each goat—

one for HaShem,

to be sacrificed;

one to be sent away

by another priest

to a barren land. 

*

And we are forgiven.

 

ii

The priest purifying the man

commands that a bird be slaughtered

and sends the second bird away himself.

The High Priest’s goats,

are chosen by chance—

which is to say: by God—

and another man sends the second goat away.

 

iii

How do we bring purity?

We command the world:

we shape, force the world into something religious.

*

But also we say:

the world is not ours to shape,

it is not ours,

the world is God’s.

 

 

____

I am indebted to Rav Ezra Bick for the underlying metzorah / Yom Kippur parallel.  

____

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 Ahuvah Rachel bat Orah, Rachel Tovah bat Yehudit Esther, and Daniel ben Arella.

 www.TorahParsha.com

 

 

Download the TorahParsha Yom Kippur booklet

As I've done before, this week I'm attaching a booklet of my earlier thoughts that deal with Yom Kippur. 

             >CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE YOM KIPPUR BOOKLET

Please help me in making this booklet available to friends, family, and synagogue members--by forwarding the link along, sharing it on Facebook, and/or leaving hard copies of the booklet in your synagogue where fellow-congregants can read them (but please check with your synagogue office first).

Enjoy, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for enriching my life weekly throughout the year.

Have a beautiful and uplifting fast.

Gmar chatimah tovah,

- Abe


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

Download the TorahParsha Yom Kippur booklet

It's only a few weeks after Passover, but many rabbis and educators have already begun contemplating their sermons for the coming Yom Kippur. As this week's parsha is concerned heavily with the Yom Kippur service, I wanted to take the opportunity to re-send last year's Yom Kippur booklet--culled from Yom Kippur thoughts I've offered over time.

>Download the TorahParsha Yom Kippur booklet here

Enjoy, and please share this booklet with a rabbi you know.

Shabbat shalom, Abe

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.

If you enjoyed this thought, please share it with a friend. www.TorahParsha.com

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

The Book of Jonah

i
God tells Jonah to warn the people of Ninveh to repent from sin.

Jonah flees from God in a ship, heading out to the waters.

Later, Jonah tells God why he has fled: he fears that the people of Ninveh will repent, and God will spare them.

*
The people of Ninveh do repent, together, as one city. God does spare them.

God says: He shows them mercy because they are a people who do not know their right from their left.

ii
Jonah is a man of Truth and so he seeks Justice. And so he seeks punishment for Ninveh.

But God says: the people of Ninveh are only human. They need mercy.

*
Jonah cannot bear this. He flees the community of people—heading out on a ship—to flee God, to flee mercy.

*
But in community people can come to God. The people of Ninveh repent together. So the community holds Truth in it.

Though mercy defies Truth, community possesses Truth.

Jonah does not know this. But God knows this.

*
It is because God knows this that the community, together, can attain forgiveness: can receive mercy.

Based, in part, on a theory of God's mercy of Rav Ezra Bick