Rabbi's Message for Shabbat Aharei Mot-Kedoshim 5780- May 1, 2020

Dear Members and Friends of Kehilat Shalom,
 
This weeks’ double Parsha, Aharei Mot – Kedoshim, contains a fascinating sequence outlining the elevation from lowliness to sacredness.  At the beginning of Aharei Mot, Aharon, the high priest, is commanded to an expiatory sacrifice on behalf of not only himself and his family, but all the people of Israel.  This atonement was to take place on the tenth day of the seventh month: Yom Kippur.  Recall that two of Aharon’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, died instantly when they brought a “strange fire” to the Lord.  The incidents of Aharei Mot, literally meaning “After the death”, follow in the wake of this tragedy.

When we find ourselves in the direct presence of death, we enact mourning rituals which traditionally included the sprinkling of ashes on one’s head, and sleeping/sitting on the ground.  It is as though we are returning to a primeval state, where we symbolically depict our mortality of beginning and ending in the earth; indeed the word “Adam”, signifying humanity, literally means earth.  In our lowest spiritual form, we are but earth – indistinct from the elements that surround us.  It is from this base that one begins one’s climb to sacredness.
 
We do not truly know Aharon’s state of mind upon the horrible death of his two sons, for his immediate reaction was silence, then compliance.  The expiatory sacrifice performed by Aharon may have been necessary to indicate to him, and to the Jewish people collectively, that Hashem did NOT regard the people as inherently laden with sin or evil.  Humanity has the right to begin each year, and indeed each moment, with the potential to do good and to be sacred in Heaven’s eyes.  Even when one is utterly bereft, one has the choice to live life with a sense of purpose and meaning.  This is the first rung on the path to sacredness: the recognition that, even if our bodies be molecularly indistinct from the Earth around us, we have the choice to live our lives with purpose and potential.
 
The laws of sacrificial atonment are followed by laws pertaining to the consumption of animals.  A person who randomly kills an animal for personal consumption, without providing an offering at the Tabernacle, is considered a spiller of blood (Vayikra/Leviticus 17:4) and “tameh”, i.e. in a state of spiritual subjection.  The Sages explain that in the primeval world of the Garden of Eden, humans did not eat animals, as it is written, “Hashem said, ‘See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food” (Bereshit/Genesis 1:29) – indicating plants, rather than animals, as humanity’s food.  In the casting out from Eden, humans came to depend upon animals as a source of food.  Nonetheless, Jews are commanded not to eat the animals’ blood, but to offer it up to G-d.  This is because blood represents the fundamental life-force; and such life-force belongs to Hashem and not to humanity.  This suggests a next rung up on the ladder of sacredness: recognizing the soul inherent in every living being.
 
The Torah then includes a famous verse which is fundamental to our attitudes towards life and death:

• “And you shall observe My decrees and My laws which a person shall perform, and live by them; I am the Lord.” (Vayikra/Leviticus 18:5).

According to the Sages, the two words in Hebrew “v’chai bahem” – “live by them” – signify that we are meant to live by Torah, and not die from it.  This is the source of the fundamental precept of “pikuach nefesh” – for the purpose of saving lives, we are permitted (in fact, commanded) to transgress virtually all other tenets of Torah.  It is for this very purpose that our synagogues are halachically commanded to remain shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic.  If we Jews choose to refrain from gathering as a congregation now, it is so we can remain alive to come together for many more Shabbats to come.  As we work up the ladder of holiness, we must recognize the inherent sacredness of life itself.

This is followed by a strange, perhaps even disturbing passage prohibiting all manners of incestuous or taboo sexual relationships, spelled out one-by-one.  (These are preceded by the prohibition of acting like the inhabitants of Egypt or Canaan, who presumedly violated such taboos.) We are required to acknowledge that some acts are so perverse, that they fall in the realm of “yehareg v’al ya’avor” – better that we should die than violate such extremes.  Surprisingly, this passage is traditionally one of the Torah readings recited on Yom Kippur!  The connection between taboos and atonement may correspond to the very ladder we have outlined.  Atonement includes recognition that our ultimate purpose is not merely to survive for the sake of survival, or at the disregard of everyone or anything around us.  To lay the groundwork for sacredness, one must acknowledge that there are matters more important than our very lives.
 
It is at this point, in the double parsha, where we begin the section of Kedoshim.  Kedoshim means holy (in the plural form), and G-d commands the entire people of Israel, “You shall be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy” (Vayikra/Leviticus 19:2).  The parsha of Kedoshim outlines a wide variety of fundamental ethical tenets and laws, including:

• respecting parents and honouring the Shabbat;
• willingly committing to serving and offering up to G-d;
• leaving harvest gleanings and vineyard grapes to be culled by the needy;
• respecting the needs of the disabled, and showing deference to the elderly;
• providing feedback to correct others and help improve themselves;
• prohibiting idolatry, lewdness and adultery;
• loving the stranger;
• chukim, i.e., selected laws with no evident rationale except to obey G-d.

Each of these various laws and tenets are manners in which we make sacredness manifest in our selves and our world.

Yet, our double parsha reminds us that there are core elements which must lay the foundation.   The choice to live with purpose, the recognition of the living soul in all creatures, the preservation of life, the acknowledgement that there are matters greater than survival itself – are necessary precursors to the potential for holiness.  Through these crucial perspectives, we can indeed become “Am Kadosh”, a sacred and beloved nation in G-d’s eyes.
 
Let’s all do our best to make this a very, very, very special Shabbat!

Shabbat shalom!

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