 Torah Thoughts
This week we the Torah portion Shemini (Leviticus
9-11). Shemini contains 91 verses; 6 positive (“do”)
commandments and 11 negative (“do not”) commandments.
The beginning of our portion deals with the conclusion of
the inauguration of the Tabernacle. On the eighth day, after a seven day
period during which Moses performed the inaugural service, Aaron and his sons
assumed their new role as the Kohanim ('priests') charged with the operation
of the newly erected Tabernacle. This eighth day was the first of the Hebrew
month of Nissan.
On this day of great joy, tragedy struck. Aaron's older
sons entered the Tabernacle unbidden and offered "before G-d an alien
fire that He had not commanded. A fire come forth from G-d and consumed them
and they died before G-d." (Leviticus 10:1-7)
Our Oral Tradition offers a number of explanations for
this enigmatic incident. One of them is that Aaron's sons wished to attain
great spiritual heights and they presumed to do so by performing a service
that G-d did not command. G-d knows the most
suitable path for humans to achieve closeness to Him. If we wish to attain
great spiritual heights, we must follow the prescription of the Torah and the
Oral Tradition. It is blasphemous for an individual or group to presume
greater knowledge than G-d of the ideal means for man to actualize his
spiritual potential. Tampering with the divine commandments and our ancient
traditions, for the apparently noble cause of achieving greater
"spirituality," courts calamity.
In the next section of our Torah portion, G-d
adjures the Kohanim not to enter the Tabernacle in a state of inebriation. We
are bidden to serve G-d with sublime joy, sans the artificial stimulation of
drugs or alcohol. Armed with the knowledge that G-d guides the world and that
every occurrence beyond one’s control will ultimately be positive, how can
one be but in a state of constant, natural elation? Certainly a Kohen who
enters the Tabernacle and experiences the intensity of G-d's Presence should
be fully conscious and sober in his unmitigated joy.
Chapter 11 deals with many of the laws of keeping
kosher, or “holy eating.”
We are told which species are permissible to us. The
act of eating is the most intimate interaction we can have with our
environment. What we eat becomes a physiological and spiritual part of us. We
must therefore be sure to exclude all toxins, both spiritual and physical,
from entering our systems. The animals that are permitted for Jewish
consumption are those which are non-aggressive and generally gentle and
harmless. Carnivores and birds of prey are prohibited. A Jew should not
permit these creatures and their traits to become a part of his being.
The mammals we are permitted to eat possess two
signs of kashrut: they must chew their cud and have split hooves. Split hooves are an
external sign which is easily verified. Chewing the cud is a phenomenon
relating to the digestive tract which is hidden from view- literally in the
bowels of the creature. Jews have a particular aversion to pigs, although
many other species are just as “treif” (a Yiddish misappropriation of a
Hebrew word that has come to be a general term for non-kosher.) Perhaps
this is related to the fact that the pig is the only species which has split
hooves but does not chew its cud. Our Sages compare Esau with the pig.
Our Sages tell us that just as a pig puts out its hooves as if to say
"Look at me. I am kosher", so too Esau put on a show of
righteousness and deceived his father Isaac. Psalm 80 verse 14 refers to a
pig coming out of the forest and ravaging a grapevine. This is alludes to Rome, the descendant of
Esau, attacking the Jewish People. The Romans pretended to be civilized-
they built bridges and market places during their occupation of Israel,
but their motives were not magnanimous. Their goal was to destroy the
spiritual roots of the Jewish People by assimilating them into Roman culture
which emphasized externality and denied the soul- the antithesis of Judaism.
Being a "kosher" righteous person means
having the signs of kashrut on the outside AND on the inside too.
Haftara
The Haftara is II Samuel 6:1-7:17. The Haftara
reflects the Torah portion’s motif of inauguration of the Tabernacle. It
describes the great celebration hundreds of years later, when King David
accompanied the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck along the way. The ark was
loaded onto an ox-wagon, in contravention of the Torah rule that it be borne
in a dignified manner by the Levites. The oxen stumbled and a man, Uzza,
reached out and grabbed onto the ark (for fear that it might fall). G-d
struck Uzza dead. King David became fearful.
Why was Uzza punished for an act that ostensibly was for
the sake of Heaven? (This resembles another motif in our Torah portion, the
death of Aaron’s sons for offering something to G-d that was not requested.
They too acted for the sake of Heaven. See above.)
The death of Uzza serves as a constant reminder to us
that the Torah does not need our “protective” tampering. During the period of
emancipation, when Jews ventured out of the ghettoes, and later in America,
many were concerned that the Torah and its ways were archaic and would not
appeal to the modern Jewish intellect.
Those concerned individuals began to introduce “reforms”
and to chip away at the bedrock of Jewish faith and practice. They hacked at
it until there was nothing left but a name and a few hollow cultural
references. Their heirs see nothing unique about Judaism and the Jewish
People. The elixir of the Torah has been substituted with a placebo, and the
resultant spiritual morbidity is evident. The intermarriage rate is
devastating. Apathy and ignorance hover over the deathbed of the last
generation of non-observant American Jews.
The eternal preservation of the Torah and the
survival of the Jewish People are G-d’s domain. Our sole responsibility is to
adhere to our part of the Covenant and to live a beautiful, authentic and
complete Torah life.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Baruch Price
Technical
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