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Parashah Shemini comment: Shir Peress



When Gabriel suggested I write a short text about this week Parasha, I wondered, what can I write that could add value? To be honest, the more I delved into the text, the more I realized how much it touches me personally as an Israeli these days.


Parashat Shemini tells us about the dedication of the tabernacle, in which Aaron, Moses' brother, and his sons Nadav and Avihu, who are chosen to be the official priests, offer sacrifices and offerings on the altar, as an atonement for the people following the sin of the golden calf.


Aaron blesses the people with the Priestly Blessing: "May the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face to you and be gracious to you, may the Lord lift up his face to you and give you peace."


The fire that comes down from the sky, consumes the sacrifices on the altar. The people are happy because this is the proof of God's forgiveness for their sins. Along with the joy, we are told about a great tragedy - Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aaron, offer incense before God even though he did not command them and in response, fire emerges from the sky again and burns them both alive.


To comfort Aaron, Moses tells him "Through those near to me I show myself holy, and gain glory before all the people.” meaning that they were of a high spiritual rank and therefore, the Name of God is sanctified precisely by punishing those close to him. Aharon is silent and does not respond.


Later in the Parasha, we are told about the multitude of laws, mourning customs, and kosher laws that God commands the people before their arrival in the Promised Land.

As an Israeli, this chapter throws me straight back to Saturday, the 7th of October. That cursed day when the greatest tragedy since the Holocaust happened to Israel and to the Jews. Shabbat and Simchat Torah in front of the tabernacle celebrations; The burning alive of Nadav and Avihu in the face of brutal terrorist acts that killed more than 1,200 people.


In Judaism there is a saying when someone dies "God takes the best to his side" and this makes me think of the "sin" of Nadav and Avihu in the face of the death of those helpless angels whose lives were cut short in the most cruel and vicious way. What was their sin? Is this the atonement we had to pay as a nation for our sins against each other in the days leading up to the disaster? Have we learned a lesson from this? Will we ever learn? These are open questions that we might never get answers to, but raises so many other deep questions, which concern everyone from their own perception of Judaism.


About two years ago I was at a lecture by Dr. Zohar Raviv, the VP of Education of "Tagalit" and one of the things I took with me that day was the sentence "Open your ears, close your mouth". "וידום אהרון". How much power exists in silence, how much influence can be created through silence. In these days while we wait impatiently for the safe return of all the hostages as well as to the end of the war and the return home of all our soldiers, sometimes, the silence can be a tremendous comfort.


I wish you all a truly Shabbat Shalom and may the Peace-Shalom will knock on our doors soon.

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