Aaron’s two elder sons, Nadav and Avihu were participating in the ceremony of the dedication of the Tabernacle. It was the inauguration of the ceremonial role of the priests and the final reconciliation of everyone after the Golden Calf rebellion. It’s the finale of the ceremonials. The sacrificial rituals were performed and fire came from the sky, struck like lightening…
Parsha Shmini
Comforting Aaron
The two sons of Aaron, his putative successors, were burnt to death at the Altar. They had seen their father bring incense and then they decided without his permission to imitate him. All kinds of different reasons are given to explain why they did it. Some positive and others are negative. Moses then tries to comfort the devastated Aaron by…
Moses Deduced the Law
After Aarons two sons die, Moses expects the ceremony of dedication to continue. This involved eating from the different sacrifices that comprised the dedication ceremony of the Tabernacle and the installation of Aaron and his two remaining sons Elazar and Itamar. Aaron himself does not know for certain whether he should continue with ceremony of dedication. So, he takes the…
Kosher Food
The laws of what animals, birds and fish are permitted are given this week as part of the Book of Vayikra which deals with issue of personal purity. Purity in Biblical Hebrew has nothing to do with cleanliness as we understand it. Quite the contrary, no matter how clean a person might be, certain actions and states placed them in…
Why Dietary Laws?
The system of sacrifices expands this week (beyond blood and certain fats) to the laws of what animals, birds and fish we can and cannot eat. It’s a progression that makes sense. Originally according to our tradition humans were not carnivores. Only after Noah’s flood when he celebrated his survival by sacrificing animals to God, do animals feature as food…
Rituals
Someone said to me that he believed in God but not in religion. I don’t really understand what “Believing in Religion” means. You don’t believe in the Constitution of the United States. You accept it, you choose (or not) to abide by it. The Jewish religion is something to be practiced as a way of life that is designed to…