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Rabbi Jonathan Hanish on Parashat Shemini (Leviticus 9:1 11:47)

We are all human, so we all stumble at some point in our lives.
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April 17, 2015

We are all human, so we all stumble at some point in our lives. If and when our stumble is discovered, we pay the price for our actions through repentance and transformation, and then, hopefully, we move forward and leave the past behind.  But, on occasion, our actions come back to haunt us over and over again, like a never-ending echo.

Aaron finds himself feeling the effects of a past act in this week’s Torah portion. He survived the punishment of the golden calf by acting as if he was not responsible for the crafting of an alien god. But we know better — the Torah teaches that Aaron was responsible because Aaron asked for the gold rings that adorned the ears of the people and then cast them into a mold, creating the golden calf (Exodus 32:2-4). When confronted by Moses, he omits the information about the mold with the words, “They gave [the gold] to me and I hurled it into the fire and out came this calf” (Exodus 32:24). In Aaron’s version, the calf just magically appears out of the fire. There was no mold. He took no active role. In the punishments that ensued for the sin of the golden calf, he was spared.

[Read Rabbi Edward FeinsteinRabbi Chaim Mentz
and Rabbi Sarah Bassin‘s takes on Parashat Shemini]

Aaron, it seemed, was forgiven for his sin against God. He moved forward in his role as a leader. He learned the responsibilities he and his sons would take as priests. In last week’s Torah portion, it is taught that he and his sons entered the Tent of Meeting for seven days of ordination. On the eighth day, he was finally the High Priest. Moses called to him and he stepped out of the tent feeling exhilarated.

Moses commanded Aaron to make three sacrifices so that “the presence of Adonai may appear to you” (Leviticus 9:6). The first offering was to be a bull calf sin offering. Rashi believed this was to finally forgive Aaron for the sin of the golden calf. But as the day’s events play out, it seemed to be a reminder that God had not yet forgiven Aaron for this mistake. Once the three sacrifices were complete, Aaron raised his hands and blessed the people with the words of the Priestly Benediction, but God did not appear. Something was wrong.

He and Moses entered the Tent of Meeting. What occurred there is only rabbinic conjecture, but it is believed that they prayed for mercy and that God forgave them because, once they exited the Tent of Meeting, the presence of God was seen. Aaron must have believed he was now fully forgiven. But he was not. His true punishment for the golden calf was yet to come.

His two eldest sons, Nadav and Avihu, made an offering they had not been commanded to make, and “fire went forth before Adonai and consumed them …” (Leviticus 10:2). Many reasons are given for their deaths by rabbinic commentators — they were drunk, they were not following halachah, they were attempting to place themselves on the same level as Aaron and Moses. But, by viewing their deaths through the lens of the golden calf incident, it can be argued they were taken as part of Aaron’s punishment.

As modern readers, we are bothered by the deaths of Nadav and Avihu. But, viewed as a metaphor for our own mistakes, this is a lesson about how a past sin can come back to haunt us. It is infrequent that someone actually avoids punishment from any action filled with wrong intent, especially when the community knows of the act.

Aaron had started the day on a spiritual and emotional high that came from finding himself at the apex of his life. This joyous moment was destroyed because of a sin committed just months before, a sin for which he had not been forgiven. This series of events teaches us to be aware that every action we take has repercussions that could echo in our lives forever.

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