Parashat Shemini - The Separation Paradigm

רפואה מן התורה
Healing from the Torah

Parashat Shemini

Leviticus 9:1-11:47

By Adam Ruditsky

    Tonight (Wednesday) begins Passover, a family/community holiday that fell this year is an atmosphere of separation because of this pandemic.  What happens if a child (children) comes over or you go to your parent’s home, do we practice social distancing with our own family, do we give a hug?  Whoever thought that we would have to deal with this, and in particular now.  I am also amazed how in a relatively short period of time America has mobilized to become a “virtual” nation, seemingly in almost every aspect of how we function we have adjusted, making “space” to live in a world that asks us to separate in order to remain healthy and alive.  As I read this weeks parsha I was even more curious about what moves us to embrace separation?  None of us what to be sick, and for others it is a matter of life and death.  In this case Parashat Shemini is about separation, although this type of separation is between the pure and impure.  Let’s consider what that means.                 

     After being secluded in the Mishkan for seven days, Aaron and his sons arrived at their day of consecration before the entire community on the “eighth” (שמיני, shemini) day, completing their mandatory separation (cf, Lev. 8:33, 9:1).  The parsha contains three sections; chapters 9 and 10 are about the sacrifices and their miss appropriation that called for additional laws, with chapter 11 being about Kosher laws.  It may also appear that since we no longer have a Temple and do not practice the ritual of sacrifice only the Kosher laws matter, but that is not the case.  Therefore, after Aaron is consecrated to serve as High Priest by engaging in the ritual of sacrifice, Nadav and Avihu, two of Aaron’s sons, come near the Alter improperly and die.  As you can imagine there is a lot of commentary around this scene of many questions, but according to tradition Nadav and Avihu entered the Mishkan “intoxicated” (Leviticus Rabbah 12:1) and with the wrong motivation (see Rashi on 24:11).  This view of Nadav and Avihu’s intoxication is more than likely connected with the additional laws that followed. with Leviticus 10:8-9 saying, “The Lord spoke to Aaron saying, Drink no wine nor strong drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, that you do not die; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.”
     What happened with these two sons of Aaron after they spent a week secluded in the Mishkan that made them do what they did?  A Gemora from Talmud teaches that there was a correct way and a wrong way to approach the Alter, with the wrong way and reason resulting in death (Yoma 53a), Eben Ezra simply says that doing that before God was “unfitting.”  Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch makes the observation that Nadav and Avihu are not called sons of Aaron, but that Aaron had two sons, speaking to the sons origin as opposed to their lineage.  This is because they chose to be disconnected and stand upon their individuality apart from the wisdom of their father and/or the guidance of the community, for “a Jewish Priest is entirely at one with, and a part and parcel of, the nation, is in no way separated from it.”  The focus in Jewish teaching is often not what they did but what made them do it.  This was about making the wrong choice and reaping the rewards of that choice.  More than that, they did not separate from the unholy as Priests.   

     Chapter 11 is regarding what is and what is not Kosher (well in the Bible that is).  It deals with animals on the land, birds in the air and the fish in the waters, both in terms of eating and touching but also how it will effect cloths and utensils.  Kosher and non-kosher here is about the pure and impure, and the penalty often is just to be separated outside camp until evening.  The terms pure (טהור, tahor) and impure (טמא, Tamai) function as permissible and forbidden, although as said we also read that a garment, a utensil or even an oven can have such impurities (cf. Lev. 11:32 and 11:35).  Rashi commenting on this says that “everything” that comes in contact with such a vessel (i.e. utensil or oven) makes that vessel impure and calls for its destruction because of its contaminated “interior space” (see Rashi on Lev. 11:33).  Still, even after the mikveh, Rashi notes that a pure person must remain separated outside the camp till evening even though they have been immersed, something that Maimonides says is about a complete and full bathing of the body that was meant to take place outside of the camp..  
     Nadav and Avihu separated themselves from what was sacred and instead elected to separate themselves unto frivolous behavior that they paid for with their lives  The Kosher laws say that when you separate yourself to what is sacred, if you embrace impurity along the way you need to quarantine effectively, go outside the camp and cleanse yourself before re-entering since the neshoma has been contaminated.  Mussar teaches the middah (soul-trait) of פישות  (ph’risoot), or separation, but that is not the same as הבדיל (hivdiel), or distinction, such as Shabbat and the rest of the days of the week.  The middah of פישות  is what Nadav and Avihu chose not to practice whereas Kosher laws were laws “to make a distinction (להבדיל, l’havdiel) between the unclean and the clean.  Rashi would say that this is so a person would “recognize” the need to distinguish between the pure and the impure, but with Nadav and Avihu this was about the need to see that some things demand a complete separation, both from and to.  In the end we can learn from this parsha that when we place a value on what we deem to be Holy or Sacred, we must separate ourselves (spiritually, physically and emotionally) from what impedes us to reach that destination.  As we enter this Passover season may we separate from whatever slavery we find ourselves in, seeking the path of freedom we long for.  Please stay safe, and although we hear it way too much, we are all in this together.
       

Chag Pesach Sameach and Shabbat Shalom!