Shemini
Leviticus 9:1-11:47
Samuel II 6:1-7:17
At the start of baseball season, people vie for the coveted honor of throwing out the first pitch on opening day. Apparently Aharon, Moshe’s big brother, was not much of an aspiring pitcher. Here he stood at the outset of this week’s Torah portion, officiating as High Priest over the opening ceremonies of the Jewish Tabernacle. So much more momentous than (even) the opening of baseball season, this was the grand opening of the building that would serve as the focal point for Jewish religious service, the place that would serve as the model for the Temples in Jerusalem and promote the vision of all peoples learning in this place about the One Divine Being above who loves humanity. One would think he’d be jumping at the opportunity! But Aharon hesitated.
Moshe gives Aharon and the rest of the leadership directions for each of their sacrifices in the beginning of chapter nine, and verse five records that the others got everything together. Everyone that is, but Aharon.
Moshe urges his sibling along in verse six: “This is the thing that HaShem has commanded you to do, then the glory of HaShem will appear to you.” Still nothing. Moshe pushes further in verse seven and orders Aharon to “draw close to the altar and offer [your requisite sacrifices], then perform the service of the people’s offering and bring atonement for them, as HaShem has commanded.” At last Aharon obliged.
What was he waiting for?
In his commentary on these verses, Rashi quotes a midrash that is sensitive to this nuance of the text, and suggests that Aharon was in fact feeling embarrassed to perform the service. He refused until Moshe said to go to the altar “ki l’kach nivcharta” — because for this you were chosen. Go, because even if you are embarrassed, it is your role to do this.
While a good first step, this doesn’t explain why Aharon felt embarrassed. A look at the fuller text of the midrash (beyond what Rashi quotes) reveals that Aharon took one look at the altar he was supposed to approach and was paralyzed by an image from his past. He looked straight at it: large, with broad and squared-off shoulders and possessing two corners that he could see that were sticking up at either side (known as the keranot, or horns, of the altar) and he saw in this the image of a bull. This, for Aharon, was a flashback to a terrible moment of worship in his life: the Golden Calf.
About to complete the inauguration of the place for worship of HaShem, Aharon has nightmarish flashbacks of his own mistakes. He sees a calf in the form of the altar and could no longer move. Moshe had to snap him out of it by telling him to go to work, for he was indeed chosen by HaShem to do this. He has been forgiven, and must move on now. That is the straightforward reading of the midrash.
And there may be a different, deeper reading as well. The Minchah Belulah commentary notes that one may read the words “ki l’kach nivcharta” as: this is why you were chosen. You were chosen because you are the sort of person who does not simply write off history and forget it, but rather the kind that remembers it always. Moshe is telling Aharon that the very reason that he was chosen to be High Priest is that he is the sort of person who remembers the past vividly, and allows it to inform his present.
We are indeed a people of history. Aharon was told that for this reason he was chosen (“nivcharta”), a word used to describe the Jewish people as a whole (“Am Nivchar” — the Chosen Nation).
Part of our role is to recall what has happened to us and learn from it. To remember it vividly and make it part of our present thoughts. To live it.
The evening of Monday, April 20 and Tuesday, April 21 will mark a time of remembering, as Yom HaShoah turns our thoughts to remembering the horrors of the Holocaust and deep respect for those that survived and those that did not. Aharon reminds us not only to recall, but to bring its lessons to our present.
Rabbi Judah Dardik is the spiritual leader at Orthodox Beth Jacob in Oakland. He can be reached at [email protected].