Acharei Mot

 The portion we will read this Shabbat starts with a reference back to the tragedy that took place after the ordination of Aharon and his sons as Priests in the newly constructed Tabernacle.

 

The Ceremony was magnificent and lasted a week culminating on the eighth day with a magnificent form of pyrotechnics courtesy of the Holy One on high, whose fire roared out and accepted the offering..  Nadav and Avihu, two of Aharons sons straight after, took their fire pans and, it would seem tried the trick again.  Only this time, it was they that got burnt to death.

 

We hear nothing of Aharon’s reaction, or of the peoples. Straightaway last week, we were into two portions dealing with leprousy, uncleanliness and healing. No post trauma counselling, not even a record of Aharon’s reaction.  This, week, though we get God’s reaction.

 

‘And the Lord said to Moses, Speak to Aaron your brother, and tell him not to come into the holy place inside the veil before the covering, which is upon the ark; lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud upon the covering.’ (Leviticuse 16:2)

 

Then detailed instructions are given as to how he should sacrifice. What to take, what to bring, what to wear, when to wash.  The implication is that he must do exactly what he is told in exactly the right order in order to protect himself from the power of the Divine. 

 

God is dangerous.  That is the message we get here. You don’t mess with God or deviate from the instructions passed on through the medium of Moses.  It is the same message passed on to wannabe mystics by the Rabbis of the second century.

 

‘Four entered the garden,’ we are told in Talmud Chagiga 14b, ‘they were Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, “the other one”, and Rabbi Akivah….   Ben Azzai, looked and died…. Ben Zoma looked and was afflicted… ‘the other one’ mutilated the shoots. Rabbi Akiva returned unharmed.’

 

The garden is paradise.  The idea is that through mystical study and meditation the four came close within God presence.  No one can see God and live, except with God’s express permission and with infinite care and preparation in advance.  The vision was too much for three of them who in their different ways had their lives ruined by the experience. Ben Azzai did indeed die young. Ben Zoma went mad.  ‘The other one’ – Aher is so described because his name is blotted out of Jewish history.  For him the experience led to apostasy.  He left Judaism altogether. Only Rabbi  Akiva had the maturity, the sanity, the security and the knowledge to withstand the experience.

 

For this reason, Judaism does not encourage mystical experimentation among the young or the ignorant and that includes pretty much all of us. 

 

Our vision of God is so different.  We don’t see God as dangerous, or hold any concept of awe or terror. The idea we promote is of the fluffy feelgood variety.  Our God is the God of the kindergarden, rather than of the paradise in the Talmud.  Why have we lost the sense of fear of God?  Is it that, so close to the Holocaust, we can’t bear to think of the possibility of God as a perpetrator of violence?  Or is it the knowledge that psychology brings us of the damage fear and terror can have on the minds of young children?  Whatever the reason, the consequences are clear. Lose the sense of awe, promote the happy and you are left with a God that few people take seriously. 

 

The parashah continues by describing the ritual the High Priest Aharon followed on Yom Kippur. A careful process whereby the community was purified and the wrath of God averted.  We now have words that replace this sacrifice. Words that we say every Yom Kippur. The question is, if we really feared God, rather than simply love God or be comforted by God, what in our lives would we do differently?