Chapter 16
Death of Aaron’s sons and the Yom Kippur service
The death of Nadab and Abihu is mentioned in conjunction with the chapter on Yom Kippur because:
N This is a difficult idea to swallow—that a blessing for the righteous is to die young? Perhaps from the perspective of G-d, this makes sense, but from the perspective of the human, how could this be? Is it better to spend 80 years trapped in living in the material world, rather than be drawn in by the “Kiss of G-d”—as opposed to the kiss of Death—while still in the prime of life?
Yom Kippur is עֵת רצון thus an opportune time for atonement. When a righteous person dies and his soul ascends to the world of souls, the other righteous souls in Heaven rejoice at his coming. This good feeling above can inspire in the righteous person’s survivors on earth a spirit of forgiveness and atonement. This is the connection to Yom Kippur.
However, and this is crucial, both Yom Kippur and the death of the righteous bring atonement only for people who recognise it as a holy day and treat it as such; those to whom it is merely a day to refrain from food and work, but without a spiritual dimension, do not find atonement on Yom Kippur. Similarly, those who do not honour the righteous in life don’t benefit from their ascent to Heaven in death.
16:2-34] Yom Kippur Service
Revelation at Sinai -> < 6 weeks -> Sin of the Golden Calf -> Moses seeks forgiveness -> 6th Tishrei returns with Second Tablets of the Law -> became Yom Kippur, the eternal day of forgiveness.
16:2] Parochet
Def פָּרֹֹכֶת parokhet — Curtain. The Curtain in the Sanctuary that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Sanctuary. See Exodus 26.31.
16:3-6] Offerings
n16:3] בְּפַ֧ר — with a young bull. Aaron (or the High Priest) purchases his offerings with his own funds.
Q If the Levites did not own anything, how could Aaron have his own funds?
n16:4] בַּד — Linen. The whiteness of linen is symbolic of forgiveness; and the material itself symbolises the Heavenly service of the angels who are described as wearing linen, as it were (Ezekiel 9.2). The four white vestments symbolise the four camps of angels that serve G-d. (R’ Bachya)
16:6] Kohen’s atonement
וְכִפֶּר — And provide atonement. First the Kohen Gadol recited the confession for the sins of the nation as set forth in verse 21. Then Kohen Gadol gained atonement by pronouncing the confession for his own and his family’s, i.e., household’s, sins (Rashi; Yoma 36b).
The text of his confession was:
"I beg of You, HaShem, I have acted wickedly, rebelled and sinned before You, I and my household. I beg of You, HaShem, forgive now the wicked acts, rebellions and sins, for I have acted wickedly, rebelled and sinned before You, I and my household, as it is written in the Torah of Your servant Moses (16:30): For on this day he shall provide atonement for you…" (Mishnah Yoma 3.8).
N: If his confession would be more personal, specifying actual deeds that he was asking for forgiveness for, it might carry much more weight. Imagine!
Even verse 21 does not go into any specifics regarding the sins of Israel, but just a description of the ritual. What if it was preceded by a public confession of sins of the nation?
16:12-13] The Incense Service.
The Yom Kippur incense service was unique in that it was performed only once a year, and it was performed in the Holy of Holies, the sacred area of the Temple that not even the Kohen Gadol could enter at any other time. The incense mixture was the same as that used all year round, except ground “extra-fine”.
The Kohen Gadol would scoop a shovelful of burning coals from the outside Altar, and then fill his hands with the specially ground incense, which he would place in ladle. With the heavier shovel in his right hand and the lighter ladle in his left, he would enter the Holy of Holies, where he would pour the incense into the fire and remain there until the incense cloud rose and covered the Ark. (For a fuller description see Mishnah Yoma ch. 4-5.)
Q The incense service happens once a year. All the (animal) sacrifices took place inside the Mishkan, but on the other side of the Parochet?
n12] He shall take
16:14-28] Blood ritual of the bull and he-goat sin-offerings
This special blood service is performed following the incense service. It is performed in the Holy of Holies.
n16:14] (blood ritual) וְהִזָּה בְאֶצְבָעוֹ — And sprinkle with his forefinger. The Kohen Gadol would dip his right index finger into the blood and sprinkle it eight times toward the Ark with a whiplike motion. He would aim upward once and downward seven times, but it was not necessary for the blood actually to touch the Ark. (v14)
n16:16] The sin for which the bull and he-goat atone is that of טֻמְאַת םִקְדָשׁ וְקְדָשָׁיו, contamination of the Sanctuary and its Sanctities.
- Even for the rebellious
- (blood ritual) And he shall so do
- That dwells amongst them
It is one of G-d’s greatest gifts that He permits a person to erase the sins of his past so that he can begin a better life, a life unhampered by the corrosive effects of past sins. Such a new beginning is not possible unless the sinner has repented by confronting his misdeeds, acknowledging them, and sincerely resolving to change. This is represented by confession.
The power of confession lies in the fact that it is not merely a recitation of a formula, but a sincere declaration of remorse. People are loath to acknowledge a fact that hurts them more than they can bear.
Note: The concept of confession (vidui) regarding Yom Kippur is similar to the concept of recapitulation.
16:17] Solitude & Atonement
n16:17] וְכָל אָדָם — Any person. During the Kohen Gadol’s inner service, not even angels were permitted to enter the Tabernacle (Jerusalem Talmud, Yoma 1:5). It was necessary for the Kohen Gadol to approach G-d, as it were, in utter and complete privacy, without any intermediary between them, and that the Divine blessing was most effacious when it is received in quiet solitude.
n16:17] וְכיפֶּר — he shall provide Atonement. This refers to the incense service, which atones for the sin of לשׁון הרע, evil tongue, i.e., slander and gossip. The Sages say that incense — a service that is performed quietly — comes to atone for lashon hara, that is spoken stealthily, behind someone’s back (Yoma 44a). It is known as the elevation offering, and atones for improper thoughts.
n16:18] (blood ritual) He shall go out
n16:19 (blood ritual) He shall sprinkle…
16:8,20-22] Azazel
Def לְעזָאזֵל — For Azazel. The name symbolises עַז, strong, and אֵל, mighty. (v8)
Every person must choose between good and evil. No one has the luxury of being neutral. Those who do not choose to move toward holiness are inevitably pushing themselves toward a wasteland of spiritual destruction.
This preoccupation with evil teaches us that it is not enough to be sure that we have G-d’s forgiveness and love—we must also recognise and repel the hostile forces that surround and tempt us. (Zohar) Thus the scapegoat is a reminder that G-d wants us to guard against the threats of our enemies by recognising their existence and appeasing them.
n16:21] וְסָמַךְ אַהְַרֹן — Aaron shall lean.
As noted in 1:4, the individual who brings an offering must lean upon it and confess the sin for which he brings it.
n16:30] כּי־בַיּוֹם יְכַפֵּר — For on this day he shall provide atonement.
The day’s sacrificial service can only serve to ameliorate one’s sins and make G-d receptive to one’s personal repentence. Then it is up to the sinner to improve himself and become worthy of G-d’s forgivenetss. Only through personal repentence and self-cleansing can a person be “cleansed of all his sins before G-d”. (Sforno)
From this verse, R’ Elazar ben Azariah expounds that repentence and the Yom Kippur service can effect atonement only for the sins before HaShem, meaning sins against G-d, which have not harmed other people. But if one has sinned against his fellows, G-d will not forgive him until he first appeases the person whom he has wronged (Sifra, Yoma 85b)
n16:30] יְכַפֵּר…תִּטְהָרוּ — Provide atonement … be purifed.
There are two aspects to the removal of sin: atonement and purifying. When someone transgresses G-d's will, the sinner earns punishment for disobeying G-d, and, in addition, his resistance to further sins becomes weaker, because sinfulness becomes a habit, and once someone commits a misdeed, it becomes more likely that he will sin again. Atonement removes the liability to punishment, but to the extent that the habitual sinner has become a worse person, the effect of the sin remains. From this encrustation of evil, the sinner must be purified.
n16:31] שַׁבָּת שַׁבָּתון — A Sabbath of complete rest.
Chapter 17
17:1-9] Service outside the Tabernacle
The general rule is that offerings must be slaughtered and their service performed in the Sanctuary area, while non-consecrated animals may be slaughtered anywhere except in Sanctuary area. In the case of offering, they may not be offered anywhere, even if the service is dedicated to G-d.
Q What is a consecrated animal?
n17:2] יכפר…תטהרו
N This is an interesting segment. The call to sacrifice only at the Mishkan is one to prevent the continuation of the worship of pagan idols, which took place in the fields and in the homes of the people.
n17:2] זֶה הַדָּבָר — That is the matter (lit. word).
Moses conveyed the commandments to Israel in G-d’s own words [and then elaborated upon them according to the teachings of the Oral Law (Chofetz Chaim)]. This is true for the entire Torah (Sifra).
Q What and how was the Oral Torah transmitted to Moshe?
n17:4] דם יחשׁב — It shall be considered as bloodshed.
When a person kills animals without a legitimate purpose, he allows himself to be influenced by the same bloody characteristics that can cause people to commit murder. Thus, his act is considered as bloodshed, since it is his bloody instincts that have taken control of him.
n17:4] ונכרת האישׁ ההוא — And that man shall be cut off.
What is interesting here is the note on the difference between using האישׁ as opposed to הנפשׁ. The former implies that the Kares will be one of an early death, but not that he will lose his place in the World to Come. However, if one uses the word soul, [נפשׁ, instead, it means that his soul will be cut off from the World to Come
n17:5] אשׁר הם זבחים — That they have been slaughtering.
This stringent punishment for this sin was necessary to break the ingrained habit of slaughtering offerings wherever it was convenient for them to set up an Altar, a practice that had been followed from the days of Noah and the Patriarchs.
N We no longer slaughter animals. Nor do we have altars anymore We only bring offerings to G-d, generally in a place (temple) that as dedicated to G-d. At this point our practice allows us to designate where 10 men gather in prayer, as if it was the temple. There are even some who argue for the possibility of any place in which you pray (according to the Commandments) become a holy temple. However, this is similar to the situation in Israel, where villages had altars upon which they sacrifed offering to G-d. It has become apparent that during that period, and for long after, people often had altars in their houses.
v17:7] ולא־יזבּחוּ אוד — They shall no longer slaughter.
זֹנִים — Stray
v17:10-14] Blood
n17:10] כּל־דּם — Any blood. Blood from any and all animals and fowl is forbidden (Kereisos 20b).
n17:11] כּי־נפשׁ הבשׂר בּדם הוא — For the soul of the flesh is in the blood. Because life is dependent on the blood. The life giving force is borne by the blood (Sforno).
n17:14] דָּמוֹ בּנַפשׁוֹ הוּא — It’s blood represents its life [lit., its blood is in its soul]. Ramban renders the life of the any being is the blood in its body.
n17:16] וְנָשׂא עוֹנוֹ — He shall bear his iniquity. This always refers to kares (Rashi; Sifra).
N It is as if we bear our iniquities in our blood too. Interesting to note that vaccinations have become a medium by which our blood is being attacked.
Chapter 18
Immorality
The Torah sets forth the prohibitions, in line with the principle that אין עונשׁים אלא אם כּן מזהרין, they do not punish unless they give a warning.
v18:2] אני ה’ — I am HaShem
Normally Moses’ face was covered with a veil, because the people could not tolerate the holiness on his face (Exodus 34:29-35). When he conveyed the word of G-d to the people, however, he would remove the veil, so it would be clear to the people that they were hearing the Divine command. (Ramban)
Just as the nation cannot exist without acknowledgement that HaShem is our G-d, so it must accept upun itself the laws of sexual purity contained in this chapter.
v18:3] Egypt & Canaan מצרים…כנען
N This seems to be a response to the events of the moment. “Do not behave like the Egyptians (past), nor the Canaanites (future) — specifically, the followers of Molech.”
These two lands were the most morally decadent… G-d warns the Jews to be alert to the challenge of their past and future homes because people must be especially alert to the lures of their environment. It is tempting to justify sin on the grounds that “everyone does it”.
The apparent implication is that there is no harm in imitating the foul deeds of nations that are not evil — but sin is a progressive process: "Ordinary transgressions inevitably lead to more serious ones, until the sinner descends to the morass of Canaan and Egypt. We must scrupulously avoid enen the first step on the road to corruption (R’ Moshe Feinstein)
וּבְחֻקֹּתֵיהֶם — Their traditions
We are enjoined to avoid the deeply ingrained customs of the nations such as attending theatres and stadiums to watch gladiators. Sifra add that the prohibition includes attempts to make oneself look like the nations and imitate their promiscuous practices.
The exhortation not to follow the traditions of the nations is couched in terms of חֻקֹתֶיהֶם, literally their decrees, the same term that is used to describe the commandments of the Torah that defy human logic. It is common for people to think that a nation’s culture is predicated upon a set of rational norms, and that any “civilised” person must accept them, unless he is demented. The truth is, however, that culture is an accumulation of practices, many of which are not in the least logical. This explains how different societies have widely divergent cultures, and how so many of them can consider other societies to be comical, primitive, or even barbaric. The difference between Judaism’s “decrees” and the “decrees” of other societies is simply that the former are G-d given, while the latter are devised by man and canonised by his habits. Therefore, the Torah cautions us to avoid falling into the habit-forming, mind-molding trap of imitating the practices of alien societies (R’ Shlomo Wolbe).
N Firstly, have to accept that G-d would and has given His decrees to us. But barring that, to jostle with the possibility that the Creator has embedded, somewhere in His Creation, His actual decrees. That is our task to decipher this code, and realise His actual decrees. That the Torah could have been given as a key (or blueprint) to that code, a way of entering into that realm of exploration, is the basis on which our lives are founded.
R’ Hirsch (Horeb para. 505) summarised the laws of this commandment: “You may imitate the nations in which you live in everything which has been adopted by them on rational grounds, and not on grounds which belong to their religion, or for forbidden or immoral purposes. You may not, therefore, join in celebrating their holy days, or observe customs which have their basis in their religious views. You must not, however, do anything which will disturb their holy days or mar their festival spirit; and do not parade your non-participation in their holy days in a manner that might arouse animosity.”
n18:4] משׁפטי…חֻקֹתי — My laws…My decrees.
Laws are practices that would be dictated by reason even if they were not dictated by the Torah.
Decrees are those that are unfathomable by human intelligence. Many have noted that חק, is derived from חקק, to engrave. A person commits himself to a chok he cannot understand because the inner tzelem Elokim (image of G-d) within the Jew recognises that there are truths above the limited human intellect. Many of life’s important decisions are based on considerations that may be called a “light from within”, considerations that reflect the person’s true inner self. For example, no law is as universally accepted as that against murder, yet “logic” can permit people to nibble at the fringes of the sanctity of life, by arguing that a fetus is not a true life, or that suffering or impaired people are unworthy of life or that human life is no more worthy of preservation than animal life.
v18:6-18] Forbidden relationships
The laws governing sexual relationships are the key to holiness.
These following verses detail all the different forms of sexual relationships that are forbidden. All incest is forbidden. Homosexuality and bestiality are called abominations. Sex while menstruating is forbidden, and others.
Wherever one finds safeguards of chastity, there one finds holiness (Vayikra Rabbah_ 24:6).
n18:6] אני ה’ — Immorality becomes the norm of sophisticated people. To such people, the strictures of the Torah may seem like inexplicable decrees.
n18:7] עֵרְוָה — nakedness or shame. Immorality “exposes” something that should properly be covered, and can be rendered as shame.
18:21] Molech
Molech was an idol whose worship was prevalent in Canaan. It is mentioned here as an example of the idol worship that made the inhabitants of the land so contemptible in G-d’s eyes (Ramban). Its worship involved children; like immorality, it demonstrated people’s readiness to debase future generations to satisfy their own passions.
Both the idol worshipper and the person who engages in immorality are similar in that they are treacherous to the one entitled to their loyalty. The concept of jealousy refers to the outrage one feels when someone takes a thing that is his (or hers). The term the Torah used to describe G-d’s anger when someone transfers his reverence from G-d to an idol, is also that of a husband when his wife is unfaithful (Numbers 5:14) or a wife when her husband is unfaithful
Sforno explains that the Jew who serves Molech may bring his animal-offerings to the G-d’s Temple, but his children — who are most precious to him — he brings to Molech, thus demonstrating conclusively where his loyalties lie.
v18:22] תּועֵבָה - An abomination
v18:23] טׇמְאָה - defiled, תֶּ֥בֶל - perversion
v18:25-30] Keep My Laws
“Keep My laws, and My rules, and do not do any of those abhorrent things. No one should do them-not the citizen nor the stranger-for all those things were done by those who lived here before you, and thus the land became defiled. So be warned.”
v18:30]
Chapter 19
v19:2]
v19:3]
Everyone must fear his mother and his father.
אִ֣ישׁ אִמּ֤וֹ וְאָבִיו֙ תִּירָ֔אוּ
You must observe My Sabbaths;
וְאֶת־שַׁבְּתֹתַ֖י תִּשְׁמֹ֑רוּ
I am God, your God.
אֲנִ֖י יְהוָֹ֥ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶֽם
v19:4]
Do not turn toward idols
אַל־תִּפְנוּ֙ אֶל־הָ֣אֱלִילִ֔ם
nor make molten gods for yourselves
וֵֽאלֹהֵי֙ מַסֵּכָ֔ה לֹ֥א תַֽעֲשׂ֖וּ לָכֶ֑ם
I am God, your God.
אֲנִ֖י יְהוָֹ֥ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶֽם
v19:5- ] Sacrifice of peace
וְכִ֧י תִזְבְּח֛וּ זֶ֥בַח שְׁלָמִ֖ים לַיהֹוָ֑ה לִֽרְצֹנְכֶ֖ם תִּזְבָּחֻֽהוּ׃
When you sacrifice an offering of well-being to GOD, sacrifice it so that it may be accepted in your behalf.
Note: Really, it seems to me that the translation is more sacrifice what/how it is that you wish… But I might just be dreaming. Google translate gives: You will sacrifice it for your own pleasure.
v18:25] ותקא — And…disgorged. It is the nature of prophecy to look to the inner spiritual values that determine future events.