Parashat Sh'mini - Leviticus 9:1-11:47

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah

[The previous parashah] ends with Aaron and his sons sitting for seven days at the Tabernacle's entrance, preparing for the climax that is coming in the next week, building anticipation for the inauguration of the priesthood. And so, if we follow the weekly cycle of readings of the Torah, we emulate what is happening in the text: we wait for seven days! To be sure that we get the connection, the parashah is titled Sh'mini, Eighth. If we pay proper attention to this, we come to the story of the inauguration with anticipation, so we appreciate the story, and we appreciate the power of what goes wrong in the story: the catastrophe of Nadav and Abihu.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

~How do you react to this text? What questions does it raise for you?

~What is aish zarah - strange fire?

~Why did the brothers die?

~How do you understand Moses' reaction?

~How do you make sense of Aaron's reaction?

~Where is Elisheva, Aaron's wife and mother to the young men?

Amy Ray, "Strange Fire"

I come to you with strange fire
I make an offering of love
The incense of my soil is burned
By the fire in my blood
I come with a softer answer
To the questions that lie in your path
I want to harbor you from the anger
Find a refuge from the wrath

This is a message
A message of love
Love that moves from the inside out
Love that never grows tired
I come to you with strange fire
Fire

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on Shmini 2014

http://rabbisacks.org/shemini-5774-reticence-vs-impetuosity/#_ftn4

The sages offered several readings of this episode, all based on close reading of the several places in the Torah where their death is referred to. Some said they had been drinking alcohol. Others said that they were arrogant, holding themselves up above the community. This was the reason they had never married.

Some say that they were guilty of giving a halakhic ruling about the use of man-made fire, instead of asking their teacher Moses whether it was permitted. Others say they were restless in the presence of Moses and Aaron. They said, when will these two old men die and we can lead the congregation?

However we read the episode, it seems clear that they were all too eager to exercise leadership. Carried away by their enthusiasm to play a part in the inauguration, they did something they had not been commanded to do. After all, had Moses not done something entirely on his own initiative, namely breaking the tablets when he came down the mountain and saw the golden calf? If he could act spontaneously, why not they?

They forgot the difference between a priest and a prophet. A prophet lives and acts in time – in this moment that is unlike any other. A priest acts and lives in eternity, by following a set of rules that never change. Everything about “the holy,” the realm of the priest, is precisely scripted in advance. The holy is the place where God, not man, decides.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

~What might motivate Moses to respond in the way he does in verse 3?

~What's bothering Rashi? To what question or problem is he responding?

~Do you find this response compelling, in the context of the story?

~Do you find it compelling as a human response to tragedy?

Isaac ben Judah Abravanel (1437–1508)

Vayidom aharon - His heart turned to lifeless stone (domem - mineral), and he did not weep and mourn like a bereaved father, nor did he accept Moses' consolation for his soul had left him and he was speechless.

Dr. Ellen Frankel, The Five Books of Miriam

Our daughters ask: Why does the Torah say so little about the dramatic deaths of Nadab and Abihu? All we're told is that the two men are unexpectedly consumed by divine fire; that Moses offers rather insensitive words of consolation to his bereaved brother, as it is written: "This is what YHVH meant when he said: 'through those near to me I show myself holy, and assert my authority before all the people'" (10:3); and that Aaron remains silent. About their mother Elisheva's response we're told nothing. Why isn't she even mentioned here? Why is she, like Sarah at the Akedah, absent before, during, and after this trial by fire? Does she know what her sons had been planning to do? Is she present when they're struck down? Does Moses address her as well when he speaks to Aaron? Is she silent like her husband, or does she raise her voice in mourning and protest? And even though Aaron and their two surviving sons are forbidden to mourn because they're in a state of special consecration, is she also forbidden to mourn her own children? Does she demonstrate "proper" self-restraint, or does she throw herself upon their graves and keen, as Middle Eastern women have done for centuries?

Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild, Elisheva: Challenging the Patriarchal Structure with her Mixed Feelings, from her blog "

The Occasional Thoughts of a Working Woman Rabbi in England"

Elisheva will give birth to the four sons of Aaron, two of whom, Nadav and Avihu, will suffer a terrible and violent death shortly after being inducted into the priesthood. The other two will continue the hereditary line of the Cohanim – the Jewish priests. She is, with Aaron, the root of the priestly tradition. And she also brings together the two formal leadership roles within the biblical tradition – she brings the royal line of Judah which is already generations old, (Judah having been blessed by Jacob on his deathbed as being the Royal line), together with the brand new line of hereditary priesthood...

Aaron is famously silent – we are told this and it is understood that he is able to accept that the greater good of the priesthood is more important than the individual fates of his two sons. But his enigmatic silence is at painful odds with the complete erasure of the response of Elisheva. I cannot for a moment imagine that she would have taken the deaths quite so phlegmatically...

Elisheva, the woman who brings together the lines of power and leadership – monarchy and priesthood, who is the foremother therefore of all those who have to care for the people, who have to lead it thoughtfully and in its best interest; Elisheva, matriarch and founding spirit of all the leaders whose job is to serve, to provide security, to be thoughtful about the impact of their decisions in the wider world – brings not only the qualities of power that leadership needs, she brings another quality – the awareness of incompleteness and imperfection that we must live with.

Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman, D'var Torah "The Power of Tears"

In the immediate aftermath of Aaron's sons' deaths, the Torah says: "And Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, 'Do not bare your heads and do not rend your clothes, lest you die and anger strike the whole community'" (Leviticus 10:6).

Even though the Torah forbids Aaron's family to mourn, the Rabbis cannot bear this prohibition. In Vayikra Rabbah we learn of Elisheva bat Aminadav, Aaron's wife and the mother of these two men, mourning her sons' deaths despite the Torah's decree:

Elisheva bat Aminadav did not enjoy happiness in the world. True, she witnessed five crowns (attained by her relatives) in one day: her brother-in-law (Moses) was a king, her brother (Nachson) was a prince, her husband (Aaron) was High Priest, her two sons were both Deputy High Priests, Phinehas her grandson was a priest anointed for war. But when her sons entered to offer incense and were burnt, her joy was changed to mourning. Thus it is, "after the death of the two sons of Aaron." (Vayikra Rabbah 20:2)

Elisheva bat Aminadav teaches us the power of expressing your sadness, when the world, and even God, seem to be telling you to deny your grief.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

Roles and Expectations

~In what ways are the characters in this narrative bound by the roles of the time and the society in which they lived?

~In what ways do you feel constrained by roles and expectations?

~How do you seek to teach your children about role- or context-specific behavior?

~What are you teaching your children about expressing their emotions? Are your expectations ever in conflict with the norms in your family of origin?

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

Does Context Matter?

~How does context influence your reactions?

~Have you ever received tragic news while 'on the job,' in public or while with your kids? Do you react differently than you would if you were alone or among friends?

~Does your understanding of the story change when you know more about the context of this scene? How?

~What is the significance of the number 8 in Jewish tradition? Are there other eighth day rituals that add any layers of meaning to this story?

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

The Power of Ritual

~Is there a part of Jewish ritual related to burial and mourning that you find particularly meaningful? Is there a part of the ritual that you find hard to understand?

~How do you (or how might you) talk about death or dying with your children?

~What rituals do you find comforting or meaningful?

Blu Greenberg, The Torah: A Women's Commentary

Moses' delicate message to the people-and his only consolation to Aaron-is that this was not a random act but a sentence decreed on those closest to God, who are held to the highest standard. What was Aaron's response? Two simple words, וַיִּדֹּ֖ם אַהֲרֹֽן ("And Aaron was silent"). [...] Aaron responded with a profound, shattering silence, a stunning silence, a shocked silence. [...] The deeper human religious response is to be silent, to live with the contradiction, and to affirm that we need not force meaning into tragedy. Sometimes, the deepest response of love is to be silent.

Baruch A. Levine

The accepted interpretation of Lev. 10:3b is that Aaron remained silent, or

was stunned, upon learning of the sudden death of his two sons, Nadab and Abihu...

The verbal root d-m-m, “to be still” (here to be

classified as d-m-m I for reference), is morphologically indicated in Biblical He-

brew, so that initially, there is no problem in reading Lev. 10:3b in the accepted way.

Both the comparative and the inner-biblical evidence to be adduced presently

will, however, suggest an alternative rendering: “—and Aaron mourned.” This

rendering identifies in Lev. 10:3b a homonymous Hebrew root, here to be class-

ified as d-m-m II, “to moan, mourn.” Understood in this way, Lev. 10:3b means

that Aaron reacted in the customary manner; he moaned or wailed and was about

to initiate formal mourning and lamentation for his two lost sons.

Once this line of interpretation is considered, the commentator will read the

remainder of Leviticus 10 differently. Immediately after the bodies of the two

dead sons of Aaron had been taken outside the encampment for burial (vv. 4—5),

Moses issued instructions to Aaron and his two remaining sons not to engage in

formal mourning, by bearing their heads and rending their garments, lest they

meet death and arouse God’s wrath against the Israelite community. Rather, the

entire house of Israel was to act in their stead, and mourn (the verb b-k-y, “to

weep”) the untimely death of the two priests (vv. 6—7). Mourning, even over a son

or brother, would have defiled Aaron and his two remaining priestly sons at a time

when their purification was just taking hold. Read in this way, Leviticus 10 actu-

ally achieves a higher degree of symmetry.

Source sheet prepared by Stephanie Fink, RJE, MAJCS

April 2018