Becoming Experts

This week’s Torah portion is Shemini, which means 8th. It is the midpoint of the Torah, both in the numbers of letters and the numbers of words contained therein. During the previous 7 days the priests had undergone a process of purification and atonement to prepare them for this 8th day, the beginning of the sacrificial service and the beginning of the priests taking up their official duties. According to the Torah, the priests offered the sacrifices, and God provided the fire, causing the people to sing songs of praise and prostrate themselves before God. On that day, Aaron’s two eldest sons brought an incense offering that was not commanded by God, and they died. Aaron was not allowed to mourn their deaths on such a solemn occasion, and later, there was a disagreement about whether or not Aaron should eat the sacrifice, as Moses had instructed him. God also commanded the priests to drink no wine before any offerings. At the end of the portion, the laws of Kashrut: animals which are permitted and prohibited as food, is set forth, laws that accustom us to limiting our appetites and to obeying God.
In a sense, much of the portion revolves around discriminating what we may eat and when: the sacrifices, the wine, and the animals that are allowed to us. At the end of the portion, there is a sentence of summation, which reads, “this is the law of the animal, the bird, every living creature that swarms in the waters and for every creature that creeps on the ground, for distinguishing between the impure and the pure, and between the creature that may be eaten, and the creature that may not be eaten.” Rashi comments on this verse. He says, does it need to say that we must be able to distinguish between a donkey and a cow and a deer. Rather, he says, that we are being instructed that we should become experts for ourselves. This is a wonderful teaching.
The portion tells us about Nadav and Abihu, Aaron’s sons, who died because they did not distinguish for themselves what was the right thing to do. In the Psalms (75) it says, God is the Judge. God is the judge of others. We are the judge of ourselves. So often, we have this backward. The gift of consciousness that God bestowed upon humankind means that we have tremendous powers for judging and discrimination: for selecting what we like and what we don’t like. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the original Lubavitcher Rabbi, taught, “This is what humans are all about: this is the purpose of the creation of people and the creation of all the worlds, sublime and lowly: to make for God a dwelling in the physical world.” So the question arises, how do we use the gift of discrimination, well and wisely? What is the true purpose of this gift? When we judge others, selecting what we like and recognizing in other what we don’t like or can’t tolerate in ourselves, we misuse the power of discrimination. But used to judge ourselves, this power of separating the good form the bad, the holy from the profane, and pure from the impure, is the highest faculty we possess. In the first Torah portion, B’reisheet, it says, “Now man has become like the unique one among us, knowing good from evil.” Not only are we like God in this respect, but this gift is the one that can bring us closest to a reconnection with the Divine Source, repairing the disconnection we experience in our souls as loss, yearning, and incompleteness, which is really our distance from God.
Moses’ controversy with his brother, Aaron, about whether Aaron should eat the sacrifice, points up the role of reason and intention guiding us on the path to holiness. Moses asks Aaron’s sons why they have not eaten the offering, as they were told to do. Aaron replies that, after such things as the death of his sons, would it be proper to eat the sacrifice and would God approve? Aaron’s ability to reason, and to choose for himself what would be right, allowed him to use the gift of discrimination in the service of the holy. The questions that we can ask ourselves are, what actions can make me a holier person. What thoughts can make me better? What opportunities have been provided to me to help me to become more loving and more compassionate? This type of distinguishing for ourselves is holy work. It is the very best use of our gifts and of our solitude. The very middle of the Torah in its number of words, falls just where Moses is asking Aaron’s sons about eating the sacrifices. The Torah says that Moses insistently inquired, Darosh Darash, about them. It is the same word from which the word Midrash is derived. This is precisely our task: Our sages said that the entire Torah revolves around constant inquiry. We must insistently inquire of ourselves, asking, what is good, what is the loving thing that I can do, what is charitable and how can I help, what will lead me to holiness? May each of us consecrate the powers and gifts we have in service to that which is highest in ourselves, becoming experts for ourselves, doing good, and serving God; and may we be helped in this endeavor.