Removing the Barriers

This week’s Torah portion is Acharei Mot, which means, after the deaths. Aaron’s two sons have died and he is told he can only enter the holiest place once a year, on Yom Kippur. This portion gives instructions for the Yom Kippur service, the ritual of the two goats, one an offering and one to carry the sins of the people away. There is a law here that all food animals should be presented as offerings before being cooked and eaten, and there is a concluding section about forbidden marriages.
I’d like to begin with a question; What separates us from God? The Torah’s answer in this portion is that our own impurity separates us. This is illustrated by a passage from the Zohar, “A river went forth from Eden (Gen. II:10).. in the book of Rab Hamnuna the Elder it is called Life, because life issues thence to the world. … the great and mighty Tree in which is food for all is called the Tree of Life, because its roots are in that Life…the river sends forth deep streams with the oil of plenitude to water the Garden and feed the trees and the shoots.…When The Shechinah and the time of righteousness are joined, all worlds have gladness and blessing, and there is peace among upper and lower beings. But when through the sins of this world there are no blessings from these streams, and the “time” sucks from the “other side”, then judgment impends over the world and there is no peace. (III 58a)This passage tells us that we would be fully joined to God but for our own thoughts, words, and deeds. The Zohar continues with Rabbi Simeon credited as saying: “I am amazed to see how little people pay heed to the will of their Master, and how they allow themselves to be wrapped in sleep until the day comes which will cover them with darkness, and when their Master will demand reckoning from them. The Torah calls aloud to them, but none inclines his ear. Mark now that in future generations the Torah will be forgotten… (III, 58a)” This passage indicates that our wrongs, transgressions, and sins are a kind of willful forgetting of what we should be doing. The Torah makes clear that the high priest, the holiest person in the nation, with the exception of Moses, must confess his sins and seek forgiveness numerous times: once for himself, once again for his entire household, and a third time for all the Israelites, in accordance with a selection from Talmud (Yoma 36b) which says that atonement can be with words and with actions, which for him was the sacrificial service.
If our imperfections separate us, us there a way to remove that barrier? The Torah does provide a way to begin to remove the separation. We can initially look at the priest and learn something from his situation. The priest presided over many people bringing sacrifices. He saw people confessing to their actions and errors of judgment. Perhaps this had a good effect on the priest, who may have learned from the people he was meant to teach and minister to. Perhaps he would feel that if those he helped were big enough and wise enough to confess, that he would be encouraged to confess. Also the priest might gradually become more aware of his own shortcomings, come to a fuller realization of his mistakes and want to confess.
We can be sure that if we are not aware of our many shortcomings, God will help us to recognize areas in which we should grow. Just as with the high priest, atonement and repentance provide a way to repair our behavior. They do this by reopening the channels of our love that we have closed off. By engaging in repentance, we signal that we are ready to be forgiven, that we are ready to receive love, because we are ready to give it again. Since our negative behavior prevents us from connecting with God and each other, admitting our less worthy actions is a ritual that begins the cleansing process. However, there is a further step we can take to remove the separation between us and God. One of my favorite teachings from Exodus is that any labor we perform that is not dedicated to a holy purpose goes to waste. We can work and work but it is wasted. This is taught by the offering of a food animal in substitution for a firstborn work animal, like a donkey, which cannot be eaten. Since all firstborn male animals belong to God, if we don’t offer a food animal in its place, the law is that it must be killed, that is, wasted. We never get to benefit from our labor. So dedication: dedicating our work and our efforts to helping: helping each other and helping God – helping the Universe – can bring us closer in our relationship with the Divine Presence. The Chassidic sages also offer some advice. Rabbi Schneur Zalman stresses service. The Baal Shem Tov and R. Dovid Talener say, come before God without arrogance, with humility. And another teaching was suggested as we were studying the prophet Haggai in our Wednesday night study session. We read that when the people returned to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon, Haggai urged them to rebuild the Temple. He said: “Is this a time for you yourselves to sit in your paneled houses? Set your heart to consider your ways. You have sown much but bring in little.” In other words, think about why you are here. This is also a teaching for us. Why are we here? Is it only to eat and drink and enjoy life and then to pass away? Being human means that we have been given a precious gift: that we are here to dedicate ourselves to a higher purpose. As human beings we can refine ourselves and be of help and of service. We are meant to engage in the work of removing the barriers between us and God, seeking forgiveness, purifying ourselves, so that we can improve ourselves and the world and become more of a blessing. We can wake up and remember that we are part of the refining process that will ultimately lead to the Messianic era. May this season of Pesach usher in a new resolve: a rebirth of our capacity to rededicate ourselves to a holy purpose for which we were created and redeemed.