One of my favorite novels is The Fifth Mountain by Paulo Coehlo, which is a modern retelling of the story of Elijah the prophet, where the prophet is forced to deal with the tragedy to being alone and beginning anew when no one else understands him. At the climactic point in the novel, the main character challenges a group of villagers to see how they might tell a new story about themselves in the wake of destruction:
“Tragedies do happen. We can discover the reason, blame others, imagine how different our lives would be had they not occurred. But none of that is important: they did occur, and so from there onward we must aside that fear that they awoke in us and begin to rebuild. Each of you will give yourselves a new name, beginning at this very moment. This will be the sacred name that brings together in a single word all that you have dreamed of fighting for” (Paulo Coehlo, The Fifth Mountain, 212-213).
This passage imagines what it would be like to the past behind us, and walk into a new future with a new name, and a new purpose, a vision recognized our rabbis understanding of the opening of Parshat Shemini.
When I read the weekly parasha, I oftentimes find myself trying to understand how an individual event or command fits into the entire narrative of the Torah, specifically how what a statement to one character at a particular time means in light of what happened previously in that character’s life. Parshat Shemini opens with a description of God instructions to Moses and Aaron as to how one should begin preparing the mishkan for divine service. The parasha states the following:
“And Moses said: 'This is the thing which God commanded that you should do; that the glory of God may appear unto you.' And Moses said unto Aaron: 'Draw near unto the altar, and offer thy sin-offering, and the burnt-offering, and make atonement for yourself, and for the people; and present the offering of the people, and make atonement for them; as God commanded.' So Aaron drew near to the altar, and slew the calf of the sin-offering, which was for himself” (Vayikra 9:6-8).
For our rabbinic commentators, the completion of and service in the mishkan is related to the aftermath to the building of the Golden Calf. While the building of the Golden Calf represented an instance where the Israelite community came together for a profane purpose, the mishkan represented an opportunity for the community to come together for a sanctified purpose. Aviva Zornberg summarizes the nature of this transition in her book The Particulars of Rapture:
“...in the midrashic versions of the Golden Calf episode a pockmarked future history of infidelity and intransigence has left its traces. The essential question, then, is of the possibility of teshuva, of change. If “love of authority” is the underlying perplexity of human experience, is an authentic relation to the other at all conceivable?” (Aviva Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus, 413).
According to Zornberg, once the Israelites prove able to construct the mishkan and offer divine service in it, they will have demonstrated their capacity for change, a powerful example of a how person or community’s individual mistakes need not prevent them from transformative growth.
For our rabbinic commentators, no person benefited from the transformative change of building the mishkan than Aaron, who was intimately involved in the construction of the Golden Calf, yet who was also tasked with leading the people in priestly rituals and the sacrificial rites. One midrash points out that the service in the mishkan tested the Israelites by intentionally reminding Aaron of all the acts performed when constructing the Golden Calf:
“When the Israelites made the Golden Calf, God told Moses, “Now leave Me alone...and I will destroy them.” Moses said to God: “Test them [the Israelites] to see whether they will make the Mishkan.” What did the Torah say regarding the failure at the Golden Calf? “Remove the gold rings.” And what the Israelites brings? Rings. And when they made the Mishkan, they made the same contribution. And that is what is written, “All who were generous of spirit brought nose-rings and earrings, rings and bracelets”- the Israelites sinned by means of earrings, and so God would be satisfied by means of earrings” (Midrash Rabbah, Shemot 48:5).
In this midrash, everything that the Israelites were asked to donate and bring for the construction of the mishkan were items previously used in the construction of the Golden Calf, a type of measure-for-measure decision on the part God that linked these two events in the minds of the Israelites and Aaron, in particular.
However, when our commentators analyze Parshat Shemini, they note that Aaron’s memory of the Golden Calf impedes his enthusiasm for the divine service is about commence in the mishkan during this parasha. As a result, Moshe offers Aaron words of encouraged described in the following midrash:
“And Moses and Aaron came to the Tent of Meeting”- when Aaron saw that all the sacrifices had already been offered and all the actions had already been performed, but the Divine Presence was not descending to Israel, Aaron stood and was troubled. He said, “I know that God is angry with me; it is because of me that the Divine Presence has not come down to Israel. This is what my brother Moses did to me- I went out and was embarrassed, because the Divine Presence did not descend to Israel!” Moses immediately entered with him, and they asked for Divine mercy, and the Divine Presence descended to Israel. Therefore, it is written, “Moses and Aaron came to the Tent of Meeting” (Sifra, Parshat Shemini).
This midrash takes a psychological approach, and invites us to empathize with Aaron’s hesitation to begin his priestly service, given the guilt he felt over the construction of the Golden Calf, and how Moses’ statement to Aaron attempted to renew Aaron’s focus and passion for divine service. Therefore, if we are to see as the construction of the mishkan as an opportunity for the Israelites to atone for the sin of the Golden Calf, we must also see the Aaron’s service as an opportunity for him to no longer be remember as the man who constructed the Golden Calf, but the man who inaugurated divine service, a man with a “new name.”
Similar to my Dvar Torah last year, I remained fascinated by the way in which our rabbis’ understanding of Parshat Shemini teaches us something powerful about our capacity for change, and what it means to walk into new opportunities that allow us to close less flattering chapters of our lives, and write news one of hope and opportunity. When a student makes a mistake, they imagine that this mistake will define them forever, yet if education is a process of our growth, our task is to help students see how they move beyond their mistakes, write new chapters in their lives, and move forward. May we embrace this task, and like Moses, walk with our students and children down pathways of growth, change, and possibility.
Shabbat Shalom!
No comments:
Post a Comment