Parashat HaShavua - Aharei Mot

 “After the death of the two sons of Aaron…Let him not come at any time into the Holy…and not die, for I appear in a cloud above the ark-cover (16:1-2).”

This week’s parasha situates itself after the death of Aaron’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, and them moment when they offer אש זרה — strange fire — on the altar and as a result are consumed by fire and killed.

Why does the Torah state specifically that the instructions God gives in this parasha are “after the death of Aaron’s sons”?   After all, the next verse states, “God said to Moses: Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come at will into the Shrine behind the curtain…”  This command is phrased the way so many others are in the Torah.  What is the need for the preface bringing us back to the death of Aaron’s sons?

Rashi answers by way of a parable in the name of Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah: “It may be compared to the case of a sick person whom the physician visited. He (the physician) said to him:  “Do not eat cold things nor sleep in a damp place!" Another physician came and said to him: “Do not eat cold things, nor sleep in a damp place so that thou mayest not die as Mr. So-and-so died!" Certainly this (the latter) put him on his guard more than the former; that is why Scripture states “after the death of the two sons of Aaron" (Sifra, Acharei Mot, Section 13).

Here, the death of Aaron’s sons is a warning. Perhaps the parable is an attempt to wrest meaning from that which appears to be beyond our understanding or even meaningless.  Why did two young men serving God have to die for one ritual transgression?  The rabbis here attempt to turn their deaths into an object lesson, a teaching opportunity.  Now we know what to do and what  not to do.

Art Green offers related but importantly different read:

“God warns Aaron against the dangers of coming too close to God. God is well aware of how dangerous it can be for a person to come too close. This is parallel to the warning given to the people to stay back at Mount Sinai, lest “Y-H-W-H break out among them (Ex. 19:22),” tellingly spoken in the third person.  It gives the impression that God is not in control of all of God’s own powers…the Torah is well aware of the force of divine rage, sometimes uncontrollable and without reason.  

I have been thinking about these two themes, both of which speak to what we do אחרי מות — after death – as we close the door on Yom Ha Shoah 5782.  After the Shoah, there is certainly a strong temptation to be overcome by rage.  At the same time, there is the possibility of excavating meaning in that which seems beyond or without meaning.

This year, our 4th and 5th graders, as well as our middle school students, had the privilege of hearing Dina Wizmur share her grandmother’s dramatic story.  After escaping from the Stanislovov ghetto (she was rounded up with everyone else to be shot in a ditch and by some chance, the bullet missed her), she stayed alive with the help of a Ukrainian soldier named Nicholas, who fell in love with her.  She and Nicholas ultimately trekked through the Carpathian mountains to Budapest where Maria was miraculously reunited with her high school sweetheart, Edward.  Maria, Nicholas and Edward joined the Hungarian resistance, working with Raoul Wallenberg until the end of the war.  Maria ultimately married Edward.  Nicholas was honored at Yad Vashem as a righteous gentile.

Dina spoke about how her grandparents were able to metabolize this unthinkable story in the lives they built after the Shoah.  She spoke about their sense of life being a gift and she shared with the children how happy her grandmother would have been to know that she was sharing her story with a big group of Jewish children.  

When I hear the stories of survivors, I am always amazed not only by their bravery and the risks they took to survive during the Shoah, but also by their spiritual courage afterwards.   It would be so easy to succumb to rage, to see Judaism as the thing that had brought them close to death and turn their back on their heritage as a result.  Instead, year after year, I hear stories of survivors from the Heschel community who took their horrific past and turned it into an opportunity to teach their children and their grandchildren about the preciousness of life.  Who chose to respond to Jewish persecution by becoming proud Jews committed to passing on Jewish values from generation to generation.   They are a marvelous and unique gift to our community.

Rabbi Anne Ebersman