Dismissal or Deference: Parashat Sh’mini

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Parashat Sh’mini
Leviticus 9:1 – 11:47

How should we treat a person or an institution whose time seems to have past? With dismissal or with deference?

This question arises as we begin reading our Torah portion: “And it was on the eighth day (ba-yom ha-sh’mini) [- of the Tabernacle dedication ceremonies] that Moses called to Aaron and his sons and to the elders of Israel.” (Lev. 9:1) What follows is the instruction and performance of the priestly initiation into being God’s exclusive servants in the Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle. It is clear, therefore, why Aaron and his sons were summoned. But why were the elders called to appear? They seem to serve no role in initiating the priests into their roles nor do they have any priestly role of their own to perform.

Rashi, our most important traditional commentator, answers this question by citing an earlier Rabbinic midrash. The elders are present so that they will be assured that Aaron and his sons were being invested as priests through Divine decree, and not of their own initiative. This answer points to the transitional moment we are witnessing. The Aaronide priesthood is a new institution of ritual leadership. Some might ask – By what right did they assume their powers? So the elders were summoned to bear witness to the legitimacy of the new priestly regime.

But this answer assumes that the elders have a certain standing that gives their testimony proper weight in the community. They have a leadership status of their own. But we may question their standing as leaders during this transitional period. The elders have been mentioned as secondary participants – or, more often, as bystanders –  in various events in which Moses and Aaron took charge of the liberation of Israel from Egypt, of leading them to Sinai and of organizing them into a nation guided by God’s Torah.

The elders’ status seems to derive from a bygone era, the time before Moses, Miriam and Aaron, when the nation of Israel had to content itself with simply surviving under bondage and oppression. The leadership status of these elders stemmed from their being old, from their having lived long lives within the community, a community that did not yet possess a clearly articulated sense of identity or mission. Yet, their accomplishment was not negligible. With so few resources at their disposal, they were able to keep the nation alive, just as they, themselves, had succeeded in keeping themselves alive – in becoming old, in becoming elders. Nevertheless, if these old men (and women) had succeeded in sustaining the nation, they had now to move aside to allow a more dynamic group of leaders take on the power and the responsibility to move the young nation of Israel forward.

Is this, then, the real reason Moses summoned them to witness the empowerment of a new cohort of leaders for the people? Their act of witness, as much as it was an acknowledgment of their esteemed station among the people, was also a direct negation of the continuing relevance of that status. The elders were summoned to bear witness that their time, the time of the elders, was over. (Yet, the Torah made sure to insist that we honor the elderly and treasure accumulated life experience as inherently valuable. See Lev. 19:32)

Or, perhaps this only seemed to be true for that particularly transitional moment. As we look back over the centuries, the priestly institution of leadership has virtually disappeared. And now the rabbinic leadership class, which once replaced the priests, continues to fade away. In our own transitional moment we are uncertain whether we will find – or accept – any new criterion for determining communal leadership. Is it possible that, as the Jewish community ages, being elderly will be such a common trait that it will no longer elicit a sense of reverence or respect?

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David Greenstein


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Image: “Février: Serre-moi fort”  (“February: Hold me tight”) by
Jean-Baptiste Faure altered and used with permission. Licensed under CC BY 2.0

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