Of Two Minds: Parashat Sh’mini/Shabbat Parah

Parasha Sh'Minin 2016

Parashat Sh’mini/Shabbat Parah
Parashat Sh’mini: Leviticus 9:1 – 11:47
Shabbat Parah: Numbers 19:1-22

This Shabbat we read from two separate Torah scrolls. In the first we read the Torah portion for this week, Sh’mini. From the second we read the instructions for the Red Heifer (- hence the name Shabbat Parah, the Hebrew word for “cow” or “heifer”). These two readings do not always coincide. But their conjunction this year can help us think about a perennial question regarding our relationship to the Torah, whose words we have committed ourselves to regularly read.

The Parah text is famous for being paradoxical and inscrutable. The lesson that is often aligned with this reading is that we cannot always understand the Torah because it expresses the Divine Mind. We lowly humans cannot presume to fathom God’s thinking. We must submit to the Torah even though we do not understand its meaning.

But our weekly portion teaches a very different lesson. It tells of a confrontation between Moses and Aaron. Aaron and his sons were in the midst of the ceremonies consecrating the newly constructed Tabernacle. Tragically, during the consecration ritual, two of Aaron’s sons perished. In the chaos that ensued, it seemed that some prescribed rituals were partly disregarded. Moses was furious and challenged Aaron about this apparent breach. The Torah tells us that Moses “darosh darash – deeply investigated” the situation. And the tradition notes that these two Hebrew words, written exactly alike in the Torah scroll, but pronounced slightly differently, mark the very center of the Torah.

Actually, in terms of numbers of words, these two words do not divide the Torah in two equal halves. But the intent of this tradition is to teach us that the Torah is incomplete – it is only half a Torah – without human investigation. The Hebrew term for this is “midrash,” (- the noun form of the verb in our verse – darosh darash)meaning seeking and investigating. Despite recognizing our human limitations, we are commanded to use all our human gifts to try to make sense of the Torah so that we will live by its teachings properly and meaningfully.

So which is it? Are we to bow before God’s Supreme Wisdom and never try to understand it, or shall we apply our own thinking in order to decide what the Torah really means?

The story in our Torah reading gives us one possible criterion for mediating between these two legitimate claims. The Torah tells us that Aaron explained himself to Moses and argued that, in the circumstances of his painful loss, God could not possibly have intended for the ceremony to be conducted in the standard way. “And Moses heard, and it was good in his eyes.” (Lev. 10:20) Moses analysis had concluded that a mistake had been made because Moses had employed his reason alone. But Aaron showed him that there were other factors that Moses was ignoring. Moses had not recognized that Aaron’s pain had to be included in his analysis.

We are not meant to be machines that are programed in some mechanical way. We are living, feeling children of God. The application of the Torah must be guided by that reality. (For the splendid way in which our community has decided to follow this path with regard to reinterpreting some verses in the Torah, see this month’s Kol Emunah.)

As Aaron said, had he ignored his own pain, “would this have been good in God’s eyes?” (Lev. 10:9) He understood that God has charged us with applying the Torah in full recognition of our humanity. Thus, we may re-read the verse that tells of Moses’ approval of this argument: “And Moses heard; and it was good in His eyes.” The last part of the verse tells us that the interpretive discussion engaged in by the two brothers, with Aaron’s winning argument accepted by Moses, found favor, not only in Moses’ eyes, but in the eyes of God.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi David Greenstein


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Image(s):  “Borderline Biennale 2011” © Thierry Ehrmann used with permission via Creative Commons License

 

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