Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 23 Adar II, 5784
Parsha Shemini – “Eighth”: (Leviticus 9:1 – 11:47)
Third Portion: Leviticus 10:1 – 10:11

Good morning! We are less than one week away from the new moon eclipse.  As we approach each new moon, now is a good time to consider our intents for the next cycle. The next cycle is a beginning. It’s Nisan, which is the first month. A month to remember the exodus from Egypt as the months began their count from this event. We’ve had all year to process our slavery. The pieces of our lives we feel stuck in. The cages we have built for survival that are now our prisons.  Are we ready to ask for help from Hashem to be led into the wilderness in Freedom? Are we prepared to give up the comfort of slavery for the sacrifice in the desert? These are the questions.  Let’s dig in to today’s portion:

1And Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his pan, put fire in them, and placed incense upon it, and they brought before the Lord foreign fire, which He had not commanded them.

2And fire went forth from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.

So basically Aaron’s sons who JUST got initiated and anointed, brought “foreign fire” to Hashem – which they were not commanded to do.  I am reflecting on this.  They went ABOVE and BEYOND what they were commanded. And; they died.

I wrote this last year:

We become spiritually liberated to live our purpose on this earth. We are not meant to be fully consumed by the spiritual fire awakening within us. We need to anchor and be grounded in this current reality. This manifestation of our soul at this human timeframe.

We are not meant to fly off the handle here. We are to remain grounded in this space and time. It would be easy to just be so free and liberated to the point of death. To think that and see that death is the ULTIMATE in liberation.  To shed the clothing of our souls and live purely as souls.

And. That defeats the purpose of our journey here.  We cannot be so arrogant as to think we KNOW better than Hashem when it is our time to go.  We can trust the universe we will be here to live out our purpose before being asked to return.  We need to focus on the reality in front of us. And see the reality as opportunities.

Let’s keep going.

3Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke, [when He said], ‘I will be sanctified through those near to Me, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron was silent.

Aaron was silent. I am guessing he was stunned.

His kids just died.

Moses sees this and brings in help:

4And Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Draw near; carry your kinsmen from within the Sanctuary, to the outside of the camp.

5So they approached and carried them with their tunics to the outside of the camp, as Moses had spoken.

“as Moses had spoken.”

The lesson here seems to be about “following directions.”

When I build lego sets? Easy for me to follow directions. Even when they don’t fully make sense.  I trust the master builder who created the set knows better than me how to put the pieces together.

If we know this for legos, why don’t we know this for our relationships? For spiritual freedom and liberation?

Hashem cares about us following directions.  Why?

I’ve written about this before. The sacrifices were all directions.  To Hashem’s heart. Does that matter to us? We need to be honest. If my significant other loves purple lilacs, and I buy them roses? A part of our relationship dies, doesn’t it? They don’t feel seen by me.  They feel disconnected. But If I go to three stores looking for Purple Lilacs? We are connected.  This is the lesson.

Let’s keep going:

6And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons, “Do not leave your heads unshorn, and do not rend your garments, so that you shall not die, and lest He be angry with the entire community, but your brothers, the entire house of Israel, shall bewail the conflagration that the Lord has burned.

7And do not go out of the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, lest you die, because the Lord’s anointing oil is upon you.” And they did according to Moses’ order.

Moses is basically reminding us here to follow directions.

8And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying,

9Do not drink wine that will lead to intoxication, neither you nor your sons with you, when you go into the Tent of Meeting, so that you shall not die. [This is] an eternal statute for your generations,

10to distinguish between holy and profane and between unclean and clean,

11and to instruct the children of Israel regarding all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them through Moses.

This last part explains (possibly) why Aaron’s sons died.  They likely were drunk.

This may sound controversial – but the design of humanity is to ascend and be spiritually free and liberated through contemplation, not altered states of mind.  It’s ok if you don’t agree with this – because there is space in humanity for all of us on our own journeys. We can’t really get it wrong, because we will never be done. In my opinion.

What about you? What is YOUR opinion?

Here are my thoughts from the past two years:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 13 Nisan, 5783

The countdown to Passover is coming to an end. Tomorrow night is when Passover begins.

Tonight is the traditional time for us to do our final search of the house for Chametz.

Spiritually speaking, as we consider the journey of spiritual liberation, tonight is a good time to dig inward to find the places inside that hold us back from further spiritual liberation.

And. Todays passage is a good warning. Spiritual liberation without purpose is not the goal.

We become spiritually liberated to live our purpose on this earth. We are not meant to be fully consumed by the spiritual fire awakening within us. We need to anchor and be grounded in this current reality. This manifestation of our soul at this human timeframe.

It is a balance. And it’s crucial as we enter into Passover, the message of what we DO with our spiritual freedom is one to reflect on.

For me? My spiritual liberation and freedom exists for me to be a better father to my children. It is exists to be a better and more in touch human being relating to others within humanity.

The Passover story is meant to rehumanize us. To remind us of our humanity: and to discover what we need for our liberation.

Those are my thoughts today. What about you?

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 19 Adar II, 5782

Yesterday’s portion ended with Aaron and his sons coming out to bless the people.

Todays portion opens up pretty dramatically.

Fire came out from before God and consumed the burnt offering and the fats on the altar. All the people saw. They sang praises and fell upon their face.

You can imagine the excitement of what was happening. Supernatural fire being experienced by the entire population.

And what happens next; Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their own fire pan: they put fire in them and placed incense on top, they brought an extraneous fire before God – which God had NOT commanded them to bring.

On one hand you can understand their excitement about what just happened. They were praising God and wanting to bring an additional offering – even though that wasn’t what God wanted.

And then we next are left in shock because Fire came out before God and consumed Nadab and Abihu.

Um. Whoa. We need to stop here. That seems really harsh. First let’s explore what others have written about this, then I’ll add my own thoughts:

Rashi writes:

Rabbi Eliezer said: Aaron’s sons died only because they rendered a legal decision in the presence of Moses, their teacher, that incense should be offered on the altar.

Rabbi Ishmael said: Because they entered the Sanctuary while intoxicated with wine. The proof of this is that after their death, the Torah warned the surviving priests not to enter the Sanctuary after having drunk wine (verses 8-11)

Rabbi Schneerson said this:

“A king had a personal assistant, whom he found hanging around the entrance of taverns. The king severed his head without explaining why, and appointed another assistant in his place. We would not know why he put the first one to death if he had not told the second one, “You must not enter the entrance of taverns!” Now we know that it was for this same reason that he had put the first one to death.

Similarly, when the Torah states, “Fire came out from before God and consumed them, and they died before God,” we would not know why they died. But when Aaron is commanded, “Do not drink (enough) wine to make (yourself) intoxicated” (v. 9), we know that they only died on account of the wine (Leviticus Rabbah).

Being a “personal assistant” of the king, this man should have realized on his own, without being told, that “hanging around the entrance of taverns” was an activity displeasing to the king.

Due to the fact that they were so close to God, Nadab and Abihu should have realized that it is inappropriate to enter the Sanctuary while intoxicated, even though the prohibition had not yet been stated.

Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Lyady writes;

Why did Nadab and Abihu enter the Sanctuary “while intoxicated with wine”? They had an intoxicating desire for a heightened spiritual awareness. Nadab and Abihu were indeed holy people, as Moses declared to Aaron after their passing, “Now I see that they were greater than me or you!” (Rashi to v. 3). They entered the Sanctuary to be close to God.

But their desire for spirituality was imbalanced. Nadab and Abihu expired because they came so close to God that they no longer desired a bodily existence. And while it is appropriate and admirable to have an intense yearning for God like that of Nadab and Abihu, you must be able to refocus spiritual inspiration back into everyday life. (End quotes)

I think there’s another thought here – we are reading this with the assumption death is an ending, and bad. And on one hand we are called to preserve life at all costs; but if death just means the reuniting with Hashem of our Neshamas, calling death “bad” and what happened “wrong” might be a misnomer.

If Hashem used what happened to teach us that he does not want us to sacrifice our literal life, this would be a great way to teach it.

When one “catches fire” for God, I think a rational thought might be “I’m ready to leave this earth and the vessel my soul is in and return to my home and source; Hashem.” Hashem is saying here; no! I have a purpose for you on this earth. You are here for a reason. Don’t be so quick to return to me, especially before you have fulfilled the purpose I set out for you. AND at the same time, Abihu and Nadab lived out their purpose – which was to teach us this lesson.

Let’s keep going:

After Aaron’s sons died, Moses turns to Aaron and tells him; “When God said, ‘I will be sanctified through those I have chosen, and I will be glorified before all the people,’ this event is what He was talking about.” Aaron was silent.

Moses confirms; this incident happened to glorify Hashem. Aaron’s silence in the Talmud is discussed as his acceptance of Hashem’s decree and the impact it had on his sons. And we will see he is rewarded for this.

Moses then calls the cousins (sons of Aaron’s uncle) in to grab the bodies and remove them from the sanctuary and bring them outside the camp.

The portion ends with three new decrees regarding temple service:

1. Do not let your hair grow wild and rend your clothes when you carry out the service in the tabernacle so that you will not die, and so that He will not be angry with the entire community
2. Do not go out of the entrance of the Tent of Meeting (when you are in the middle of the service) so that you will not die, because God’s anointing oil is upon you.
3. When you go up into the tent of Meeting, do not drink enough win to make yourself intoxicated, neither you nor your sons with you, so that you will not die. This is an eternal statute for your generations. This is so that you can distinguish between the holy and profane and between the unclean and the clean.

Here’s my takeaways; our intentions to connect with Hashem are good. However, they don’t overrule the idea of Hashem communicating what speaks love to Him. He shares what He wants and needs from us; we can decide to ignore His expertise about His experiences and do it our own way, or we can listen and trust Him as an expert on His reality and what He desires to connect with us.

It is up to us to take Hashem as an expert here, or to discount His communication. When He says “this is how I want you to sacrifice for me” we can’t say “but look over here, God; I’m sacrificing this OTHER thing for you; doesn’t that count?”

As parents, we should be in partnership. If a wife says to a husband “I need your help; could you sacrifice your time and take out the trash” and the husband responds “sure” and doesn’t do it; when the parent confronts this behavior, an appropriate response would NOT be “but look at this OTHER Sacrifice over here! I put my laundry away.” The children would see and learn a bad habit.

If we love and care for someone, and they tell us what sacrifice is meaningful for them, that’s the sacrifice we should be focused on.

That’s the takeaway for me here. And I’ll confess; I sometimes struggle with this.

What are your thoughts on today’s portion? What sacrifice is Hashem asking you to make, where you are telling yourself “but look at this other sacrifice!”

Let me know!