Tyler’s Torah Thoughts for 25 Adar II, 5784
Parsha Shemini – “Eighth”: (Leviticus 9:1 – 11:47)
Fifth Portion: Leviticus 10:16 – 10:20

Good morning! Another short passage today!  We’ve been focused on internal peace as of late.  The context was Two of Aaron’s sons died because they got drunk and went into the holy of holies.  Moses (in our portion yesterday) tried to re-establish peace within, by bringing Aaron’s other two sons in and having THEM eat it.  We find out today, things did not go exactly as planned:

16And Moses thoroughly investigated concerning the sin offering he goat, and behold, it had been burnt! So he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s surviving sons, saying,

17″Why did you not eat the sin offering in the holy place? For it is holy of holies, and He has given it to you to gain forgiveness for the sin of the community, to effect their atonement before the Lord!

18Behold, its blood was not brought into the Sanctuary within, so you should have surely eaten it within holy [precincts], as I commanded!”

Moses was upset – he wanted the surviving sons to eat the offering in a certain way, and they did not.  Remembering his purpose was peace. He wanted peace within.  And what was the response?

19And Aaron spoke to Moses, “But today, did they offer up their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord? But [if tragic events] like these had befallen me, and if I had eaten a sin offering today, would it have pleased the Lord?”

Aaron pushed back on Moses and brought up how every one was grieving. Now wasn’t the time for a sin offering. They were in their grief.

20Moses heard [this], and it pleased him.

Moses was pleased by this response.

What is the takeaway here?  Grief always takes priority.  In fact, it would seem, that is our purpose for being here.  To learn how to grieve in order to receive peace in our hearts.

Here is my thought from two years ago:

Tyler’s Torah Thoughts 21 Adar II, 5782

Todays portion is almost like an episode of law and order.

Moses had told Eleazar and Ithamar in yesterday’s portion about how to take the offerings, despite being in mourning – which usually precluded someone being able to offer.

Today, we pick up with Moses making two investigations (cue the Law & Order “duh dun” sound – IYKYK) about what happened to three sin offering goats.

Moses does his investigation (shades of Lenny Briscoe) and discovers two of the goats were eaten correctly….BUT one goat was completely burned.

Moses becomes angry at Eleazar and Ithamar. He goes and confronts them;

– why did you not eat the sin offering?

He even gives them a possible out:

– did you accidentally take the offering outside the holy place where it may be eaten, and it became invalidated?

He then concludes telling them that even if that WERE true;

– Hashem has given the offering TO YOU to gain forgiveness for the sin of the community

– it’s blood was not required to be brought inside the Sanctuary, so you should have eaten it.

Cue the dramatic Law & Order theme music.

Then, Aaron steps up. As legal counsel for the defendants, he challenged Moses;

– do you think it was my sons who offered up the sin offering and burnt offering today?

– no. It was Aaron who offered it up. And being the high priest he is allowed to sprinkle the blood while in mourning.

– Aaron challenges Moses – “had I eaten the third sin offering today, would it have pleased God? Because unlike the other two offerings which are temporary, the third offering was permanent. It was for all generations. It is not appropriate to be lenient and allow a mourner to eat it.

Moses heard this. It pleased him. He was not ashamed to admit that he had been mistaken.

So here is my takeaway.

Moses was projecting his issues into Aaron’s remaining sons. He felt upset over what happened to Aaron’s first two sons. He was triggered by what happened and He made assumptions about the situation that were more about his own issues of how things went down prior than the issues of what was really going on in the moment

How often do our own issues cloud the reality of a situation? How often do we make assumptions about others when in reality it’s our own junk driving the train? How much does our projecting onto others damage relationships? Especially when others may not have the advocate that Aaron’s sons had with their dad.

And. Another takeaway is to be open to the idea that we project our reality into others, listen to an explanation and then acknowledge we may have been mistaken.

What are your thoughts?