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Orchard of Delights Mishpatim

Indeed, this explains what the verse means when it states that the £Reactions to an Awesome VisionReactions to an Awesome VisionReactions to an Awesome Vision
cohanim are to wear their garments for “glory and splendor.” These ££
garments concealed the physical and revealed God’s glory destined
to shine through the souls of those representing both God and His
people. Just as every detail of the Tabernacle’s construction and of At the end of the portion of Mishpatim, the Torah again recounts
the sacred vessels used in it embody profound secrets of creation, the events leading up to the Giving of the Torah. Moses ascended
so too each and every detail of the cohanim’s holy garments sheds and descended Mount Sinai several times in order to speak to God,
light on deep concepts relating to the emotions, intellect, and soul relay His messages to the people, and then relay their reactions
of man. back to God. During one of the ascents, Aaron, his sons, Nadav and
Avihu, and the seventy elders accompanied Moses and were granted
an awesome vision: “They saw the God of Israel and under his feet
was the likeness of sapphire brick and it was like the essence of the
heaven in purity. Against the leaders of the children of Israel, He did
£The Temple Service The Temple Service The Temple Service not send His hand; they gazed at God and they ate and they drank”
££
and the Responsibility of Prayer and the Responsibility of Prayer and the Responsibility of Prayer (Exodus 24:10-12).
While the verse seems to unambiguously state that the leaders
“ate and drank,” quite possibly while they were gazing at God, the
During the First Temple period, the cohanim and levi’im performed incongruity and timing of such behavior caused the commentators to
the Temple service on behalf of the entire Jewish people. The Men disagree over the nature of this “eating and drinking” and over when
of the Great Assembly only began to design prayers, blessings, and it occurred (during or after the vision). Furthermore, even though a
rituals for private individuals and smaller communities after the straightforward reading of the verse seems to denigrate the leaders’
destruction of the First Temple and the Babylonian exile. With actions, as the verse finds it necessary to relate that God “did not
the building of the Second Temple, these were originally meant send His hand” to punish them, the commentators stake out various
to augment the Temple services, but after the Second Temple’s positions over whether or not their behavior was meritorious and
destruction they replaced them entirely. In response to the Second even over how God responded to it.
Temple’s destruction, the Sages transformed the Temple service Rashi, relying on Midrash Tanchuma, states that everyone except
and its conceptual basis into the underpinnings of the synagogue for Moses acted inappropriately by eating and drinking while
service we know today (see “The Tabernacle, the Temple, and the receiving the vision of God. While God “did not send His hand” to
Synagogue” in Terumah for a more comprehensive explanation of punish them, as He did not want to mar the upcoming revelation at
how this was accomplished). Sinai, each of the participants received his punishment later: Nadav

As a result of this shift in spiritual focus from the Temple to the and Avihu on the day the Tabernacle was dedicated and the elders
synagogue and the individual, every community, in general, and each during one of the rebellions in the desert.
individual, in particular, became responsible for performing the very Onkelos and Ramban, in contrast, both view the leaders’ actions
same service, albeit in different, but spiritually similar forms. Each favorably. Onkelos states that their joy at seeing such an elevated
person was now similar to a cohen, performing the entire service, vision of God was so tangible that it was as if, they were eating and
drinking. Ramban agreeing with Onkelos that the verse should be

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