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Orchard of Delights Achrei Mot
so. For instance, superficially, there does not seem to be a strong £Do Not Judge Your Fellow Man Until £Do Not Judge Your Fellow Man Until Do Not Judge Your Fellow Man Until
connection between the laws regarding which animals may be eaten £
and which not and Nadav and Avihu’s deaths. Yet a very powerful You Have Been in His PositionYou Have Been in His PositionYou Have Been in His Position
lesson can be garnered from the juxtaposition of these two subjects.
Above we suggested that Nadav and Avihu suffered from a certain
excess of arrogance which prevented them from finding wives. We With this shall Aaron come into the Sanctuary – with a
would now like to offer what may have been their own, more positive, young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.
rationale for never marrying: they believed that such a step would He shall put on a sacred linen tunic; linen breeches shall
tie them to a life of mundane pursuits, instead of leaving them free to be upon his flesh, he shall gird himself with a linen sash,
pursue a more elevated spiritual path, which they felt was their true and cover his head with a linen turban; they are sacred
destiny. They courageously envisioned a world with no boundaries vestments – he shall immerse himself in water and then
between humankind and the Divine. Their love of God and willingness put them on. (Leviticus 16:3-4)
to give everything they had to come closer to God knew no limits.
They wanted to partake of the Divine Presence without fear and The Ba’al Shem Tov taught that in order to help alleviate others’
with no sense of separation. This worldview explains why they suffering or elevate them spiritually, one may need to descend to the
entered the Sanctuary as they did and also hints at why their souls level of those needing help in order to lift them out of their present
were ultimately consumed by fire in God’s paradoxical “measure for circumstances or levels of consciousness. He found scriptural support
measure” response to their passionate desire to unite with Him. for this teaching in the High Priest wearing only four simple white
The laws of permitted and forbidden animals provide an antidote garments on Yom Kippur, instead of his eight special garments. By
of sorts to the blurring of boundaries championed by Nadav and wearing the simple garments worn by the ordinary priests, the High
Avihu. This message is stated almost explicitly in the portion’s Priest lowered himself to a level where he could relate to all those
concluding verses: people he hoped to find atonement for.
For I am God your God – you are to sanctify yourselves and you This idea is expressed in Pirkei Avot (2:5): “Do not judge your fellow
shall be holy, for I am holy; and you shall not defile yourselves man until you have been in his position.” As we discussed earlier,
through any teeming thing that creeps on the earth. For I am God the importance of empathy also explains, at least on a superficial
Who elevates you from the land of Egypt to be a God unto you; you level, why Aaron had to undergo the humiliating experience of being
shall be holy for I am holy. This is the law of the animal, the bird, partly responsible for the Golden Calf. Aaron, who was to be the High
every living creature that swarms in the water, and for every creature Priest, needed to experience this sense of sin to some degree, so that
that teems on the ground; to distinguish between the impure and the he would be able to truly relate to all those who would come to the
pure, and between the creature that may be eaten and the creature Tabernacle to do teshuvah (“Repentance and the Small Alef”). The
that may not be eaten. (Leviticus 11:44-46) Ba’al Shem Tov made this concept a central pillar of his educational
philosophy.
To achieve holiness one must distinguish between permitted and
forbidden, pure and impure. One must delineate boundaries and There is a story told about Rabbi Shmuel, the fourth rebbe of
make borders. Jewish law defines each mitzvah with great precision Chabad (also known as the Maharash), who like most Chassidic
and detail, as virtually all mitzvot include either an action, the use rebbes advised those who came to him seeking blessings and spiritual
of a physical object, or speech. Yet, paradoxically, the finite realm of guidance. His assistant was very puzzled that he was always soaked
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