by Nat Tidbury
Today’s Parasha is Leviticus 16:1-17:7. The second half of Parasha Aharei Mot is often read at Yom Kippur.
This is a challenging passage to break down and understand – full of rules around sacrifice and instructions, most notably surrounding Aaron, the brother of Moses. The portion begins with God speaking to Moses, following the deaths of Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu. Both died as a warning against intoxication, unholy ambition, tampering with the service and introducing a strange fire into the sanctuary, and God warns Moses so that Aaron knows he can only enter the sanctuary under certain conditions.These behaviours then set the precedent for the Day of Atonement instructions and emphasise the need to follow the right protocol when entering the Sanctuary.
The portion is essentially of a list of instructions to be given to Aaron by Moses that Aaron must follow in order to make atonement for the uncleanliness and misdemeanours of the children of Israel. Going forward, this will be the new normal and that once a year they will have to repent on Yom Kippur.
According to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the nature of teshuvah or repentance is a longstanding debate. Many rabbinic scholars have studied the nature of repentance and have differing views. Maimonides as an example, believed that the kind of repentance we do practice comes as a result of what the Priests did on behalf of ancient Israel. So, when someone sinned in biblical times, they would bring a sacrifice and confess their wrong, more like group repentance on YK.
For Ramban, sin and repentance are both part of Jewish history. Every individual act of repentance is like a homecoming or return to their land. It has less to do with the Temple, and more to do with a sense of the divine call.
The YK ritual required the offering of two goats – one to be sacrificed to God, and the other sent into the Judean desert (lying between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea), and this begs the question as to why God asked for this specifically. Deserts are purifying, with stories of prophets of different religions have found refuge in deserts. The Judean desert particularly has been popular for this. It’s suggested that the reason for this “purification” is the silence. We have very little silence in this world. Gadgets, the news, the constant demand on our time – none of this was found in the desert, leaving people time to have clear thought.
It has also been suggested that the goat is symbolically a scapegoat, laden down with the sins of Israel, and being sent off into the desert to die. As Jews, we have been scapegoated many times – the death of Jesus, the Black Death, even the Holocaust. Now is no different with the appalling rate of antisemitic attacks we are seeing currently and have seen since October 7th 2023.
In relation to the goat being sacrificed on the altar, Prophets and Jewish sages of the rabbinic era taught that God never actually wanted the blood offering, but it was symbolic more of the personal change God wanted to see. Repenting, prayer and righteousness lessen the severity of the decree as we seek our own change and recognise our transgressions during this time at Yom Kippur.
So how do we take the words of this Parasha and make them applicable to ourselves in the modern day. The story of Nadab and Abihu is a lesson for Jews in every generation and those that read this story and learn from it’s teaching, will, according to Zohar, win forgiveness for their own sins and the blessing of old age for their children. Therefore, living a life of goodness, following the commandments and respecting God is imperative. The good we do and the recognition of our sins is a key element of Jewish life, indeed, it’s a fundamental obligation.
We aren’t going to go and offer goats for sacrifice or send them into the desert in the modern day so how can we repent. I’d like to put a positive spin on this. We do go to Shul on Yom Kippur and fast and repent but that’s just once a year. In between our sacrifices look more like our commitment to our faith, our synagogue. We come to shul to think, to pray and to reflect on our week. Instead of bringing a goat to the Bimah, we bring ourselves. We dedicate ourselves to helping in Shul and in the Jewish community to further our Jewish education and to keep the Jewish faith going despite the challenges we have continued to face. We try our best to be good people.
To me, the symbol of the goat in the desert can represent us giving ourselves the opportunity for digital down time during Shabbat. In our own sanctuary, our Synagogue, we are separated from the rest of the world. We can focus on our thoughts and be together as the children of Israel were. I hope we have had the opportunity to learn from the mistakes the children of Israel made when they were wandering and that we no longer need to offer the sacrifices that they had to but instead can live our lives as good Jews, bringing positive elements to our Judaism, with one day a year to truly repent and the rest of the year to serve our faith and God.