Shemini
ויהי ביום השמיני קרא משה לאהרן ולבניו ולזקני ישראל. ויאמר אל אהרן קח לך עגל בן בקר לחטאת ואיל לעלה תמימם והקרב לפני ה' (ט, א-ב).
It was on the eighth day that Moshe called to Aharon and his sons and the elders of Israel. And he said to Aharon, “Take for yourself a young calf for a sin-offering and a ram for an elevation-offering, unblemished, and draw them close before Hashem.”
In the following, we will offer a number of possible expositions of the symbolic significance of these offerings, in a manner meaningful for our personal growth. After all, if these layers of interpretation did not exist, of what relevance would these descriptions be for us?
In the first approach, we suggest that the Torah is addressing the exceptionally righteous individual, who spends his days in ascetic seclusion. Insulated from the temptations of society, he faces a unique challenge – that of arrogance. Being that this is no small imperfection – it is, as the Seforim* tell us, the root of all sin – this individual is directed to offer an לגע as a sin-offering. As conceived by the Olelos Ephrayim,** the word לגע is an acronym of the three sins which the Talmud*** posits as endemic to society: ע תויר , promiscuity; ג לז , theft; ערה ןוש ל , slander. He further adds that the תוירע in question is not literal, rather a reference to arrogance, which the Sages**** compare to transgressing all of the forbidden relations.
Hence, we are told םימי תעבש ואצת אל ינימשה דעומ םויב יהיו , referring back to the end of the previous parashah: להא חתפמו ,5 that Aharon and his sons had spent seven days in seclusion in the courtyard of the Mishkan. There they were instructed****** םכילע רפכל תושעל הוצ הזה םויב השע רשאכ , from which the Sages******* derive that just as this inaugural process demanded seven days of preparation, so does the Kohen Gadol require seven days to ready himself for Yom Kippur. Now, it is reasonable to assert that the natures of these two seven-day periods are similar: just as that of the lead-up to Yom Kippur has the capacity for atonement of sins performed throughout the year during any of the seven days of the week,******** so too the leadup to the dedication of the Mishkan had the power of atonement, leaving Aharon and his sons with the joy of pristine holiness. The downside to this is that offerings are supposed to brought with a broken spirit, their owner embarrassed from his misdeeds – how would Aharon maintain such a mindset fresh from his atonement? The solution lies in the choice of the offerings. The לגע would remind them that for all of their purity, they were still culpable – like all people – for the three aforementioned offenses. And while lofty individuals such as these were not guilty of actual idolatry or promiscuity, the equivalent arrogance was present.
It is for this reason that the calf is described as a ןב רקב , for when taken as the word רֶקֹבּ, meaning dawn, it alludes to the spiritual greatness of those involved and thus the need to highlight their minor shortcomings. The same is true of the הלועל it can be read as לָיאַ, a deer – alluding to the verse ליא , for while the animal here is an לִיאַ, a ram, םיליאכ הירש ויה ,********* which the Talmud********** takes as a criticism of the leadership that they ignored the crimes of others. This too is a finer infraction that even great people may be guilty of.
It is with this mindset that they were able to achieve 'ה ינפל ברקהו , to draw close to Hashem, for as the verse states*********** אכד תא ןוכשא, that He dwells with the broken spirited.
The second approach to our verses is directed to the individual who wastes his life in spiritual obliviousness, urging him to salvage what little time he has left on this earth. It is based upon an exposition of a Talmudic anecdote by the Olelos Ephrayim.************
Eiruvin************* relates that R. Yehoshua b. Chananya would recall how he was bested by a child. He was once travelling toward a city and, upon encountering a fork in the road, inquired of a child on site as to which direction was the correct one. The child responded that one was “short and long,” the other “long and short.” R. Yehoshua proceeded to take the former route, which, he discovered to his chagrin, arrived at a thick ring of gardens and orchards before the city. He therefore turned back and confronted the child as to why he described this road as short. The child pointed out that he had also described it as long. R. Yehoshua realized that his intention had been that while this path was the shorter distance between the fork and the city, it required a longer investment to actually arrive there due to the impeding gardens. The other road, while a longer distance, was shorter in its easier accessibility.
The message in this tale is that in our journey through life we encounter forks in the road. Some of the paths start out as easy to traverse. They involve lifestyles and methods which, while unsavory, produce material accomplishment and physical gratification, and even the sense of religious affirmation produced by the assumption that success is an indication of Divine favor. Eventually, however, the going gets rough, with the previously smooth highway giving way to one full of every obstacle. The comforts are gone, and, worse yet, he discovers that he is very far from his ultimate destination of Hashem – in fact, he now realizes that he has been travelling in the wrong direction the entire time. In the grand scheme of life, this path is “short yet long.” The other direction is that of living up to the demands of the Torah. It begins as a tortuous route, littered with every impediment. As he slogs on, he cannot but notice the gnawing feeling that he is desperately far from Hashem, abandoned by him to his wretchedness. Eventually, though, the road improves and his speed picks up. As he sails along, he sees his destination directly ahead of him – Hashem is getting ever larger in the horizon. He has successfully travelled life’s “long yet short” road.
Initially, R. Yehoshua opted for the “short yet long” option. It has the advantage of providing immediate gratification in the physical realm, which is far more eye catching than the spiritual benefits offered by its alternative. This, of course, was the downfall of Chavah when she observed that the forbidden fruit was םיניעל אוה הואת,************** desires to the eyes.
Sure enough, though, he encountered the gardens and orchards before the city. These repositories of gastronomic delight are symbolic of the pleasures of this world. The word ריע, city, is used in Aramaic as a reference to an angel;*************** hence the city is representative of man’s spiritual destination. Hence, R. Yehoshua realized that physical gratification, as lustrous as is may be, separates him from Hashem.
He therefore turned back – in repentance. Primarily, this move consisted of the realization that he had deluded himself into thinking that whatever strikes him as proper is by default correct, when, in fact, he had become used to fabricating justifications for his whims.
Using this approach, we can offer the following rendering of our verses. ינימשה םויב– the word יהיו is taken by the Talmud**************** as implying יו, woe. Woe to the individual who frittered away the first seven decades of his life on frivolities.***************** Yet, better late than never, at this advanced age, םויב יהיו ינימשה , he has a spiritual awakening. השמ ארק , Moshe – representative of the תעד,****************** the wisdom within man – calls out to him, beckoning him to a better future. ןרהאל, whose letters can be rearranged as הארנ, seen, in the sense of “seen to be correct,” i.e., the call goes out to the one whose every action is self-approved, deludingly incapable of erring. Alternatively, in kabbalistic models******************* Aharon is positioned on the right, the personification of goodness; hence, Moshe’s call is dispatched to the dormant positivity within man. But how does one shake our self-assured slumberer back into reality? By instructing him to offer an רקב ןב לגע , to repent in those areas that even the most righteous, such as himself, fall short in. The hope is that through this opening, he will be inspired to recognize the error of his ways and turn his life around.
In the third approach, we will use our verses to draw a parallel between the national and personal redemptive processes. For just as the Jewish People as a collective experienced exile in Egypt and redemption from it, so does every individual undergo his own personal Exodus. As I heard from the Besht, the verse******************** הלאג ישפנ לא הברק can be taken to mean “draw close to my exiled soul – redeem it first,” teaching that one must place his primary focus on his personal redemption instead of the national redemption.
Once again, let us turn to the Olelos Ephrayim21 for food for thought. He posits that redemption demands five preconditions: 1) peace and harmony, 2) personal merit, 3) ancestral merit, 4) merit of the righteous of the generation, 5) the glorification of Hashem’s Name. Regarding the first item, he elaborates that our exile has dragged on as long as it has only due to our lack of unity. An allusion to this can be found in the cryptic midrashic passage********************** in which an Athenian brings a shattered millstone to a Judean tailor, demanding that it be stitched back together. The tailor responds by handing him sand, assuring the Athenian that if he can spin thread from it, the tailor will use it to stitch up the millstone. The intent is that if the Jewish People would unite as if one thread, that unity could repair our shattered condition.
He anchors this thought in two verses in Vayikra *********************** regarding a Jewish slave, אחרי נמכר גאלה תהיה לו אחד מאחיו יגאלנו. או דדו או בן דדו יגאלנו או משאר בשרו ממשפחתו יגאלנו או השיגה ידו ונגאל, After he has been sold, he shall have redemption – one of his brethren shall redeem him. Or his uncle or his cousin shall redeem him or his relative from his family shall redeem him or if he amassed sufficient funds [for his bail] and he shall be redeemed. These sentences – whose subject is redemption – contain the five aforementioned preconditions: אחד מאחיו יגאלנו, brotherhood between Jews; או דודו, the glorification of Hashem, Israel’s beloved; או בן דדו, the merit of the righteous; ממשפחתו, ancestral merit; או השיגה ידו, personal merit.
We contend that this listing is alluded to in our verse as well. For it is a portent for personal redemption, which, as mentioned above, parallels the national.
The words ויהי ביום השמיני can, once again, tell us something about the previous seven days. As we are taught in the writings of the Arizal, ************************ the seven days of the week correspond to the primordial seven creative forces which met their demise in the “failed” first phase of the creation of the world. This was followed by an eighth force which rectified them, forever associating that number with repentance. Thus, our passage refers to personal redemption.
This eighth force is also associated with the attribute of Yesod, that of the male organ and the circumcision that sanctifies it – hence that mitzvah is performed on the eighth day of the child’s life. Since that attribute is, in turn, associated with peace (as the Zohar ************************* teaches) what emerges is that our Eighth Day has a motif of peace, just as we found in the national rectification.
The verse continues קרא משה לאהרן, that Aharon, the exemplar of peacemaking, ************************** was summoned. Thus, there is an element of personal merit. Then, ולבניו, introducing ancestral merit, and ולזקני ישראל, the righteous of the generation. With all of these elements in place, the rectification is achieved and the final, ultimate goal is reached –’ וירא אליכם כבוד ה;, that the Glory of Hashem should be manifest.
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* See Sha’arei Kedushah 2:4.
** 201.
***Bava Basra 165a.
****Sotah 4b.
*****Vayikra 8:33.
****** Ibid., 34.
*******Yoma 2a.
********Pri Etz Chayim, Tefillos Rosh Hashanah 7.
*********Eichah 1:6.
********** Shabbos 119b.
*********** Yeshayah 57:15.
************ 229.
************* 53b.
************** Bereishis 3:6.
*************** See Daniel 4:10 and commentaries.
**************** Megillah 10b.
***************** Olelos Ephrayim (14) takes the seventy years of Choni ha-Me’agel’s sleep (Ta’anis 23a) as symbolic of one who’s life consists of one long spiritual slumber.
****************** Zohar, 2:221a.
******************* Ibid., 3:282a.
******************** Tehillim 69:19.
********************* 61.
********************** Eichah Rabbasi 1:8.
*********************** 25:48-49.
************************Likkutei Torah, Ta’amei ha-Mitzvos, Tazria.
************************* Tikkunei Zohar, 116b.
************************** Sanhedrin 6b.