Acharei Mos 5760 Netvort                                               Perspective	
 By Rabbi Joshua (perspectively known as The Hoffer) Hoffman	

In this week's parsha, God tells Moshe to relate to Aharon the procedure he must follow in entering the holy of holies. At the end of this section we are told that this procedure should be followed by the high priest once a year, on Yom HaKippurim, in order to enter that holiest area. According to the Midrash Rabbah, it was only high priests subsequent to Aharon whose entrance into the inner sanctum  was restricted to Yom HaKippurim. Aharon himself, however, could enter any time of the year, as long as he followed the procedure of Temple service as presented to him in this parsha.The Vilna Gaon, as well as Rabbi Avraham Danzig, in his halachic work Chachmas Adam, marshall evidence from the verses in our parsha to demonstrate the veracity of this midrash.The strongest proof, it seems, is from the fact that Yom HaKippurim is mentioned only at the end of this section, when Aharon is not mentioned specifically. Many latter - day commentators, including the Netziv in his Ha'amek Davar, R.Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg in his HaKsav Ve HaKabblah, and Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk in his Meshech Chochmah, incorporate this teaching into their explication of this section. What remains to be understood is why Aharon was different from all subsequent high priests in this regard. I believe that the key to understanding this distinction can be found in the first verse of our parsha.	
   Our parsha begins with the words " And God spoke to Moshe after the death of Aharon's two sons." Apparently, the deaths of Aharon's sons have some connection to the instructions about to be given to Aharon. What is this connection? Moreover, these deaths were recorded in parsahs Shemini, so that a number of parshiyos intervene between that event and the instructions given in his parsha. If there is a connection between the deaths and this parsha, why is there an interruption? Rabbi Nisson Alpert writes that in order to learn from one's afflictions, there must be a certain passage of time, in order to put things into perspective. There were lessons for Aharon to learn from the death of his sons that could be applied to to his own relationship with God, but he needed time in order to absorb them. These lessons were most applicable in connection with Ahron's entrance into the holy of holies, which constituted the time of his closest communion with God. Although Rabbi Alpert gives a list of several lessons Aharon coud learn from these deaths, I would like to suggest two lessons that relate specifically to the service required in entering the inner sanctum. 

The two most unique aspects of the procedure required of Aharon are the special incense that he brought, and the the offering of the two goats - one as a sacrifice and the other to be sent into the wilderness and ultimately off of a cliff. Both of these services, it seems, related to the deaths of Aharon's two sons. The salient feature of the incense is that it came from a very fine powder. Even though incense brought on the altar all year round was ground into a fine powder, that brought in this procedure is described by the rabbis as 'dak min hadak' - especially fine. Rabbi David Feinstein explained that this fine powder is an allusion to small sins, small details people often overlook. For this reason, the rabbis say that the incense atones for the 'powder' of leshon hora, the seemingly minor transgressions of the laws of leshon hora, or evil talk, which the Talmud says people commit daily. The sin of Nadav and Avihu, as explained by Rabbi Yehudah Amital, in light of the midrashic explanations, was exactly that - ignoring the details of the Temple service, albeit out of their great enthusiasm to serve God with fervor. There are various opinions in the midrash regarding what the actual sin was. Some say they neglected to wash their hands before entering to perform the service, others say they entered after drinking wine, while others say they entered with torn clothing. In their desire to commune with God, they neglected to heed small, seemingly peripheral laws of the service. The incense, ground into a very fine powder, can then be seen as an alluson to such fine details.The death of Aharon's sons, then, which came as a result of their neglect of this aspect of divine service, gave deeper meaning to the incense service.

 The procedure followed with the two goats can also be appreciated more fully after considering what hapened to Ahaon's sons. Actually, a similar procedure was followed during the purification process of the metsorah, the person afflicted with the disease of tsara'as, as described in the previous parsha, and perhaps for this reason the Torah introduces this process before the instructions for Aharon entering the holy of holies are given. Two birds that are outwardly exactly similar are chosen. One is slaughtered, apparently as a sacrifice to God while the other is sent out to the field.The Sefas Emes explains that the two birds represent the good iclination and the bad inclination, and the procedure followed indicated that both can be used in the service of God. The use of the good inclination, he says, is represented by the bird sent out free. As far as the bad inclination, he explains that the enthusiasm exhibited by the bad inclination can be sublimated, killing the bad aspect and transferring the good aspect, the element of enthusiasm towards the service of God. Perhaps the symbolism of the two goats can be understood in a somewhat similar way, as Rav Nison Alpert himself suggests. Before the goat is  sent to the wilderness, the high priest recites a confession of sins. The idea behind this, says Rav Alpert, is that the sins represented by the goat being sent into the wilderness have ultimately led to the sacrifice of the other goat in the Temple itself, and, so, are part of the process of coming close to God. Therefore, it is in place to confess to God even through the medium of the goat sent out to the wilderness, which ostensibly represents nothing but sin.

The symbolism of the two procedures - that of the incense and that of the two goats - when combined, carried a unique message for Aharon, to be derived from the death of his two sons.On the one hand, their enthusiasm to commune with God caused them to overlook the need for adhering to the details of the Temple service, which themselves constitute, after all, a fulfillment of God's will and therefore a further means towards drawing close to Him. The incense alludes to this sin. On the other hand, that enthusiasm, when channeled properly, can be utilized in the service of God. This possibility is symbolized in the service with the two goats. Thus, the central aspects of the service required in order to enter the holy of holies held a unique meaning for Aharon, to be learned from the death of his two sons, and perhaps for this reason he was able to perform this procedure any time of the year.