From: Netvort@aol.com

Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 12:19 AM

To: JoshHoff@aol.com

Subject: Netvort : parshas Acharei Mos, 5768

                                             Next Year in Jerusalem

                    By Rabbi Joshua (cautiously known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


  In memory of Rav Alter Chanoch Henoch Leibowitz, zt"l, Rosh HaYeshiva of the Rabbinical Seminary of America, known as the Chofetz Chaim Yeshiva, in Queens, NewYork, who passed away on Tuesday. May his memory be a blessing.


  Because of the vagaries of the Jewish calendar, the Torah reading this year for the  Shabbos before Pesach, known as Shabbos HaGadol, or 'the Great Shabbos,' is Acharei Mos, whose first half consists of a description of the service done in the Temple on Yom HaKippurim. What is the connection between Pesach and Yom HaKippurim? Actually, this year the connection is stronger than in most years, because this year the fourteenth of Nissan, the day designated by the Torah for bringing the Pesach sacrifice, falls out on Shabbos, and the sacrifice is still brought, overriding the prohibitions of Shabbos, just as the service of Yom Kippur overrides the laws of Shabbos. However, there is a more profound connection, as we will see.

  There are two times in the year when we conclude a service by saying 'next year in Jerusalem.' Those two services are the entire corpus of prayer services on Yom Kippur, ending with Neilah, and the Pesach seder. Why are only these two services chosen to be ended in this way? Rabbi Yehudah (Jeffrey) Silver a"h once explained that both Yom Kippur and the Pesach seder are centered around the Temple service. As far as Yom Kippur is concerned, it is obvious to anyone who studies this week's Torah reading that this is the case. As far as Pesach night, the Netziv, in his Haggadah commentary, shows, on the basis of a Tosefta, that the original way that the seder was conducted in the Temple was centered around the Pesach sacrifice, and remnants of that order of things remain in our seder today as well. Thus, in both cases, Yom Kippur and the Pesach seder, the central element of the service, namely the sacrifices involved, are missing today. That is why we entreat God, at the end of each of these services, to return us to Jerusalem. As Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik zt"l often pointed out, when we ask this of God, we are referring to the Temple, situated in Jerusalem, which gives the city an elevated level of holiness, and the service conducted there. We are, in effect, asking God to restore the Temple service so that we can finally fully experience the sanctity of the Yom Kippur and Pesach seder services there. I would like to suggest another connection between this week's Torah reading and the holiday of Pesach, based on verses in the very beginning of our parsha.

The first verse in our parsha tells us that God spoke to Moshe after the death of the two sons of Aharon when they came close before God. God tells Moshe to warn Aharon not to come too close before God, meaning, into the kodesh hakodashim, or the holy of holies, and to approach only together along with bringing a certain order of sacrifices and offerings. He proceeds to instruct Moshe on the Yom Kippur service. What God, then, is telling Moshe is that even though the kohanim want to come close to God, they can only do so in accordance with the commands He issues. Following God's directives is the surest way of coming close to Him. This truth was not followed by Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aharon, and because of that they died on what was supposed to have been the greatest joy for the nation, the day on which the divine presence would rest on the mishkan, thereby bringing the process of redemption from slavery to its culmination, as the Ramban says in his introduction to the book of Shemos. In fact, this is what we say on the evening of the seder, in the Dayenu section, when we culminate our praise of God with our mention of the building of the Temple where all of our sins are atoned for.

This understanding of the significance of the death of Aharon's children to the service in the Temple on Yom Kippur can help us explain the connection of the Pesach seder and Yom Kippur, to the extent that we end each by saying ' next year in Jerusalem.' In both cases, we are anticipating the final redemption, and, yet ,we must remember that it is God who determines when that will come. Nadav and Avihu wanted to come closer to God, as part of the culmination of the redemption process, but they deviated from His guidelines, and died as a result. On the night of the seder, as well, when the nation was in Egypt, they had to wait until God gave them the word, through Moshe, before they left. The tribe of Ephraim, which made its own calculation, left early, and was slain as a result. Both Yom Kippur and Pesach teach us that although we yearn for the fulfillment of our wish to partake in the sacrifices in the Temple and pray for the day when we will experience that level of closeness to God, we can only reach that day by following His plan and directions.

A joyous Pesach to alll from all of us at Netvort Central. 



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  Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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