Netvort parshas Acharei Mos 5771:   A Different Lifestyle
By Rabbi Joshua (stylistically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

In honor of my niece, Leah Mae Hoffman, and her fiancé, Yehudah Baumer, on their recent engagement, in Baltimore. May they merit building a faithful home in Israel.  In memory of my father, Yosef ben Issac Hirsch Hoffman, whose Yahrzheit occurs next Tuesday night/ Wednesday,  the 16th of Nissan. May his memory be a blessing.

Parshas Acharei Mos begins with the service that Aharon needed to do in order to enter the holy of holies. At the end of this section of the parsha, we are told that the kohein gadol performs this service once a year, on Yom HaKippurim. Aharon, however, according to the midrash and many Torah commentators, was able to enter the holy of holies any day of the year, as long as he performed this service.  In any case, this section is followed by a number of laws dealing with sacrifices and related issues, all of which, according to the Rambam in his Moreh Hanevochim, as cited by the Ramban in his Torah commentary, are connected with the worship of the se'irim which the Jews were addicted to in Egypt. Finally, the Torah tells us not to engage in the practices of the Egyptians and the Canaanites, and then to present us with a list of forbidden sexual relations. What is the connection between all of these different sections?

We may also ask if there is any connection between this parsha and Shabbos  HaGadol the Shabbos before Pesach, on which it is being read this year? Usually, on a non-leap year, we read parshas Tzav on Shabbos HaGadol, and, as  Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik zt'l would point out, that parsha is connected to Pesach in that it teaches us the laws of purging vessels of the Beis HaMikdash that have absorbed forbidden substances consisting of left over parts of sacrifices, and there are peculiarities of these laws in regard to kodashim, or holy articles, that also apply to purging non-kodashim items that have absorbed chametz, for use on Pesach. What, however, is the connection between Acharei Mos and Peach?  Although a simple answer is that on both the night of Pesach and  the day of Yom HaKippurim, the central aspect of the service is the bringing of sacrifices, this will not answer our first question. I believe, however, that by answering the first question, we can provide a different answer to the second one, as well.

The Ramban points out that the Egyptians were steeped in impurity on two counts, the count of idolatry and the count of sexual immorality. We know from the prophet Yechezkel that the Jews engaged in idolatrous practices in Egypt. However, they did not engage in sexual immorality. The only woman who had relations with an Egyptian man during the entire stay of the Jews in Egypt, Shlomis bas Dibri, is singled out by the Torah, in parshas Emor, to indicate that the rest of the nation retained its purity in this regard.  Rabbi Zevulun Charlop, dean emeritus of Yeshiva University's RIETS, recently cited his father, Rav Yechiel Michel Charlop zt’l, as saying that the Talmud's description of the Jews in Egypt separating a lamb for the Pesach sacrifice and tying it to the legs of their beds is an allusion to the purity of family life that they maintained in Egypt. I believe that it was the rejection of idolatry, as represented by the use of a lamb, the idolatry of Egypt, as a sacrifice to God, and the maintenance of a refined, holy form of family life, that represented the adoption of a new kind of lifestyle, in contrast to that of Egypt, and helped form the national character of the Jewish people.

Rav Soloveitchik zt’l pointed out that when the Jews were in the wilderness, they were led by the Midianites to commit acts of sexual immorality with the daughters of Moav, who would only submit to the Jews if they first worshipped the idol  of Ba'al Peor.  Either one of these sins, by itself, would have been terrible transgressions, but would not have posed a threat to the further existence of the Jewish people. However, the two sins together formed a lifestyle, and that lifestyle would have destroyed the national Jewish character. That is why the nation of Midian is singled out by the Torah for its nefarious deeds in causing Yisroel to sin, and assimilate it into its way of life. Doing this would have negated the effect of the exodus from Egypt and the impurity of the lifestyle there, and forming a nation whose lifestyle is that of a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

The various parts of parshas Achaei Mos, following after the service of Yom HaKippurim, deal with the twin threats of idolatry and sexual immorality, the rejection of which form the hallmark of the Jewish lifestyle. On Yom Kippur, as both Rav Kook and Rav Soloveitchik have pointed out, the national aspect of repentance is a major part  of the service of the day.  It is therefore appropriate that the following sections deal with those laws that define the national character of the Jewish people. This also explains the connection between parshas Acharei Mos and Shabbos HaGadol, which leads into Pesach, when the Jewish nation was born, after rejecting the impure lifestyle that it encountered in Egypt. 

All of us here at Netvort Central Command wish a joyous Pesach to the multifarious Netvort readers, wherever they may be.   

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