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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