Parsha Sh'mini -- Call to Duty!

By Moshe Burt

For seven days, Moshe taught Aaron HaKohen and his sons the laws of their Avodah in the Mishkan.  (You might say that they were given OJT from Shemayim.)

Our Parsha Sh'mini begins by relating that on the eighth day, Aaron and his sons commenced their Avodah HaKodosh.    

But our Parsha also relates the tragedy of the deaths of Aaron's two oldest sons, Nadav and Avihu who died while performing an unauthorized Service, offering a "strange fire ..., which he did not command them..." (Artscroll Chumash, Vayikra, Perek 10, posuk 1)   And our Parsha relates that "Hashem spoke to Aaron saying: Do not drink intoxicating wine, you and your sons ..., when you come to the Ohel Mo'ed (the Tent of Meeting), that you not die -- this is an eternal decree for your generations.  In order to distinguish between the sacred and the profane ..."  (Artscroll Chumash, Vayikra, Perek 10, p'sukim 8-10).

We see Nadav and Avihu were so wrapped up in the joy and euphoria of the moment that they chose to serve Hashem in a unique way, untaught by Moshe during the previous training.  And they chose to offer their fire without asking Moshe for his ruling.  The Imrei Shefer quotes R' Eliezer as saying, "Aaron's sons died because they gave rulings in the halacha in front of Moshe, their teacher"(rather than asking him for p'sak Halacha).  (Torah Gems, Aharon Yaaakov Greenberg, page 267)

And while we note that Nadav and Avihu sought to perform a unique service., thought by them to be pleasing to Hashem, many others through our history have sought to alter, to change their service, and not always seeking l'Sheim Shemayim.

There were those who sought to "cut corners" in their Avodah in a effort to achieve a perception of being "like the nations."  There are many among our Jewish brethren who would deny Hashem's control of the world and seek to tailor Torah and their Jewishness to fit the ways of the nations, rather than accepting Hashem's reishut (command) over the world.  They perceive that if only they didn't look and act Jewish or keep Jewish customs, that then they'll be loved the gentiles.  

Many of our Jewish brethren, the so-called "new Jews" make no bones of their disdain for Yiddishkeit, for their Jewishness.  They revile the dress and the ways of both their Eastern European predecessors and their brothers who maintain aspects of the derech today in Eretz Yisrael, yet  they themselves act despicably, on a larger level by discrediting their own right to live in Eretz Yisrael, feigning "bleeding hearts" for "poor, downtrodden palestinians<sic>" by the Chillul Hashem performed for their own agendized self-interest, self-enrichment, i.e. "Bulldozer Arik" before the altar of the avodah zora of Shimon Peres (and his puppet, Menachem Mazuz) or of foreign powers.  

For those Jews, it's an imperative to revisit the Mitzri memory (or lack thereof) of Yosef and to contrast the dialogue between Haman Y'machsh'mo and Ahasuerus -- Haman's top 10 reasons for seeking the annihilation of the Jews as found in Daf Yud Gimmel (page13), amud(side)Bet, with the contemporary Nuremberg Laws of Nazi Germany.  Neither Haman nor Hitler Y'machsh'mom, made any distinction between the Religious or Secular Jew.  A Jew is a Jew is a Jew, period.  You might change your name, or try to adopt some other religion, or intermarry.  But, in the end, you can't run and you can't hide from from the fact that You are a Jew.  So might we as well start being, internalizing and acting Jewish?

And so, chas V'Chalila that Jew bodily expels Jew, regardless of whether that Jew doing the expelling is a Jewish soldier, policeman, or Arik Sharon himself by his own decree.  For the goyim, the Arabs, the American Government, the EU -- they are all splitting their sides with disdainful laughter at what Sharon has done and are anticipating apparent imminent demise. 

But wait, Purim is past, but if there is anything that we learn from Purim, it is miracles.  And this week is also Parsha Parah -- the Parah Adumah (the red cow), the cure, the rectification of the avodah zora of the Golden Calf. 

If we stand up as a Kiddush Hashem, and do what we're supposed to do -- to stand with our brothers in Gush Katif and the Shomron as we, my friends and donors in both Ramat Beit Shemesh and Beit Shemesh as well as in the US, have done by dedicating two Sifrei Torah in Gush Katif in the past nine months, the most recent being placed at the Chasdei Shimrit Community Center/Outreach Center in Neve Dekalim which helps to rescue many Jewish neshamot, HaKodesh Borchu will rise up and orchestrate the defeat of this evil.

So here we have it, the other half of the "Tzav-Shemoneh" duo; wherw Aaron and his sons were called, for all time, to put into practice that which they learned from Moshe Rabbeinu. Today,  "Tzav-Shemoneh" is the call to divine duty of all of B'nai Yisrael; true, believing Jews, be they Dati or Lo Dati; those possessing even a "pintele yid", who feel in their hearts, their bones, their guts, that their fate and the fate of Eretz Yisrael is inseperably linked.  It is "Tzav-Shemoneh" to all who hold that Eretz Yisrael is the Jewish Land and not the land "...of all it's people."

And IY'H, may it be that come this Rosh Hashana, that we pray thanks to Hashem for keeping our Brethren in Gush Katif and the Shomron in their homes and neighborhoods and away from the horror and Chillul Hashem of expulsion.

In the merit of B'Ezrat Hashem, our collective unity -- "Adat B'nai Yisrael", our emunah and actions, and the proper motivations for them, may we ALL be zocha to have our Tefillah reach Shemayim, unimpeded, ungarbled.  And in recognition that if we all emulate Aaron HaKohen and his consistency and constancy of Avodat Hashem, may we be zocha, as Rabbi Moshe Ungar would say each Thursday evening at his Gemara Shiur back in Philadelphia, in "the old country", B'Ezrat Hashem, to demand, to compel HaKodosh Borchu to do "what he wants to do, to bring us the Moshiach and the Ge'ula  Shlaima, "bimhayro b'yameinu -- speedily, in our time." 

May we see an end to low, dirty politics, political equivocation, perfidy and false cheshbonot; freedom and long life in Eretz Yisrael for Jonathan Pollard and special merit for our brethren currently subject to police harrassment, political interrogation and political persecution. 

May we see the "Yom Hashem Al Kol HaGoyim" Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol!!

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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.