Shemini ~ death, the omer and renewal

Baruch A. Levine (as explained by R. Shai Held)

The accepted interpretation of Lev. 10:3b is that Aaron remained silent, or was stunned, upon learning of the sudden death of his two sons, Nadab and Abihu... The verbal root d-m-m, “to be still”, is morphologically indicated in Biblical Hebrew, so that initially, there is no problem in reading Lev. 10:3b in the accepted way. Both the comparative and the inner-biblical evidence to be adduced presently will, however, suggest an alternative rendering: “—and Aaron mourned.” This rendering identifies in Lev. 10:3b a homonymous Hebrew root, d-m-m, “to moan, mourn.” Understood in this way, Lev. 10:3b means that Aaron reacted in the customary manner; he moaned or wailed and was about to initiate formal mourning and lamentation for his two lost sons.

Once this line of interpretation is considered, the commentator will read the remainder of Leviticus 10 differently. Immediately after the bodies of the two dead sons of Aaron had been taken outside the encampment for burial (vv. 4—5), Moses issued instructions to Aaron and his two remaining sons not to engage in formal mourning, by bearing their heads and rending their garments, lest they meet death and arouse God’s wrath against the Israelite community. Rather, the entire house of Israel was to act in their stead, and mourn (the verb b-k-y, “to weep”) the untimely death of the two priests (vv. 6—7). Mourning, even over a son or brother, would have defiled Aaron and his two remaining priestly sons at a time when their purification was just taking hold. Read in this way, Leviticus 10 actually achieves a higher degree of symmetry.

Orah Le-Hayyim

"On the eighth day Moses called to aaron, his sons, and the elders ..." (Lev 9:1)

We need to understand the current relevance of this, for whatever happened happened.

The verse seems to hint that Israel at that time were considered penitents (lit. masters of return/repentance), since the Tabernacle came to atone for the sin of the Golden Calf. The penitent first has to repair his character; this refers to the seven emotions. These are parallel to the seven days of preparation (cf. Lev 8:33), during which they were to remain in the sanctuary, separated from all others, in order to repair those seven character traits. Then they could come to the World of Penitence [binah, the eighth sefirah from below, called teshuvah]. On the eighth day they reached the eight world, starting from below, the realm of teshuvah, since all had been repaired.

"Moses called to Aaron and his sons." A person has to serve God with the entire heart. Our sages took this to mean "with both urges, the good and the evil" (mBerakhot 9:5). But how do we serve God with the entire heart.

A person who has perfected all those qualities has to take care not to become proud on account of that. You always have to remember your sins; "my sin is forever before me" (Ps. 51:5). You should always remain modest as taught: "Be of exceedingly humble spirit" (mAvot 4:4) But if you are too humble in your religious life, saying: "How could I possibly do a mitzvah or pray to God for something, a lowly person like me?" such humility is unacceptable. On the contrary, our sages taught "Do not consider yourself evil" (mAvot 2:13). They also said "You should always see yourself as though an entire world depended on you. Both you and the world are half guilty and half innocent. Do one good deed ..." (bKiddushin 40b) By this they meant to increase the importance of our good deeds in our own eyes, so that we do them with desire and enthusiasm. We can do enough in our service that we bend the entire world toward merit!

Now the first of these qualities, being humble in your own eyes, come from the good urge. But the second, when you think your own acts, words and thoughts are important, comes from the evil urge. This is what it means to serve God with both urges ...

The Omer

During the 49-day period between Pesach and Shavuot, called Omer, the days are divided up into seven groups of seven "midot" (personal and universal character traits) into which these seven were divided into seven "midot" again, creating 49 permutations.

The seven midot are:

The idea is that each of the above midot must be able to coexist with the others, for if they are used in total isolation they represent unbalance and chaos. For example, Chesed, kindness and giving, must coexist with Gevura, restraint and boundaries - two opposites. Giving freely and completely means that someone will end up burned out or poor. A mature person knows that, to live well, those opposite desires and drives have to be balanced. This is also required for holiness in this world. Our Sages have designated the seven weeks of counting as an opportunity for correcting the various defects of character by stressing these seven special qualities, examining them and making plans to correct our course.

Books that can help in this: Rabbi Simon Jacobson - The Spiritual Guide to Counting the Omer; Rabbi Yael Levy - Journey Through the Wilderness: A Mindfulness Approach to the Ancient Jewish Practice of Counting the Omer; Rabbi Min Kantrowitz - Counting the Omer: A Kabbalistic Meditation Guide