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Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with the eighth day (yom hashmini) of the inauguration ceremony for Aaron and his sons to begin officiating as kohanim (priests). In a dramatic appearance of Divine power, a fire streams forth to consume the offerings on the altar, and the Sh’khinah, the Divine Presence, comes to dwell in the Sanctuary. In their enthusiasm, Aaron’s two elder sons, Nadav and Avihu, rush forward to offer aysh zarah – “strange fire.” They are consumed by the fire and perish, yet Aaron remains silent in face of his tragedy. Moses and Aaron subsequently disagree about a point of law regarding the offerings, but Moses ultimately concedes that Aaron is in the right. The laws of kashrut are given, identifying the animal species permissible and forbidden for consumption: land animals may be eaten only if they have split hooves and also chew their cud; fish must have fins and scales; a list of non-kosher birds is given, as well as a list of the kosher insects, which include four different types of locusts.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶֽל־אַהֲרֹ֗ן קְרַ֤ב אֶל־הַמִּזְבֵּ֙חַ֙ וַעֲשֵׂ֞ה אֶת־חַטָּֽאתְךָ֙ וְאֶת־עֹ֣לָתֶ֔ךָ וְכַפֵּ֥ר בַּֽעַדְךָ֖ וּבְעַ֣ד הָעָ֑ם וַעֲשֵׂ֞ה אֶת־קָרְבַּ֤ן הָעָם֙ וְכַפֵּ֣ר בַּֽעֲדָ֔ם כַּאֲשֶׁ֖ר צִוָּ֥ה יְה–וָֽה׃ Moses said to Aaron: “Come to the altar and do your Sin Offering and your Elevation Offering, atoning for yourself and for the people; and then make the offering for the people and atone for them, as the Divine has instructed… - Vayikra (Leviticus) 9:7 Parshat Shmini
There’s a story of Rabbi Simha Bunam, that once he came upon his disciples learning Torah as they feasted together. He was pleased to see them engaged in fellowship and spiritual conversation, but he also noticed that there was a slight air of tightness and over-seriousness among them. “Let me tell you a story” he said to them. “Once there was a businessman who wanted to find a new enterprise that would be lucrative. He researched and discovered that making and selling mead would be very profitable, so he set off to a neighboring city and found a master mead maker to train him.
“He spent months learning the craft, and when he finished being thoroughly trained, he headed back to his home, brewed up his first batch, and invited many people from the town to come to his mead-tasting party. But, when the guests tried it, they winced in disgust. So, he headed back to the city and demanded a refund from the mead maker. ‘Did you do exactly as I taught you?’ inquired the master. ‘Yes of course.’ They went over each step carefully, and confirmed that the businessman had done everything correctly. “‘And besides all that, you of course added the honey, right?’ asked the mead maker. ‘Honey? No – you didn’t tell me that.’ ‘You fool! You mean I have to tell you to add the honey??’” No matter how well intentioned our work in the world is, it will be bitter if we don’t do it with good heartedness – we have to “add the honey” so to speak. This is so obvious, and yet many people feel guilty taking the time for the inner work of “adding the honey” through meditation. There is a teaching in Pirkei Avot of Raban Yohanan… אָמַר לָהֶם, צְאוּ וּרְאוּ אֵיזוֹהִי דֶרֶךְ יְשָׁרָה שֶׁיִּדְבַּק בָּהּ הָאָדָם. רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר, עַיִן טוֹבָה. רַבִּי יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אוֹמֵר, חָבֵר טוֹב. רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אוֹמֵר, שָׁכֵן טוֹב. רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן אוֹמֵר, הָרוֹאֶה אֶת הַנּוֹלָד. רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר אוֹמֵר, לֵב טוֹב. אָמַר לָהֶם, רוֹאֶה אֲנִי אֶת דִּבְרֵי אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן עֲרָךְ מִדִּבְרֵיכֶם, שֶׁבִּכְלָל דְּבָרָיו דִּבְרֵיכֶם. He said to them: Go out and see what is the straight path that a person should cling to. Rabbi Eliezer says: A good eye. Rabbi Yehoshua says: A good friend. Rabbi Yosi says: A good neighbor. Rabbi Shimon says: Foreseeing that which will be born. Rabbi Elazar says: A good heart. He said to them: I see the words of Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh (as better than) all of yours, because your words are included in his.
Cultivating a lev tov – “good heart” – that is, a conscious, generous presence in all that we do, is foundational for being of service in the world. There is a hint in our opening pasuk: First it says: וְכַפֵּ֥ר בַּֽעַדְךָ֖ וּבְעַ֣ד הָעָ֑ם – atoning for yourself and for the people… Then it says: וְכַפֵּ֣ר בַּֽעֲדָ֔ם – and atoning for them… Strange – first it mentions atoning both for oneself and the people, but later it only mentions the people; the self is “atoned” for once, but the people are “atoned” for twice. Why is that? Because when you work on yourself, in doing so you are also serving others: וְכַפֵּ֥ר בַּֽעַדְךָ֖ וּבְעַ֣ד הָעָ֑ם – atoning for yourself and for the people… This is because in order to be of better service to others, we need to cultivate the vessel – our minds and our hearts. The act of working on ourselves is represented by the s’firah of G’vurah, meaning “strength.” This is the inner strength needed to persist in your avodah, your meditation, prayer and other disciplines. G’vurah is saying “no” to the agendas of the world in order to prioritize your own avodah. G’vurah can appear to be selfish, and it is – but it is a kind of selfishness that is actually of benefit to others as well. Then, after you have worked on yourself: וְכַפֵּ֣ר בַּֽעֲדָ֔ם – atone for them… Meaning, then go out and serve in the world with a purified heart. This is represented by the s’firah of Hesed, meaning “lovingkindness.” Hesed, the act of saying “yes” to the world, is the underlying point – not G’vurah. Hesed is for its own sake, good in and of itself. But if it is not balanced with G’vurah, with saying “no” to the world in order to replenish our inner “honey,” we will burn out, and our Hesed will suffer. In other words, Hesed and G’vurah cannot be separate from each other; they are two sides of one reality. And when they do become separate, that is the beginning of dysfunction and ultimately of evil: G’vurah without Hesed is aggression, violence and hate, while Hesed without G’vurah just gives and gives, ultimately destroying itself. In this auspicious time of counting the Omer, may be remember to balance Hesed with G’vurah, nourishing our outward work with regular, commited inner work. Amein.
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Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with God instructing Moses to command (Tzav) Aaron and his sons regarding their duties and rights as kohanim (priests) who offer the korbanot (animal and meal offerings) in the Sanctuary. The fire on the altar must be kept constantly burning at all times. Upon the altar, the Olah (Ascending) offering is burned completely. Also burned are the veins of fat from the Shlamim (Peace offerings), the Hatat (Sin offering), the Asham (Guilt offering), and a handful of grain that is separated from the Minkhah (Meal offering). The kohanim eat the meat of the Sin and Guilt offerings, and the remainder of the Meal offering. The Peace offering is eaten by the one who brought it, except for specified portions given to the kohen. Aaron and his sons remain within the Sanctuary compound for seven days, during which Moses initiates them into the priesthood.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיַּעֲבִ֧דוּ מִצְרַ֛יִם אֶת־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בְּפָֽרֶךְ׃ Egypt enslaved the Children of Israel with crushing servitude… - Sh’mot (Exodus) 1:13
One question we might ask about this verse is: why does it need to emphasize that slavery, עַבדוּת avdut, is פָֽרֶךְ farekh, crushing servitude? Why isn’t it not enough to simply say “slavery,” since we already know that slavery is crushing servitude? There are three hints in the verse, but first, let’s look at a teaching from Rabbi Simkha Bunam on a different verse:
וְהוֹצֵאתִ֣י אֶתְכֶ֗ם מִתַּ֙חַת֙ סִבְלֹ֣ת מִצְרַ֔יִם... I will bring you out from underneath the burdens of Egypt… - Sh’mot (Exodus) 6:6 Rabbi Bunam expounded, “Why is it that the word סִבְלֹ֣ת sivlot, ‘burdens,’ is used here rather than עַבדוּת avdut, bondage? It is because Israel had grown accustomed to bondage. When God saw that they no longer felt what was happening to them, God increased their suffering, causing the עַבדוּת avdut to become סִבְלֹ֣ת sivlot, the bondage to become a felt burden. Only then could the desire for freedom be born, and redemption from bondage begin.” Now we can see why both words are used in our opening verse: וַיַּעֲבִ֧דוּ va-avidu, enslaved, and פָֽרֶךְ farekh, crushing labor: because the state of being in bondage had to first be felt as crushing before there could be the motivation to get free. Why is this important? Because this is not just a story of literal slavery from 3,500 years ago; it is a story about our own inner state, right now. Ordinarily, our inner state tends to be one of avdut, of bondage, or slavery, not to an external oppressor, but to our own thoughts and feelings. The problem is, we don’t notice it – not because we don’t suffer, but because we don’t look to our inner state as the source of our suffering. Instead, we focus on the many real external problems, problems that we need to address for sure, but that are not ultimately the source of our inner avdut. But to recognize this, the avdut has to become farekh; inner bondage must be felt as a burden – and this is the aim of meditation. We can see this in the meaning of the word farekh, the root of which means to break apart or fracture, hinting that when we are enslaved by our thoughts and feelings, there is a fracturing of Reality Itself as it appears in our consciousness. Consider: in this moment, everything is as it is, and your consciousness is meeting whatever is appearing – your sensations, your feelings, your perception of what’s around you, whatever thoughts are arising, and so on. As long as consciousness simply meets what is without resistance, notice: there is a Wholeness to Everything. But, when something unpleasant arises, whether external or internal – it doesn’t matter because all experience arises as perceptions within your field of consciousness – there is a tendency to contract and resist the unpleasantness; that’s the first hint in the verse, the word farekh – the tearing apart of Reality, because now there’s me over here, resisting that over there, even though the “over there” is an impression in my own consciousness; it is, in fact a form of my own consciousness. This move from Wholeness to an opposing position, to me over here resisting that over there, implies a kind of contraction, because now rather than simply being the space of awareness within which all experience happens, you become a finite entity, a “me,” resisting “that.” And this brings us to the second hint in our verse, the word Mitzrayim. Mitzrayim means Egypt, but it comes from the root tzar which means “narrow,” probably because Egypt was built along the narrow Nile river. But metaphorically, it means that to be in Mitzrayim is to be in a narrow state; the native and full spaciousness of your consciousness gets contracted into a fixed point of view: the limited “me” called “ego.” And what is the basic activity of ego? Ego tries to control things in order to recover the Wholeness it lost. That’s the basic hallmark of ego – that feeling of incompleteness, and with it, the impulse to change things in order to be “okay.” But that egoic feeling of incompleteness comes from the contraction into a Mitzrayim state that happens spontaneously in reaction to farekh – reactive suffering that breaks apart the Wholeness of the moment. And this brings us to the third hint in the verse, vaya-avidu, which means “enslaved.” The arising of suffering, represented by farekh, which causes the contraction into the ego, represented by Mitzrayim, is obviously not something we consciously choose; it seems to just happen to us: וַיַּעֲבִ֧דוּ מִצְרַ֛יִם אֶת־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל – Egypt enslaved the Children of Israel… In other words, give yourself a break, you don’t do it on purpose! That contraction just seems to grab us and enslave us against our will. And yet, on a deeper level, יַּעֲבִ֧דוּ ya-avidu is a form of the word Avodah, which means work or service not in the negative sense of slavery, but in the positive sense of prayer and meditation – that is, spiritual practice. The hint here is that the experience of suffering and the spiritual bondage that comes from it has a purpose: to motivate us toward avodah, toward a path of liberation. Because it’s only from experiencing and getting caught in all kinds of spiritual bondage, and then finding your own way out of the bondage, that you can grow in the spiritual sense. A baby in the womb is already whole and one with all being, but it’s not liberated, because there’s no appreciation of the Wholeness. In order to know liberation, you have to first taste bondage. The danger, of course, is that the experience of bondage, however it manifests for us, can seduce us into a negative attitude so that we become resigned to our stuck-ness. That’s why the Passover Haggadah quotes the Torah verse: לְמַעַן תִּזְכֹּר אֶת יוֹם צֵאתְךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ: That you remember your going out from Egypt all the days of your life… - D’varim (Deuteronomy) 16:3 This verse urges us to constantly remember that our basic nature is freedom, reminding ourselves every day, and even every night as Ben Zoma interprets in the Haggadah: כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ הַלֵּילוֹת All the days of your life means, the nights as well. How do we do this? The practice for remembering the going out from Egypt in the day and the night is the chanting of the Sh’ma, which affirms God as the Unity behind All Being, so that we may consciously and intentionally receive the fullness of the moment as it is, and in doing so, recover out Essential Wholeness. Again and again we get pulled into the farekh – that involuntary suffering of contracting into the egoic Mitzrayim state, but if we remember that Hashem Ekhad, that Reality is One, we can relax the inner contraction and find our way back into harmony with the moment. There is a hint in our parshah: It says the priest should take the Minkha – the “Gift offering” of grain… וְהִקְטִ֣יר הַמִּזְבֵּ֗חַ רֵ֧יחַ נִיחֹ֛חַ אַזְכָּרָתָ֖הּ לַיהֹ–וָֽה... …and burn its remembrance on the altar as a pleasing fragrance to the Divine…” The image of burning has two main aspects. On one hand, fire creates light and warmth, which are necessary and pleasurable. On the other hand, fire burns and destroys – it can be dangerous and painful. In other words, fire is a metaphor for life itself: beautiful, pleasurable, and also incredibly painful at times. But if you offer your attention unconditionally to whatever is present – וְהִקְטִיר הַמִּזְבֵּחַ v’hiktir hamizbeiakh – your awareness will burn of the altar of the present moment, רֵ֧יחַ נִיחֹ֛חַ reiakh nikhoakh – your connection to this moment in the face of both pleasure and pain is like a pleasing aroma, אַזְכָּרָתָ֖הּ לַיהֹ–וָֽה azkarata Lashem – bringing the remembrance of the Divine Oneness from which everything arises and into which everything eventually vanishes. This Oneness of Reality is mirrored by the microcosm of our own consciousness, represented by the sefirah of Hokhmah, the boundless open space of awareness within which all thought, all feeling, all creative intelligence arises.
חָכמָה
Hokhmah: Wisdom “Creativity, Spacious Awareness” רֵ֘אשִׁית חָכְמָה יִרְאַת יְה–וָה שֵׂכֶל טוֹב לְכָל־עֹשֵׂיהֶ֑ם תְּהִלָּתוֹ עֹמֶדֶת לָעַֽד׃ Reisheet Hokhmah Yirat Hashem Sekhel Tov L’khol Oseihem Tehilato Omedet La-ad Reisheet Hokhmah Yirat Hashem The beginning of transcendent, spacious consciousness is awe of Existence; Wise understanding comes to all who practice this – Praises to That which stands forever! - Psalm 111:10
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