Chukkat-Balak 2009

Meyer Shwarzstein

At the Library Minyan we’ve been discussing the topic of Kohanim and I’d like to add to that discussion.I was also asked to weave in someone related to American history as today is July 4^th –I’ll get to that by the end.

In today’s first parsha, Aaron dies.What kind of person was Aaron?

Upon his death, “The whole community knew that Aaron had breathed his last.All the house of Israel bewailed Aaron thirty days.”[1]This is in contrast to what is said when Moshe dies. “And the B’nei Yisrael bewailed Moshe in the steppes of Moab for thirty days.”[2]Rashi points out the differences – all the house of Israel mourned Aaron – the men and the women.When Moshe dies, it specifies “B’nei Yisrael,” meaning some of the people – and, b’nei may mean only the sons of Israel – not the women.

Why would Aaron be missed more than Moshe?

The first time we hear of Aaron is when God speaks to Moshe at the burning bush.Moshe is apprehensive about speaking to Pharaoh and after they argue, God concedes, “There is your brother Aaron the Levite.He, I know, speaks readily.Even now he is setting out to meet you, and he will be happy to see you.You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth…he shall speak for you to the people…”

Before He even asks him, God knows that Aaron would sign on.In fact, once Aaron asked, Aaron silently obeys.These became repeating patterns; Moshe argued with God and Aaron was always ready to serve – even if it meant reporting to his younger brother.How many biblical first-born sons were ready to do that, let alone without complaining?

There are few moments when we hear Aaron’s own words in the Torah.

In front of Pharaoh, God demonstrates miracles using Aaron’s staff. Fifteen times in the Torah Hashem speaks to Moshe and Aaron but we never hear Aaron respond.It’s not like he doesn’t know how to talk.After all, talking is his job.

In the battle with Amalek, Moshe must hold his hands in the air all day.Aaron quietly helps support Moshe’s hands while Joshua leads the battle.[3]

When Moshe is on Har Sinai, the people turn to Aaron for leadership[4].Here he does speak; after listening to their pleas.He appeases them and they create the golden calf. Furious, God threatens to “blaze forth and destroy” the children of Israel, but Moshe argues with Him, and God renounces his punishment.

Later, Aaron’s sons, “Nadab and Abihu, bring an “alien” fire, which God had not enjoined upon them and a fire came forth from the Lord and consumed them…”[5] Here the Torah makes special note of Aaron’s silence.Sometimes ones silence can be loud.

Shortly thereafter, God singles out Aaron and his surviving sons for service.He warns Aaron of the perils of making mistakes.“Drink no wine or other intoxicant, you or your sons, when you enter the tent of meeting, that you may not die…”[6] We know that there were 18 Kohanim Gedolim during the first temple, but over 300 during the Second Temple, even though the Second Temple stood only 10 years longer than the first.According to the Gemara, four of the Kohanim Gedolim together served for 141 years; leaving 279 years for the rest.So, the vast majority of the 300 Kohanim Gedolim served, on average, less than a year each.[7]This was life-threatening work.

When Miriam and Aaron speak against Moshe because of the Cushite woman Moshe married and they complain about Moshe’s position, Miriam[8] is punished with Tzara’at, a disease.This is the last time we hear Aaron speak.He pleads to his brother on their sister’s behalf.Miriam is punished but is Aaron?Well, if Aaron is as compassionate as the rabbis say, it would likely have been a greater punishment for him to witness his sister’s suffering, than to have been struck by the disease himself.

Korah[9] and his co-conspirators revolt; and God strikes out with a plague.Here Aaron responds quietly, but with action. He grabs fire from the altar, some incense and runs to the midst of the congregation.He doesn’t know what will happen.He just has to do something.Among the people, he stands between the dead and the living and the plague is checked.[10]Rashi describes Aaron’s action as one who “seized the Angel of Death “against its will.”

This was a silent bravery.But sometimes silence betrays complicity.In today’s parsha, the Children of Israel complain, “…there is not even water to drink.” God instructs Moshe to “order the rock to yield its water.”Instead, Moshe says, “’Listen, you rebels, shall we get water for you out of the rock?’ And Moshe raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod.”[11]

There are many commentaries about this as this action is the reason Moshe isn’t allowed to enter the land of Israel.Moshe let his anger get the better of him – not with the same old stiff-necked people but with a new hopeful generation that didn’t experience the Exodus.Perhaps he was the wrong leader for the time.Worse yet, Moshe didn’t credit God for the miracle – Moshe said “shall WE get water for you” and not “shall God get water for you.”

Where was Aaron during all this?He stood beside his brother and he didn’t say a word.He could’ve have corrected his brother.Maybe he didn’t’ want to embarrass him.But by being quiet, he validated Moshe’s claim.Perhaps that’s why God too keeps him from crossing the Jordan.

Aaron didn’t speak much, but he certainly seemed to listen. In all of these cases, Aaron puts other people’s needs before his own – for better or for worse. That’s probably “all the house of Israel” mourned him upon his death.

Rashi described Aaron as one who chases peace, even between a man and a woman.Perhaps God himself relies on Aaron as a peacemaker – for He tells Aaron, “…discharge the duties connected with the Shrine and the altar, that wrath may not again strike the Israelites.”[12]Who’s wrath?God’s.So by doing their duty, Aaron and his descendents keep the peace between God and the people.

In our discussions here, other questions have been raised about Aaron and the Kohanim:

Because they are given a special status, are they better than the rest of the people? In the Mesillat Yesharim, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato says regarding the Kohanim; "You think I am giving you authority? I am giving you servitude!"The Kohanim are not given a special station, they’re glorified servants.

In Temple times, a Kohen didn’t have a choice in his job.If he wanted to be a farmer, a trader, a builder, an artist – he would have to make that his hobby, for they had to wash, lift, inspect, sprinkle, and butcher for a people who liked their meat.Ashes had to be taken outside the camp.The blood had to be washed from the floor.When their service was needed, they had to say “yes” and they couldn’t hire someone else to do the job for them.

Why is it hereditary? Shouldn’t anyone be able to be a Kohen?As the commentary in Etz Hayim notes, heredity “… kept the priesthood free of ambitious outsiders who would seek it for personal advantage.” [13]

Then again, I wonder if someone else would want the job.This inheritance came with many rules – Kohanim can’t marry whomever they choose.They can’t attend funerals.They can’t come in contact with impurity, which effectively shut Kohanim off from contact with common life.Other than a Nazir, a Kohen is probably as close as Judaism comes to having an ascetic.And the Nazir is compared to a Kohen.

Avodah, service, was their domain. God suggests that we should be a nation of priests – perhaps that is to teach us that despite the sacrifices one needs to make, a career in service as an ideal.

Perhaps we are taught to grant Kohanim honor so we learn to treat others with honor: soldiers who fight our wars; men and women who tend to our gardens and our children, farmers who grow our food and those who tend us when we’re sick.

Several months ago, I met an extraordinary woman, an immigrant from the West Indies.Every day, she sits in a cancer ward watching the call lights outside the patients’ rooms and tending quickly to their needs.She knows these patients, as many come for repeated visits.Every day, she goes to work knowing that she may have to lose somebody that day.Every evening she goes home unsure about the coming day.She told me with tears in her eyes that “goes home every night and prays for everyone.”Her compassion is endless.

These are the kinds of people that we should honor.

The rabbis note that when one gives honor, the one giving the honor is the one who actually receives it. Perhaps that’s why we’re taught to give honor to the Kohanim – not because they’re better, but because those who do a community’s work, day-in-and-day-out and, by honoring them, we honor ourselves.

From Aaron we also learn modesty.He always spoke God’s words or for others.We are reminded of this each time the Kohanim say the priestly blessing.They cover up their identities, and we respect their modesty by not looking.

There is one more facet of the roles defined for Moshe and Aaron in the Torah that bears mention, and it is particularly relevant today.

Moshe was a great leader and our greatest prophet, but he was not given the ultimate task of carrying out the daily religious duties.Aaron had that job.In the architecture of a perfect Jewish society, the political leadership and the religious leadership serve each other, and are separate. Unlike so many civilizations that preceded and followed, the political leadership that preceded the monarchy wasn’t hereditary.One would have thought that a son of Moshe would become the next leader.But Joshua got that job.And what about Moshe’s sons?They and their descendents were instructed to support the work of Aaron and his descendents as part of a permanent Temple bureaucracy.

The Kohanim are often called kadosh.This is often translated as holy, but the English word holy doesn’t have quite the same meaning as kadosh, which also means “separate”.Separate from what?From the ordinary, from the impure and from politics.

From this distinction, one may deduce that the seeds for the idea of separation of church and state are sewn into the fabric of the Torah.When the founding fathers of the United States rejected a society that unified political and religious leadership, they also adapted a precedent that existed thousands of years ago.Thankfully, this allowed for an acceptance of Jews in this country, and eventually came to justify an acceptance of a wide variety of cultures and orientations.

Jews were not only accepted, but also embraced.John Adams famously said, “I will insist the Hebrews have[contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations ... They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more and more happily than any other nation, ancient or modern.”[14]

The first order given to Aaron and his sons was to keep the Menorah lit.Perhaps this was the kindling required for us to become a “light unto the nations”.

May respect of service be a continued part of our contribution. May we honor those who quietly do their duty and appreciate those not in the news who are integral to making this the great country that it is.