Achrei Mos

Torah Portion - Achrei Mos
Written by d fine
In an ostensibly irrelevant pasuk (16:34) regarding the Yom Kippur service, we are told that Aharon ‘did just as HaShem had commanded Moshe.’ Why does the Torah need to tell us this? Rashi points out that this pasuk is singing the praises of Aharon, who did exactly as he was told by Moshe. Moreover, the Ohr Hachaim adds that our pasuk is also praising Moshe for passing over to Aharon the exact instructions that HaShem gave to him. But this all seems a bit funny; why would we have thought that Moshe and Aharon would have diverged from the instructions that HaShem gave them as to how to do the Yom Kippur service; who knows what is spiritually beneficial more than HaShem Himself? Is it really a praise for them to have done what they were expected to do anyway? Perhaps an answer is Moshe might have thought to add more atoning features to the Yom Kippur service, for example more davening or a late-night Torah-learning session. Thus, the Torah sings the praise of Moshe in that he kept rigorously and strictly to what HaShem told him to relay to Aharon. As for Aharon, his praise is that he resisted the temptation to try and get close to HaShem (albeit in an illegal way) by going into the kodesh kodashim any other time during the year, as well as the fact that Aharon performed the Yom Kippur service with total humility; he did not do it with any feeling of his own greatness, but instead did it purely for HaShem’s glory and honour.

Torah Portion - Achrei Mos
Written by d fine
On my own Rav Pinkus used to borrow a pasuk from our sedra (16:17) to answer an age-old Shabbos question. In the pre-Kiddush shalom Aleichem sing-song, we end off by telling the angels to ‘go in peace.’ Now this doesn’t seem to be pleasant etiquette at all - we have just welcomed the angels in and a minute later we are asking them to leave? In certain places in England you’d be shot for such poor manners (joke). Rav Pinkus used to answer via Rav Avigdor Miller’s principle that Shabbos matches the Beis HaMikdash (e.g. they both have special clothes, candles, song, and easy death penalties, amongst other similarities). Now since the highest point of the avodah in the Mikdash is the Yom Kippur ketores service, when ‘no man is to be in the ohel mo’ed when he comes in to atone…’ (16:17) - for HaShem mandates a direct connection between Him and the Kohen Gadol (acting on behalf of Klal Yisrael), so too on Shabbos does HaShem want a direct connection and relationship with us - with no angels in the way. So the angels are asked (politely) to ‘leave in peace’ so that we can ‘live with HaShem’ alone, and experience that direct relationship with Him that is part and parcel of who we really are.

Torah Portion - Achrei Mos
Written by Daniel Sandground
Parashas Acharei/Kedoshim – Animals, Relationships and Relationships with Animals: Another double header Torah reading this week with Parashas Acharei and Kedoshim. Majority of Parashas Acharei deals with the Yom Kippur service with the Torah taking us through the steps in which we tried to gain repentance on this holy day... from the selection of the offerings to the order in which they were slaughtered and in what way, down to small details such as what the Kohen Gadol was to wear and where each part of the service took place (which as you can imagine, has embedded in it important halachas amongst deep symbolism). We are then given the laws regarding the slaughtering of animals outside of the Tabernacle which flows on to (no pun intended) the prohibition against eating blood and its related laws. Parashas Acharei concludes with a large section on the various forbidden relationships, ending with a reminder of the holiness of the land... which we shall discuss in more detail. The second reading this week, Kedoshim
Read more...

Torah Portion - Achrei Mos
Written by Rafi Jager
Do not perform the practices of the land of Egypt in which you dwelled, and do not perform the practices of the land of Canaan to which I bring you, and do not follow their traditions" (Leviticus 18:3). This is a rather peculiar commandment. Why are we commanded to keep our practices different from only the inhabitants of these two lands? Rashi, explains that these two were the most abominable of all nations. How then does this apply to us nowadays? Canaan and Egypt don't even exist anymore (as they did in the time of the Torah). How can we keep this mitzvah today? Mesillat Yesharim (The Path of the Just), Rabbi Moshe Chayim Luzzatto quotes the fundamental dictum of our sages that one of the ways to lead a saintly life is by "putting a fence around the Torah". By keeping a fence around
Read more...