By Talia Spear

In this week’s Parasha the Jews in the desert continue to learn the how-to’s and ins and outs of the mishkan. The section itself actually covers a lot. From the particular way you sacrifice for different things, ritual purity and impurity, the basis for the laws of Kashrut, to the responsibility of community leadership, the struggle to do what’s necessary in the face of grief, and the ability to be flexible in certain situations.

For a very brief summery – Moses gathers all the Jews to the tabernacle to witness Gods divine presence. God instructs Moses to instruct Aaron and his sons to perform the correct procedure for different sacrifices (sin, burnt, well-being). God’s presence descends upon the sanctuary through a display of fire. Two of Aarons sons make an unauthorized offering and get consumed by divine fire. Moses tells Aaron and his other two sons to not grieve in the normal way because they still have priestly duties to attend to for the rest of the peoples. Moses learns that one of the sacrifices wasn’t done correctly and was about to get mad but then was ok after Aaron explained the situation. God then gives the commandments of Kashrut. He names all animals that are not kosher or not slaughtered according to correct procedure as impure and will make things that come into contact with them impure.

What really stands out to me are the boundaries set during this chapter and the human role engaging with them. Aaron follows VERY specific instructions for the different sacrifices; two of his sons even die because they didn’t follow the rules properly. It doesn’t say why they did it just that they brought an unauthorized incense offering. Maybe they were so moved by the moment they couldn’t stop themselves – and their intentions had been to honor, while God perceived it as a sign of disrespect. They weren’t given the space to explain why they did, they were just consumed by flame. But a few lines later Moses found out that not all was done correctly with a completely different sacrifice and while at first he

was going to be a little angry, it ended up being fine that Aaron had made a judgment call/mistake (he had a lot going on that day what with blessing the entire people of Israel and his sons dying). Maybe the priests were killed because the first offering came totally out of left field, while the second sacrifice was close enough to being right that nobody was harmed, but that’s not an easy line for me to walk. There were a number of clear rules and boundaries but the flexibility around them was different.

As leaders in the movement, with our peers, in society we all have to make judgment calls. We don’t always know what the right decision is and the parameters laid out for us don’t always make sense for the moment or situation we are in; but there are other rules or boundaries that need to be hard lines. It is a leader’s job to see the shades of grey, black, and white and navigate often difficult situations to solutions.

Another example is Moses telling Aaron and his remaining sons that they couldn’t grieve in the normal way for they had to continue doing their priestly duties for the good of the community. In some ways this is a huge request on Moses’ part and a huge sacrifice on Aarons. Jewish law around grieving is also very particular and creates a process for the bereaved to go through. Moses determined, and Aaron agreed, the right course of action at the moment was to continue the ritual for the good of the entire people rather than to give space for Aaron to grieve for his sons. I think this situation also asks the question of what does it mean to be responsible for a community.

These questions of responsibly, leadership, and community can be applied in so many ways to our current lives. We

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