I have read some of Rav Ginsburgh’s books and even went to a Shiur last year, all of which have taught some really amazing things in amazing ways, but there was something particular about sunday evening – probably sparked by my interest in the mathematics combined with the topics  – that made the experience somewhat exhilarating.

At the Shiur I took notes, which are rather scattered, but I want to try to convey what I learned from the notes and memory as best as I can.  You can probably access a video of the shiur in a couple weeks from now on http://www.inner.org.

Ok, so I mentioned that the shiur is on the number 137.  Here’s a wikipedia link about this constant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-structure_constant.  (Regarding the number being actually fractional/irrational, see here: http://www.inner.org/responsa/leter1/RESP13.HTM)  The number 137 is also the Gematria of Kabbalah (קבלה) and I as continue through the notes we will Bezrat Hashem find some other amazing significance in Torah.

The first topic of the Shiur was called “The Jewish Nation of Womanhood”.  I arrived during the end of this one, but here’s what I have:

In the Torah there are only two places where חוה (Chava – Eve) is mentioned by name.  By contrast אדם – the first man – is mentioned numerous times.   The first Chava in the Torah is Bereishis 3:20 – “The man called his wife Eve, because she had become the mother of all the living”.  The next place is four verses later at 4:1 – “Now the man had known his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain saying, ‘I have acquired a man with Hashem’”.  Rav Ginsburgh pointed out that the two places that the Torah refers to Chava relates to Leah and Rochel.  He also pointed out that the number 137 has to do with a going from one to two (my notes are not very clear).

Kabbalah is a feminine concept.  We already said the Gematria of קבלה (Kabbala) is 137, but it’s value by taking the sum of it’s ordinal numbers (ק=19, ב=2,ל=12,ה=5) is 38, which is 19+19.  We also find the Gematria of חוה (Chava) is 19 and since it appears twice in the Torah is also 19+19=38.  Here is already an association between Chava and 137 as well as Kabbala relating to Womanhood.

Taking this further (and where for me is very exciting), if you take all of the letters from the first mention of Chava to the second mention of Chava, you will find that there are 256 letters:

256 Letters From Chava to Chava

The very fact that there are 256 letters is something significant since that is 16².  In Kabbalah, square numbers have a particular significance.  Since it is a square number, it is possible to lay out the letters in 16 rows of 16 letters each as in the above picture.  Keep in mind this picture is of all of the letters in the Torah from the first mention of Chava to the last mention of Chava so this is Hashem’s word telling us something about the essence of Womanhood.  Taking the 16 letters from the top-right corner to the bottom-left and adding up the values of the letters (חילםויחשעלוהמהה), we get 613 – the number of Mitzvos in the Torah.  Now, where’s 137?  Taking each corner letter (חיהל) as well as each middle letter (אהחחםיוו – there are two middle letters for each row/column since there are an even number of letters in each), we find that the sum of the Gematrios of these letters is 137.

I wish I could say more about the concept of Leah and Rochel relating to all this, but I am not remembering the complete concept.  I think when the video is posted on inner.org the interested reader of this blog post should find it.

The next topic was titled “Marital Harmony & Peace in the Home” and Rav Ginsburgh spoke about Shidduchim (marriage matches) and the Isha Maskelet (intelligent woman).  He introduced the topic saying that there are three places in the Tanach where there is a mention of a Shidduch that was explicitly stated to be through the hands of Heaven.  He pointed out that while we understand that Hashem is control of everything, an area where it is particularly visible is in the case of marriage matches.

The three places in Tanach are:

• Torah – the marriage of Yitzchak and Rivkah – a kosher marriage
• Nevi’im (Prophets) – the marriage of Shimshon (Samson) and the Philistine woman – not a kosher marriage, but still from Hashem (as a means of taking revenge on the Philishtim)
• Ketuvim (Writings) – a match regarding an Intellectual Woman from Hashem (ומה’ אשה משכלת) – even better than the 1st (Yitzchak and Rivkah) – an Intellectual Woman is a gift from Hashem – you cannot inherit an intelligent woman – The Posuk in Mishlei 19:14 says “A house and wealth are an inheritance from fathers, but an intelligent woman comes from Hashem”.

First of all, what does it mean “Intelligent Woman”?  Rav Ginsburgh explains: What more is there to Intelligence than Torah and Mitzvos?  The answer is: To be able to convert every mundane act into service of HaKadosh Baruch Hu.  There is no more secular.  To see Hashem is in everything and is everything.  A marriage includes some mundane activities, but the Intelligent Woman views everything as service of Hashem.

Let’s examine the term describing an ideal marriage – אשה משכלת.  First of all אשה (woman) has a Gematria of 306, which is divisible by 3, so 306=102*3.  The number 102 is the Gematria of אמונה (faith) as woman is related to “three pillars of faith”.  The whole phrase אשה משכלת is 1096, which is divisible by 8.  1096/8 = 137.  So there is 137 again – relating to the intelligent woman and the concept of the ideal marriage.  Once again this concept of a spectral line split into two as two partners in marriage are considered two parts of a whole.

At this point he began to discuss more about the number 137.  He pointed that that 137 is the 34th prime (counting 1 as the first prime).  He pointed out that there is no way to know the specific number of a prime (i.e. the 34th) from the prime itself.  He then went on to explain a fascinating idea: An electron can be a particle that is in orbit around the nucleus of an atom.  The nature of an electron can be best described by the Hebrew word אופנים(Ofanim – literally “wheel” as in the wheels of the Divine Chariot).  The Gematria here is once again 137 (Although my notes do not say, I assume this is referring to the singular אופנ).  He then talked about the word אגל to refer to something that is both a “drop” and a “wave” – alluding the the particle/wave duality concerning photons – and so אגל can refer to a photon.  The Gematria of אגל is 34 – as in 137 being the 34th prime.

I have in my notes that the Rav talked about how “There is no absolute zero…” and although I would like to elaborate on that, I do not remember what he said specifically.

I have four more pages of notes where things get very interesting using the digits of 137 as a series, and the expanding universe, and how 137 relates to the concept of a king…  I am going to stop for now and Bezrat Hashem continue some time.

In the meantime, there are some very nice articles at the link below:

http://www.inner.org/torah_and_science/mathematics/index.php

http://www.chofetzchaimusa.org/requestfromshmuelborger.mp3

I explained that there are four different species each which represent different types of Jews and they all come together and this is the unity that is expressed by this special Miztvah. One of them remarked he remembered something like this from Hebrew School. As I took out the Esrog one of them said “We actually have a review session to get to”. I said “this will only take about 30 seconds”, but they decided not to do it anyway. I wished them a Chag Samaech and we put away the Lulav bundle and Esrog and kept on our way.

I said to Rifka on the way back that I feel like I should have just handed them the Lulav and Esrog to do the Mitzvah and tried to explain stuff later.  She pointed out that what I was trying to explain to them was possibly the reason why this was OK.  The Midrash explains that each of the species represents a different type of Jew – the Jew who knows Torah, but does not do Mitzvos, the Jew who does Mitzos but does not know Torah, the Jew who knows Torah and does Mitzvos, and the Jew who does not know Torah and does not do Miztvos.  The lesson in bringing them together is that without one, there cannot be the Mitzvah!  The Jew who does not know Torah and does not do Mitzvos needs to be there!

This was the point.  These Jews did not do the MItzvah of the taking the Lulav and Esrog, and yet that was OK, because we NEED them as much as they need us and we all need eachother in the service of Hashem!  Sure, it would have been neat if I could get them to do this Mitzvah, but just by them being around and identifying as Jews – by being able to wish them a Chag Samaech – we are connecting and doing something very important.

There was an article I noticed recently on IsraelNN.com that some Jews, in defiance of a “religious” Sukkah built in a “secular” neighborhood to try to Mikarev them, this community built two “secular” Sukkos.  In defiance, they built Sukkos!  Baruch Hashem!

We need all Jews to be together in unity!

It then came up that having such a crown would denote that the person has a great deal of honor. It was brought up that honor could be a negative trait, as it says in a different place in Pirke Avos “Jealousy, lust, and the pursuit of honor remove a person from the world.” It was then suggested that honor could also have a good place and was proven by the following:
In Parshas Balak, when Bilaam HaRasha set out to curse the Jewish people, the Gemara tells us that he felt capable of doing this because he knew the moment of the day when Hashem has a particular wrath such that a curse would be a effective. Bilaam had assumed that he would wait for this particular moment, then say his curse to the Jewish people, and it would work! But, to Bilaam’s dismay Hashem did not have this moment of wrath at this particular moment of the day that Bilaam went to curse, so rather the curse was a blessing.

The Gemara asks “How long was this moment” (using the word “Rega” for moment). The Gemara answers the amount of time that it takes to say the word “Rega”… about a second.

As explained by Rabbi Wagensberg, Tosefos ask “What kind of curse did Bilaam say in the amount of time that it takes to say ‘Rega’?!” And Tosefos answer that he said “Kalem” – כלמ – which means “destroy them”. Then Tosefos ask “So if he didn’t say ‘Kalem’”, but rather he blessed them instead, what did he say?” And they answer that he said to them “Melech” – מלכ – which is “king”.

Now, I understand why “Kalem” is an effective curse. He wants to curse and he says “destroy them!” It makes sense. But what kind of blessing is “Melech”?! How does calling a nation “king” bless them?

The answer that Rabbi Wagensberg gives is that we should look at the words themselves. The word Kalem is an acronym for the words “Kaved, Leib, Moach”. This is in contrast to the word Melech which is the same letters in reverse order giving “Moach, Leib, Kaved”.

The curse would have been that Bilaam would be saying “Kalem”… these Jewish people operate under “Kaved, Leib, Moach”! That’s “liver, heart, brain”, or what they represent “honor, emotion, intellect.” In other words, he would be saying “They are lead by their honor, which causes their pride to swell influencing their emotions, which in turn affects their intellect.” This is a curse as we are supposed to strive to be in control of our emotion and not the other way around, G-d forbid. The other way is “destruction” – “Kalem”. Instead he blesses us though, saying “Melech” that we are (or at least should strive to be) a people who put our intellect first and that controls our emotions, which in turn leads to us having some degree of honor from the right choices that we’ve made.

I would suggest here that the “Kalem” kind of honor – the honor that influences emotion, which in turn influences the intellect is what drives a person from the world. It “destroys” somebody, G-d forbid. The “Melech” type of honor however is something that is good as it comes as the natural consequence of person who makes choices based on their intellect, which controls the desires of their heart.

The question still remains “Why Melech?” Why say the word “king”? I understand that the acronym tells us something, but what does a literal king have to do with this state of putting one’s intellect before one’s emotion? Recalling the beginning of this post where we understood that a person who wears a crown is a person who has recognizable honor, it is noteworthy that the person who literally would wear a physical crown is the king – the Melech.

And so this is a reason for the allusion of a king – that in order that we should G-d Willing fulfill this blessing we should use our intellect to decide how and where our emotions should be directed, leading to us attaining this good honor that will make it so that we may collectively wear the crown of Malchus, which should G-d Willing usher in the Moshiach who will be the Melech of Israel. After all Bilaam prophesied a great deal about the time of Moshiach as well…

How long will the wicked –  O G-d – how long will the wicked exult?  They speak freely, they utter malicious falseood, they glorify themselves, all the workers of iniquity.  Your nation, G-d, they crush, and afflict Your heritage. The widow and the stranger they slay and the orphan the murder. (Tehillim 91:3-6)     

This is from the Shir Shel Yom for today, wednesday. Today in Israel two bodies of Jews were returned in coffins in “an exchange” for the release from prison of some wicked individuals, one of whom explicitly murdered an orphan and others. Today he returned from Israeli prison to his wicked nation where he was greeted as a hero with big banners and celebration. The leaders of this nation called the day to be a national holiday and people not only rejoiced over the return of the killers, but also of the sorrow of the Jewish people on the very same day to have our hopes crushed and find our two boys coming back in coffins.

Getting past the blame, poor planning, the sadness, and the anger, we are left with the question of how G-d Who only does good could have such a situation in world? All these “Gam Zu LaTova” stories – like how somebody missed some big opportunity for something, felt all sad, and then said “It’s all for the good” and sure enough it worked out – don’t seem to even closely fit in with this. This is a nation – millions of G-d’s creations – rejoicing a loss for the Jewish people and a murderer who perpetrated this! Making it a national holiday! The Neshamos of these two Jewish boys have already been taken, and even if we were to destroy every member of this nation it would not bring them back, nor would it take back these bad feelings. Likely, it would leave us feeling empty. Of course, we await their return with the coming of Moshiach and the Jewish bodies who will come back from the ground full of life, but still – where is the justice?

We say every morning (or if not, should have a goal to eventually do so) two Berachos before the morning Shema. The first one is Yotzer Ohr –  יוצר אור. The full text of the opening line of this Blessing is Blessed are You, Hashem, our G-d, King of the Universe, Who forms light and creates darkness, makes peace and creates everything. Rabbi Shimon Shcwabb זצ”ל discusses this Beracha:

He makes the two harmonize, and He creates the totality of the universe.
Chazal tell us that [...] the wicked are considered dead even in their lifetimes, because they see the continuous cycle of sunrise and sunset, light and darkness, and yet they do not bless G-d for creating this cycle (Midrash Tanchuma, Beracha 7). The marvel of our solar system, with its sunrises and sunsets, is such that if one does not see the work of the Creator behind it, he is considered a rasha. Such people consider this cycle as merely a predictable statistic that can be found in the daily newspapers. They give no thought to the  יוצר of this אור, Who established this cycle of light and darkness. It has nothing to do with them personally. These reshaim are considered dead, because they fail to see HaKadosh Baruch Hu, the living G-d, at work when they go to bed while it is dark, and awaken to find that the light of the sun has, once again, illuminated the earth.

This is in start contrast to Bnei Yisrael who are alive, and recognize that HaKadosh Baruch Hu is the cause of the daily cycles of light and darkness: [...] But you who cling to Hashem, your G-d, you are all alive today (Devarim 4:4). Despite the fact that we know exactly when to expect sunrise and sunset, this miraculous cycle affects each one of us personally to the extent that we enthusiastically thank HaKadosh Baruch Hu for it daily with the berachah of יוצר אור וברא חשך, as if this were the first time we had witnessed this marvel.

It is noteworthy that the [...] statement by Chazal that [Once is to make reference to daytime at night and nighttime by day. (Berachos 11b) refers not only to the physical aspect of sunset and sunrise as it affects the whole world; rather [what the quote literally says] means “the measure of light”, which symbolizes the middas harachamim> [, mercy] of HaKadosh Baruch Hu Who makes the sun shine and awakens the world. Similarly, darkness, [means literally] “the measure of darkness,” which represents the middas hadin [, strict justice] of HaKadosh Baruch Hu. [...]

Now, let us examine the berachah itself. The words are taken from Yeshayah (45:7) The One Who forms light and creates darkness, Who makes peace and creates evil; I am Hashem, Maker of these. The chapter in which this pasuk is found has given many headaches to those cynics who do not believe in the veracity of the Neviim. It opens with the words Thus said hashem to His anointed one, to Koresh (ibid. v.1). Hashem is sending a message to His “anointed one,” Koresh (Cyrus)), who lived about two hundred years after these words were spoken by Yeshayahu HaNavi. Therefore, these people conveniently invented a “Deutero-Isaiah,” a second Isiah (Yeshayahu), who has to have lived during the time of Koresh, at the beginning of the Bayis Sheni (the Second Temple), which was some two hundred years after the “first Isaiah”, and the chapter was supposedly written at that time. The scoffed at the old Jews were so naive that they actually believed that Yeshayahu was a real navi with real prophetic powersl that he was not a faker like the other prophets, that he was actually was told by HaKadosh Baruch Hu that there would be a kind Koresh who would live two hundred years later; and that he would have a major influence on the world, especially on Jewish life. Or else, they explain away the prophecy by saying, “Koresh”, which means “shepherd” in Persian, could refer to another king as, in fact, there were many kings who were called Koresh.

However, in truth, this pasuk is the nevuah (prphecy) of the one and only Yeshayahu HaNavi, who had a prophetic vision about the famous Perisan king, Koresh, who would live about two hundred years later, at the time of the beginning of Bayis Sheni. And it was this Koresh who issued a proclamation encouraging the Jews to begin rebuilding the Beis HaMikdash: Thus said Koresh the king of Persia: Hashem the G-d of heave has given unto me all the governments of the world, and He issued a command directing me to build for Him a House in Yerushalayim which is in Yehuda (Ezra 1:2).

Koresh had been told by the Jews of his time that there had been a Jewish prophet, named Yeshayahu, who lived about two hundred years before him, and that he had foretold, in the Name of Hashem, that Koresh would be chosen as G-d’s instrument to rebuild Yerushalayim and the Beis HaMikdash, and to bring the Jewish people back from Galus Bavel (Yeshayahu 45:4-8).

Continuing his prophetic message to Koresh, Yeshayahu says, All of your power and success and dominion over the world is for the sake of My servant Yaakov and Israel My chosen one. He is told here that the reason that HaKadosh Baruch HU gave him so much power in the world was for the purpose of rebuilding the Beis HaMikdash and bringing the Jews back from Bavel to Eretz Yisrael.

The pasuk continues [...] And now we come to the pasuk on which our berachah is based: The One Who forms light and creates darkness, Who makes [them co-exist in harmonious] peace and creates evil; I am Hashem, Maker of these.

To put this prophetic message in its proper context, and to understand the words, Who creates evil, we must know that this was spoken against a background of “multideism”, when the whole world believed in a multitude of gods – thousands of them. There were “demigods”, “male-gods”, and “female gods”. In fact, all of nature had been deified. Then prior to the time of Yeshayahu, a Far Eastern philosopher by name of Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, as the Greeks called him, postulated a dualistic religions system in which he reduced all these gods to only two: a god of light and a god of darkness. The god of light was the one who gives light, health, happiness, success, and victory, while the god of darkeness was responsible for all evil, sickness, death, and all other negative events in the world. This was already considered religious progress, and was later adopted by Koresh and the Persian Empire.

[...] Given this “dualistic” religious belief that prevailed at the time of Koresh, we now understand the meanign of the language of our pasuk. Yeshayahu sends his prophetic message to Koresh in the Name of the One and Only G-d, HaKadosh Burach Hu, Who is the source of everything in the world. Light and darkness, good and evil, all emanate from Him; I am Hashem and there is no other; other than Me there is no G-d (Yeshayahu 45:5). And it is this One G-d Who is commanding him to build the Beis HaMikdash and bring the Jews back from Bavel to their land.

This concept that HaKadosh Baruch Hu “creates evil” is not easy to understand . Unfortunately, we in this century have experienced more evil than many past centuries combined. It is very hard even for one who believes [with complete faith] to images that is HaKadosh Baruch Hu, [creator of evil]. [...] Since there is no other power but HaKadosh Baruch Hu, then it is He Who made [the] mind and heart [... of the Nazis ...] continue to function while they tortured and murdered our people in the ghettos and concentration camps. Who made Hitler’s ימ”ש brain work? Who made the lungs of the Haman breathe air? Isn’t it the same HaKadosh Baruch Hu Who gives us life and makes he sun shine Who is also the [creator of evil]? How is this possible?

The answer to this age-old question, as paraphrased in Tehillim (92:8) When the wicked bloom like grass and the iniquitous blossom, has not been revealed to us. This secret remains with HaKadosh Baruch Hu – at least in this world, in which He has revealed to us only segments of His creation, but not the totality of it. The answer to this question is not part of His revelation to the human world.

The Anshe Knesses HaGedolah, who composed the berachah of יוצר אור did not want to use the word “and creates evil” [as the Posuk says], so they subsituted “and creates everything”, meaning “He creates everything including evil”. While we do not understand this, at least not in this world, we believe be’emunah sheleimah that it is the same One G-d, Who created everything, be it good or bad. Eventually, l’asid lavoi, we will lead the world in understanding this heretofore unknown explanation. That future time is described: The World to Come is unlike this world. In this world , upon [hearing] good tidings one says Blessed [are You, Hashem, Our G-d, King of the Universe,] Who is good and does good; and upon [hearing] bad tidings one says: Blessed [are You, etc.], the true Judge. But, in the World to Come, everything will be understood as being only good (Pesachim 50a). At that time, even happenings that we consider as bad or unfortunate in this world will be clearly understood as being kulo tov. This is not yet our world; it is the world that will exist after the coming of Mashiach.
(Rav Schwabb on Prayer pg. 260-263)

Please G-d, let these words of Torah be a strength to us as we make our way to this time, may it speedily come in our days!

What is the Animal Soul?  An example could be noted when a horse goes to drink some water.  When the horse gets to the water it stomps it’s feet.  Why does it stomp it’s feet?  Because it sees it own reflection and thinks that there is another horse there trying to get the very same water that it is trying to get.  Once the horse starts drinking it stops stomping it’s feet because it realizes that there is enough water to “share” with it’s reflection.

 When a person acts in such a way – to feel frustrated at the prospect of having to share something that may seem limited, even if once they start sharing they realize there is enough and stop being frustrated – it is apparently the Animal Soul.  Something nice to keep in mind to keep our Animal Soul in check.  We have to use the G-dly soul to overpower this inclination and be instantly giving without frustration.

 There is another concept that is brought down in Zohar Chadash on Shir HaShirim that the name of our nation, Yisrael –   ישראל stands for Yesh Shishim Riboi Otios LaTorah  ”There are 600,000 letters in the Torah.”  There are also 600,000 Jewish souls, all of which were at Mount Sinai and so we have allusions to the idea that every Jewish soul is like a letter in the Torah and just like a Torah is incomplete without even one letter, so too are the Jewish people incomplete if there is even one Jew who is not fulfilling their purpose in life.

 This idea is echoed in this week’s Parsha which starts the Book of Numbers, which our rabbis identify with the same title Chumash HaPekudim.  Although the word Pekudim does mean “countings”, it also refers to remembering and accounting.  All this with the fact that the final count was close to 600,000 teaches us about taking accounting of our own purpose in life so that we remember what we are to do, because every one of us counts.  (from Rabbi Wagensburg’s shuir – very very summarized)

 Now, there are many questions that could be raised.  I want to ask three of them:

1.  Aren’t there actually 304,805 letters in the Torah?
2. Why does it not just “work out” that there were exactly 600,000 people in the head count in the desert?  What does the “extra” 3,550 in the count teach us?
3. Why is the head count such a nice round number?  To emphasize this question further, note that the totals for each tribe were as follows: 
   • Reuven 46,500
   • Shimon 59,300
   • Gad 45,650
   • Yehuda 74,600
   • Issachar, 54,400
   • Zevulin 57,400
   • Ephraim 40,500
   • Manasseh 32,200
   • Benyamin 35,400
   • Dan 62,700
   • Asher 41,500
   • Naphtali 53,400

   Each one of the tribes, except for Gad had a number that is rounded to the nearest 100 (or perhaps these were the actual counts).

  
Roee suggested a possible answer to the third question, that in says in the first verse that the LEGIONS of the children of Israels’ heads were to be counted. The word there is עדת. The Gemara in Berachos 21b explains that an עדה refers to at least 10 people. Roee suggested that here perhaps the word עדת refers to 10 groups of ten, or groups of people who are standing ten by ten.  I like this answer a lot.  This could potentially explain why all the tribes appear to be “rounded” to the nearest 100… except for Gad, who’s count is 45,650.  So, we are left with a question still.

As for the first question, this article discusses that in pretty nice detail with well-cited information and is quite interesting to read. One idea that I’ll bring over, as I heard from Rabbi Wagensburg’s shiur for this week, is that each letter consists of other letters.  So for instance, an Aleph consists of a Vav and two Yuds.  So, for every Aleph in the Torah, we count a 3 instead of a 1.  The following is found at the above wesbite, aishdas.com: 

http://www.mevaseret.org/mmy/searchshiurim.php?shiur=247 

In the first portion, in Chapter 9, I first noticed the mentioning of several different types of offerings: burnt, peace, meal, and sin offerings. Jeff enlightened me on the types and I believe we counted four or five. The sin offering, of some importance in this parsha, could either be the offering brought regularly to the temple to atone for the community’s sins or an individual sin offering brought by a repentant individual for a sinful act. The sin offering is done on Rosh Hodesh and all festivals in addition to committed sins. We also see that the parsha’s timeframe starts on the eighth day of what the previous parsha had started as a time period, though I can’t tell what this was. In 9:5 the word “took”, as the English translation reads, from “And they took what Moses had commanded”, seemed to evoke a physical object being taken to the people. Jeff clarified that this meant in fact the materials to be sacrificed, whereas I had thought it meant the instructions themselves. The altar mentioned in 9:9 has horns, on which Aaron ceremonially smears with blood. I asked where these horns came from, and Jeff replied that these are a product of the Golden Calf destruction. The horns symbolize the warning to anyone who considers practicing idolatry, and serves as a reminder of the dominance of God.

At Chapter 9, verse 24, we come to a crucial part of the parsha that evokes much rabbinical debate. Although this is the last verse of chapter 9, it is separated into the next portion as the first verse, and the next verse starts with chapter 10. Jeff explains that this unexpected grouping is supposed to be a clue as to the importance of this verse and the ones it is grouped with, 10:1 and 10:2. These three verses seem to constitute a triplet, with an example of a good sacrifice, an ambiguous one, and a bad one. In 9:24, the sacrifice is carried out as intended and is cause for rejoicing. In 10:1, the reason for the action performed in the sacrificial fire is not known – it could result from a good intention, but is still out of place and was not commanded, resulting in Aaron’s sons’ death, as the resulting “bad” sacrifice. All three verses contain the mention of fire, and so they mirror the good and bad qualities of fire itself. In the verse immediately after this series, God’s declaration is ‘I will be sanctified through those near to Me, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” Does this imply that glorification can be good or bad, since “all the people” can include sinners? What are the deeper meanings of glorification and sanctification here? Is there a meaning for physical distance as well as spiritual distance?

An interesting verse, 10:6 carries many implications. Why are Aaron’s remaining sons not allowed to mourn in the traditional way, by tearing clothes and leaving hair uncut? The verse seems to imply that God’s anger will be invoked if they do this, and one possible explanation is that their priestly duties may be perceived as coming first before personal matters. If the entire community needs a spiritual leader through which God can maintain a spiritual connection, perhaps this duty is so important that a break in the precise chain of command and execution of daily spiritual actions is inexcusable to God, even to mourn one’s own brothers. Moses is especially compassionate as he consoles the sons with the idea that all of Israel will mourn together with them, as long as they do not do any mourning.

Verses 10:8 – 10:11 contain a mention of God speaking directly to Aaron – does this happen elsewhere in the Torah? The instruction to abstain from intoxication before entering the Tent of Meeting turns into a more meaningful statute to constantly distinguish between holy and profane, clean and unclean. Why does the specific example of intoxicating wine lead to such a profound concept? Is there something more fundamental about intoxication that pertains to this matter? We also see an important command for Aaron – to “instruct” in the statutes of Moses. Easy to miss, this important corollary is a fundamental underpinning of every religion – education. Without dissemination of teachings, the knowledge and ideas that were so perfectly formed by God and received by Moses will still not reach their intended audience.

In verses 10:16-10:20, we see that Moses has investigated a sacrifice-related duty that Aaron’s surviving sons were supposed to perform, and has found that their sin offering was completely burnt without being consumed, as it should have been. Is Moses’ trust in Aaron’s sons shaken, such that he decides to check up on them to make sure they are performing the duties of the Tent of Meeting and the priesthood correctly? Aaron counters, seemingly to defend his son’s decision, by pointing out that their sons experienced a great deal of grief that day. If he were in their shoes, he points out, would he have not done the same thing, and would it have pleased God to consume the sin offering with a tragedy having happened? Moses is “pleased” at hearing this, as the next verse goes. Can we speculate that Moses is happy to see that Aaron is using his judgement to evaluate the priestly duties, and take into account what will please God, rather than blindly following rules? After this, Moses seems to decide that it is time to more specifically formulate many rules, and proceeds to give a large body of what will become Kashrut. Aaron’s statement may have shown Moses that the people of Israel had progressed to a point that more specific rules were needed and general ideas were not enough to coordinate daily life. The maturity of Israel at this point is such that its people can now start applying the concepts God has given to Moses to daily life, to avoid mistakes such as those committed by Aaron’s sons.