ACHAREI MOT_LEVITICUS XVI:1-XVIII:30

The first transcendent event that the Torah recounts is the disobedience of the couple: Adam and Chava. Both eat the fruit of the tree that God had forbidden. There are numerous questions about this episode that plays a fundamental role in monotheism. What was the nature of this fruit? The Torah does not mention the name of the tree from which it came. Therefore, the famous apple that Chava offered Adam is probably an incorrect statement. Moreover, if God did not want that fruit to be ingested, why did He place that tree within the Garden of Eden? 

It is argued that the reason for the disobedience was that Adam wanted to assert his independence and thus show that obedience to God’s word was the result of a reasoned personal decision. For this, he deserved recognition and punishment, even though he demonstrated his capacity to exercise free will. Perhaps the episode of primordial disobedience serves to teach, at the same time the possibility of Teshuvah, repentance. The Torah demonstrates that disobedience and sin have absolution through repentance. 

We read in the present biblical text about the disobedience of Nadav and Avihu, sons of Aharon, who used Esh zarah, a strange fire, in the process of offering the sacrifices. Their punishment was death, which according to tradition consisted of Serefat neshamah vehaguf kayam, their souls were cremated while their bodies remained intact. In this case, there was no room for teshuvah because the punishment was the maximum penalty. 

The sages of the Talmud offer several explanations about the real nature of the sin of Nadav and Avihu. According to some, they dared answer questions about faith in the presence of their teachers Moses and Aharon. According to a second opinion, they had started the sacrifices in a drunken state. A third response points out that they were prey to excessive pride because they considered that there was no woman worthy of their attention. Assuming any of these explanations, the punishment seems to be excessively severe. 

The next expression of the text might shed a light: Bekorvatam lifnei HaShem vayamutu, “they died when they approached God”. Closeness to God implies greater responsibility. Whoever assumes a position of leadership simultaneously runs the risk of making mistakes with more harmful consequences than in the case of an individual. 

The case of Nadav and Avihu is followed by a description of the Day of Forgiveness, Yom HaKipurim, which will offer the possibility of forgiveness after sin. At the same time, a novel idea emerges. The death of the righteous also has a therapeutic effect, it leads to self-evaluation in society. The sons of Aharon who had perished were Tsadikim with an impeccable trajectory who at a certain point in their exercise of ritual leadership ignored a Divine order. 

Harav Soloveitchik points out that the death of a Tsadik convulses society, produces widespread pain and sadness, while producing reflection and recollection: Teshuvah. From that moment, the 10th of Tishrei was set aside as a day in which the abstention from pleasure and food, to concentrate on a process of recreation of the emotional and spiritual makeup of the person. The entrance of the Kohen Gadol into the Kodesh HaKodashim, the holiest place in the Mishkan, along with fasting, was a kind of replica of the experience at Mount Sinai. Just as Moses was in the presence of God and did not eat and drink, in a similar way this Kohen had an intimate encounter with God in Yom HaKipurim.

MITSVAH: TORAH ORDINANCE IN THIS PARASHAH

CONTAINS 2 POSITIVE MITZVOT AND 26 BANS

1. Leviticus 16:2 The Kohen must not enter the Temple at any time (only for the Temple Service) neither can enter he who is not a Kohen
2. Leviticus 16:3 The Temple Service on Yom Kippur
3. Leviticus 17:3,4 Do not slaughter the offering ritually outside the Temple courtyard
4. Leviticus 17:13 Mitsvah of covering the blood (after the rite of slitting the throat) of certain animals
5. Leviticus 18:6 Not having pleasure with people who are forbidden to the individual
6. Leviticus 18:7 Not having relations with one’s father
7. Leviticus 18:7 Not having relations with one’s mother
8. Leviticus 18:8 Not having relations with the father’s wife, even if she is not his mother
9. Leviticus 18:9 Not having relations with a sister, be it his sister in any way
10. Leviticus 18:10 Not having sex with a son’s daughter
11. Leviticus 18:10 Not having sex with a daughter’s daughter
12. Leviticus 18:10 Not having sex with a daughter
13. Leviticus 18:11 Not having relations with the sister of a son, daughter of the same mother and of a different husband
14. Leviticus 18:12 Not having relations with one’s father’s sister
15. Leviticus 18:13 Not having relations with one’s mother’s sister
16. Leviticus 18:14 Not having relations with the brother of one’s father
17. Leviticus 18:14 Not having relations with the wife of the brother of one’s father
18. Leviticus 18:15 Not having relations with the wife of a child
19. Leviticus 18:16 Not having relations with a brother’s wife
20. Leviticus 18:17 Not having relations with both a woman and her daughter
21. Leviticus 18:17 Not having relations with both a woman and his son’s daughter
22. Leviticus 18:17 Not having relations with both a woman and his daughter’s daughter
23. Leviticus 18:18 Not having relations with 2 sisters while both are alive
24. Leviticus 18:19 Not having sex with a woman during menstruation
25. Leviticus 18:21 Do not dedicate any son or daughter to the idolatry of Molech
26. Leviticus 18:22 A man should not have relations with another man
27. Leviticus 18:23 A man should not have relations with animals
28. Leviticus 18:23 A woman should not have relations with animals