The Message of Passover and The Why of Corona

                     “You shall be holy, because I am holy"

(Leviticus 11:45)

Nisan 23, 5780/April 17, 2020

Parashat Shemini, "And it was on the eighth day." (Leviticus 9:1) At last, the great day has arrived - the day of the inauguration of the Divine service in the desert Tabernacle! We have been anticipating this day, (the first day of the month of Nisan, exactly one year after G-d commanded Israel to begin reckoning the new moons), for many weeks in our Torah study. We recall that the Tabernacle was completed on the twenty third day of the month of Adar, as recorded in the closing verses of Exodus, and that the next seven days, known in Hebrew as yamim miluim, were spent training the kohanim - Aharon and his sons, in their new task as Temple priests. And now, following their intensive training, a new world is about to begin. One could say that G-d created the world in six days and on the seventh day He rested. And now, on the eighth day - the world is created anew, as fire comes down from heaven to ignite the very first offering upon the altar, "and all the people saw, sang praises, and fell upon their faces." (ibid 9:24) G-d's Presence has arrived!

Amidst all the excitement a tragedy occurs. "And Aharon's sons, Nadav and Avihu, each took his pan, put fire in them, and placed incense upon it, and they brought before HaShem foreign fire, which He had not commanded them. And fire went forth from before HaShem and consumed them, and they died before HaShem." (ibid (10:1-2) What happened and why? Aharon's two eldest sons, Nadav and Avihu, were righteous men. Our sages even considered them to be of a higher spiritual level than either Moshe or Aharon! They had been at Mount Sinai and they had partaken, with Moshe, Aharon and the elders, in the unparalleled vision of "the G-d of Israel, and beneath His feet was like the forming of a sapphire brick and like the appearance of the heavens for clarity." (Exodus 24:10) These were not privileged sons out on a joy ride. These were men of such caliber that G-d included them by name in the aforementioned visionary experience. But G-d's word is G-d's word, and His "dos" and His "don'ts" are incontrovertible, and no more so than in the Holy of Holies of the holy Tabernacle, where G-d's Presence is limitless and infinite. What compelled the brothers to do what they, as kohanim, had been explicitly trained not to do?

The answer lies in what we have already touched upon. Nadav and Avihu were of a superior spiritual caliber. They had been nurtured on a dazzling, kaleidoscopic vision of G-d. Their very souls longed for an impossible nearness to G-d. They rushed, as it were, into G-d's very Being, just moments after G-d's Presence entered, as never before, into man's world. In a way, they achieved what they were after. But as G-d told Moshe, "man shall not see Me and live." (ibid 33:20)

Torah is not insensitive to the question this poses, and immediately addresses it. "And HaShem spoke to Moshe and to Aharon, to say to them: speak to the children of Israel, saying: These are the creatures that you may eat among all the animals on earth... " (Leviticus 11:1-2) The list of pure and impure animals, those which may be eaten and those which may not, takes Nadav and Avihu'sobsession with being subsumed by G-d's Being, and redirects it. Man, to be holy, that is, to be attached to and a part of G-d, Who is holy, needs be diligent concerning what he consumes, or subsumes into his or her being. We are what we eat, but we are holy if what we eat is that which G-d has commanded us to eat. Want to be holy? Be mindful of the world around you in which G-d has chosen to rest His Presence. Want to be holy like G-d is holy? Just as there are rules and regulations concerning the offerings that are to be brought to G-d's altar, we have been given rules and regulations concerning what we are permitted to ingest.

"For I am HaShem Who has brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your G-d. Thus, you shall be holy, because I am holy. This is the law regarding animals, birds, all living creatures that move in water and all creatures that creep on the ground, to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, and between the animal that may be eaten and the animal that may not be eaten." (ibid 11:45-47)

It may sound less exhilarating and intoxicating than storming G-d's Sanctuary with fire pans, but we are commanded to live by the Torah, not to die by it. Adhering to a dietary regiment prescribed by G-d allows us to bring G-d's Presence into our lives, and into the nutrients that nourish and power our body and soul, on a daily basis. It is no coincidence that the day that "fire went forth from before HaShem and consumed the burnt offering and the fats upon the altar," (ibid 24:9) is the same day that we are instructed what and what not to eat. "For I am HaShem Who has brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your G-d. Thus, you shall be holy, because I am holy."