Dan's Interpretation of Parsha Acharei Mot (Leviticus 16-18)

This week’s parsha, Acharei Mot, is probably the one that I have read and thought about the most since I got into reading the Torah at the beginning of this semester. An excerpt was even one of the texts that I brought for the chevruta thing we did during the kvutza seminar. I think this parsha has a lot to do with the ideology Habonim holds as a movement, even though it might not look like that at first glance. 

The content of Acharei Mot is made up of of three sections: 1.) The instructions of how to commemorate Yom Kippur (Lev. 16) 2.) The rules of slaughtering animals (Lev. 17) and 3.) The laws of prohibited sexual acts (Lev. 18). In this interpretation I will be focusing on the first and the third section. 

The fist thing that I want to look at are the instructions for Yom Kippur observance that G-d gives Moses to tell Aaron regarding goats (and not just because I love goats!). Part of the ritual for commemorating Yom Kippur involves Aaron taking two pure goats, and drawing lots to determine which one will be sacrificed for G-d and which one should be sent to Azazel (believed to be some sort of demon that dwells in the the desert, but no one knows for sure because this is the only time it ever shows up). Aaron is supposed to kill the one that was designated for G-d as the second goat is “standing alive before the LORD” (Lev. 16:10). The part of this ritual that I find most interesting is what Aaron is to do with the goat for Azazel. He is commanded to place both of his hands on the goat’s head and confess and tell it all of the “iniquities and transgressions” that the Israelites’ had committed so that all of those sins will be transferred onto the goat’s head (Lev. 16:21). The goat was then sent into the wilderness along with all the Israelites’ sins. 

I think this practice means several things. One, is that it means that everybody needs to take responsibility for and recognize the sins that they have committed. Two, it means that the community should be open enough about their sins so that one person can tell all of them to this goat. Three, it emphasizes the need to get beyond the sins and actions of our past, to have their memory be available, but their remnants gone to the wilderness. I think these things are very important to take into account when dealing with communities, whether our school communities, our kvutza community, or our machane community. We need to be able to take responsibility for the actions we take, be open about them, especially to the people they affect, and then move beyond them together. I think it is really cool and somewhat beautiful that in Judaism we have a specific time to remember to do this, specifically Yom Kippur.

The second part I would like to look at is the section containing the sexual laws. This section is filled with gems like “Do not commit incest with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, since this is a sexual crime against yourself,” (Lev. 18:10) and the infamous “Do not lie with a male as you would with a woman, since this is a disgusting perversion” (Lev. 18:22). And then it talks about the land of Israel vomiting the Jewish people out of the land if they commit these acts. Pretty harsh. But where I find the meaning, context, and power of this section is at the beginning and the end. At the beginning, it says “Do not follow the ways of Egypt where you once lived, nor of Canaan, where I am bringing you,” (Lev. 18:3) and at the end it says “Do not let yourselves be defiled by any of these acts. It was as a result of them that the nations that I am driving away before you became defiled” (Lev. 18:24)

To me, when I hear these lines, the first thing that pops into my head is our friend A.D. Gordon! Remember when he said we shouldn’t use others’ milk to make our butter? That is essentially what I feel like the Torah is saying here: In order to be a distinct people, you need to create your own culture. If the people of Israel keep on doing everything that the other nations did, what would make them distinct? How can we have responsibility if we don’t choose to act differently than the culture we want to separate from. While I recognize that the specific laws that are specified here are not the most constructive or tolerant as we would like them to be, I think it is important to look past the content and see the intention behind what G-d is saying to the Jewish people: you need to create your own culture.

Shabbat Shalom!