{"id":44888,"date":"2018-11-29T14:33:09","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T12:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=44888"},"modified":"2022-06-22T18:51:24","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T15:51:24","slug":"aarons-silence-aarons-comfort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/aarons-silence-aarons-comfort\/","title":{"rendered":"Aaron’s Silence, Aaron’s Comfort"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[620,607,484,606],"acf":{"old_id":"44888","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34285,"related_cahpter":"100","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"His sons have been taken \u2013 but how can he grieve?","content":"

As the dedication for the mishkan draws to a close, all eyes are fixed on Aaron. He steps forward to the altar, consecrating it with the opening offerings. With his hands lifted high, Aaron blesses the assembly; alone at first, then joined by Moses, his brother and guide. Fire erupts on the altar and the entire assembly perceives the divine presence. \u201cAnd all the people saw, and shouted, and fell on their faces.\u201d In certain respects, this theophany at the Tent is reminiscent of Sinai. A large crowd is in attendance; God\u2019s presence is sensed equally by all; God is, in some sense, seen by the crowd. But here at the tent, it is Aaron\u2019s moment; he, rather than Moses, brings the congregation close to God.<\/p>\n

At the height of Aaron\u2019s success– in the midst of the joyous celebration — Aaron\u2019s two sons, Nadav and Avihu, suddenly die. With all eyes locked on Aaron, his sons slip unnoticed to the altar, fire pans in hand, in search perhaps of their own, personal encounter with God. Whether their motives are pure or not, they act off script; a radical aberration to a choreographed ceremony. In response, they are taken swiftly, before God, by God.<\/p>\n

And Aaron, their father, trapped in his high priest garb, is silent. Some say that he is silent in stoic acceptance. He could have screamed out in horror, and no one would have judged. His voice would hardly have registered in the cacophony. He might have questioned or challenged God, as Job did. Did he suppress his paternal pain in service of the priesthood?<\/p>\n

Perhaps, as Leviticus Rabbah suggests, Aaron is silent — in measured relief — when he learns from Moses that his sons were, in fact, God-fearing. Moses explains: \u2018God had told me that His house would be sanctified by those near to Him, and I thought you or I would have the honor. Now I know that your sons are greater than the both of us.\u2019<\/p>\n

These words would seem to deliver a strange sort of comfort to a shaken, grieving father. But to a father whose eyes had been fixed on the altar, the people, and the presence of God, Moses\u2019 words restores his vision of his sons. He had not been watching them when they veered off script, but they were the same sons he had known and loved. Now he was free to grieve their deaths.<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":105918,"id":105918,"title":"-62b33a67e8538--62b33a67e8539lev10-old man grief lonely.jpg","filename":"62b33a67e8538-62b33a67e8539lev10-old-man-grief-lonely.jpg.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/11\/62b33a67e8538-62b33a67e8539lev10-old-man-grief-lonely.jpg.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/aarons-silence-aarons-comfort\/62b33a67e8538-62b33a67e8539lev10-old-man-grief-lonely-jpg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"62b33a67e8538-62b33a67e8539lev10-old-man-grief-lonely-jpg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":44888,"date":"2022-06-22 15:51:03","modified":"2023-03-13 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