{"id":54724,"date":"2019-05-02T10:42:37","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T07:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=54724"},"modified":"2022-07-03T18:09:53","modified_gmt":"2022-07-03T15:09:53","slug":"acharei-mot-after-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/acharei-mot-after-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Acharei Mot: After Death"},"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":[552,368],"acf":{"old_id":"54724","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36663,"related_cahpter":"1042","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The living can change their words and actions, can be empowered to atone and lead lives more filled with goodness","content":"

After a death, there are changes.\u00a0 Small things that take getting used to, adjustments to the emptiness of not having a person in our lives where they once were.\u00a0Thinking about whether if there were some way in which had things been different, that person might still be alive.\u00a0Acharei Mot, has instructions for us in the aftermath of the tragic death of Aaron\u2019s two sons Nadav and Avihu.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The main topic of the first part of the portion is instructions for the priest on Yom Kippur.\u00a0The priest takes two goats and draws lots over them.\u00a0One goat is sacrificed to God, and the other sent out alive to the desert, to a place called Azazel (16:8-10). The two animals had been the same and yet by lottery they are chosen for entirely different roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Aaron, still grieving his sons, all these instructions are filtered through the lens of his grief.\u00a0His central ritual is to lay his hands upon the living goat and \u201cconfess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites\u201d (16:21).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why is the confession only over the living goat?\u00a0 And why the necessity for verbal confession?\u00a0<\/p>\n

In any list of how to repent, verbal confession is key to making a change.\u00a0Yom Kippur and its rituals are for the living, a chance to assess our deeds once a year, and try to repair that which we feel we can improve.<\/p>\n

I am writing this in Israel on Yom Hashoah<\/em>, Holocaust Remembrance Day.\u00a0Essentially, the entire Jewish people in the post Holocaust era, are living in a state of “after the death.”\u00a0 And yet, being in a country where Jews are \u201ca free people in our own land\u201d in the words of Hatikvah<\/em>, seems a worthy response to these tragic deaths.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The juxtaposition of the Yom Kippur ritual with the reminder of the loss of Aaron\u2019s sons serves to show that the living can change their words and actions, can be empowered to atone and lead lives more filled with goodness. It is an appropriate way to honor Nadav and Avihu, to create change in the lives of those remaining.<\/p>\n

Chapter 18:5 states: “You shall keep My laws and My rules, by the pursuit of which man shall live: I am the LORD.” I attended a Zikaron Basalon<\/a> last night where Professor Livia Bitton-Jackson\u00a0 told her story of survival.\u00a0When asked what the key to her survival was, she said reciting the verse which connects to her Hebrew name Leah, that opens with \u201clamed\u201d and closes with \u201cheh.\u201d The verse, Psalms 118:17 is \u201cI will not die but live and I will tell the deeds of God.\u201d\u00a0She recited it to herself at times when she needed to find strength.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So too, this portion, which instructs us to confess our stories and become better so that we as a people can live and tell the deeds of God, gives us strength in the face of those who seek to harm us as individuals and as a people.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":52313,"id":52313,"title":"dt32-change","filename":"dt32-change.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/dt32-change.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/are-we-doomed\/dt32-change\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"dt32-change","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":52312,"date":"2019-03-27 17:22:27","modified":"2022-07-31 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