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Showing posts from April, 2010

It's all about balance

The Torah is full of sibling stories. Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers and sister, just to name a few. Plenty of tension and jealousy, and occasionally reconciliation and respect and even love. Just like in real families. Precisely at the half-way point in the Torah stands a powerful story of two brothers that is much less well known. In our cycle of annual Torah readings, we are in the middle of the book of Leviticus, the central of the five books of Moses. The ultimate goal of the Levitical system has been achieved: The sacrificial system is up and running, and the glory of God's presence descends to dwell among the Israelite people. However, in the process of making that happen there has been a human tragedy - two of Aaron's sons, Nadav and Avihu, bring "alien fire" into the holiest part of the sanctuary without being instructed to do so, and a fire blazes up and consumes them. At the moment of their death, Moses - brother o