Shmini: Bring it Down

Dear friends, welcome to this week's virtual drasha. This week we have the incredible parsha of Shmini. And the Torah goes into great detail about the Yom HaShmini, the eighth day. There were seven days of consecration and inauguration of the Mishkan, and on day number eight, something amazing happened, which was the mantle, the reins of Mishkan leadership were handed over to Aaron and his sons, were handed over to the Kohanim. For the first seven days, Hazal tell us, Rabbis explain to us that Moshe Rabbeinu operated as the High Priest, the Kohen Gadol. And on day number eight, Moshe Rabbeinu says, "Okay, Aaron, this is your role, right? I'm Moshe Rabbeinu, I'm the Navi, I'm the lawgiver, I got up on Har Sinai. You you and your future descendants are the Kohanim. And so here, this Mishkan, the running of it, the administration of it, the oversight of it, is yours." And on day number eight, those sacred reins were handed from brother to brother, from Moshe to Aaron, and the Kohanim's position as the leaders within the confines of the Mishkan, later on in the Beit HaMikdash, becomes cemented. But something amazing happens, a very interesting detail. In perek tes, pasuk chof gimmel, chapter nine, verse 23, the Torah says the following, "Vayavo Moshe v'Aaron el ohel moed, vayetzu vayvarechu et ha'am." Moshe and Aaron come into the Mishkan, they enter in, they come out, and they bless the people. "Vayeira chevod Hashem el kol ha'am." And the presence of Hashem was seen, was visible to the entire nation. And the commentators are all bothered by one simple question. Why is Moshe Rabbeinu entering into the Mishkan on this eighth day? As we just mentioned before, the reins of Mishkan leadership were handed over to Aaron. Aaron is now the Kohen Gadol. The Kohen Gadol is the one who serves in the Beit HaMikdash. Moshe Rabbeinu is very holy, but he's a Levi. It's not his role to be to engage in active service in the Mishkan. This was Aaron's day. There were korbanot that were supposed to be brought. So why is Moshe Rabbeinu entering in? And Rashi HaKadosh is bothered by this question. Rashi asks very simply, "Lama nichnasu?" I understand why Aaron went in, but why did Moshe Rabbeinu go in? And Rashi gives a number of different answers, but I'll draw your attention to the last one. The last answer that Rashi gives is is that Aaron was incredibly distressed. You see, there's a whole sub-narrative that's happening over here, which is that Aaron was reluctant to become the Kohen Gadol. And the reason he was reluctant wasn't simply humility, although I'm sure that played a part in it as well. But Aaron was saddled with a tremendous amount of guilt. Guilt specifically over his role in the sin of the golden calf. What I mean by that? Remember, it was Aaron who put out the call to the people, "Bring your gold, come, we'll make something." Now, Aaron never had in mind, of course, that the sin of the golden calf would unfold the way it did. His goal was to stall. He believed with all of his heart that Moshe Rabbeinu was coming back, whatever happened, whatever the delay was, as they just needed a stalling mechanism. So, he figured, "Tell people to bring their gold, they're going to stall." But again, the whole matter evolved into, as we know, because one of the most catastrophic mistakes in the history of our people. And Aaron was saddled with a tremendous amount of guilt over the fact that he played felt he played a a dominant role in this incredible spiritual downfall of the people. As such, he didn't want to become the Kohen Gadol. Moshe Rabbeinu convinces him. And now we come to Yom Shmini. The Mishkan, the the the event that Klal Yisrael was waiting for was to see if the Shechinah, the divine presence, would come down. The Mishkan was to represent the physical, tangible manifestation of divine forgiveness that Hashem was once again willing to live within our midst, even in the aftermath of the sin of the golden calf. So, they build this beautiful structure, it's magnificent, it's incredible. Now you have Kohanim, you have a Kohen Gadol, but there's one last piece that's missing, which is the Shechinah, the divine presence, needs to come down. Needs to come down. And yet, Aaron did everything he was supposed to do, and the Shechinah didn't come down. Moshe So, Aaron goes to his brother Moshe Rabbeinu and says, "What did you do to me?" And again, the lashon of Rashi is so profound. Amar lo leMoshe, Aaron said to Moshe, "Moshe Moshe, my brother, kach asisili, why did you do this to me? She nichnasti ve nisbayashti, uh you know, you forced me to become the Kohen Gadol. I'm now entered into the Mishkan and now I'm all embarrassed. I'm embarrassed because the Shechinah is not coming down. The divine presence is not descending upon the Mishkan." And Aaron says, "I know it's because of me. It's because of me. It's because of what I did with the sin of the golden calf." And so therefore again, Aaron is all upset. As a result what happened? Miyad nichnas Moshe imo uvikshu rachamim veyarad haShechinah. So what does Moshe have to do? Moshe enters into the Mishkan with Aaron. They daven together and after their collective prayer, the Shechinah, the divine presence, comes down upon upon the Mishkan. So according to Rashi, what's fascinating what's happening over here is it's not clear. So was Aaron right? Is is that why the Shechinah didn't come down? The Shechinah didn't come down because Hashem was upset at Aaron and Moshe Rabbeinu needed to intervene? It's interesting because remember again, it's Hakadosh Baruch Hu who told Moshe to choose Aaron, right? In other words, it wasn't Moshe Rabbeinu's, you know, discretion to choose Aaron as the Kohen Gadol. Hakadosh Baruch Hu instructed that. And if indeed Aaron was culpable for the sin of the golden calf, then at the end of the day, number one, why choose him for the why choose him for the role of the Kohen Gadol? And if Moshe Rabbeinu was needed to intercede to bring down the Shechinah, then why not give Moshe Rabbeinu those instructions from the beginning? Is there something deeper over here? Because it is a troubling question. After doing everything that we were commanded to do sacrificially, ritually, why didn't the divine presence come down? Why didn't the Shechinah come down until Moshe and Aaron both entered into the Mishkan? What's the pshat? And Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch says something absolutely amazing. Rav Hirsch explains, I want to I want to quote this to you actually. Her first explains as follows. He says, "The people of the dwelling place was consecrated and the Kohanim and the people brought their offerings, right?" So, remember again, at this point everyone did all of their necessary sacrificial rites and rituals. The people were promised that as a result God's presence would appear to them, sealing the covenant whereby the divine presence would dwell in their midst on account of the place prepared for the Torah. So, remember again, there was a plan. They worshiped the golden calf. Okay, we needed to do teshuvah, we did teshuvah. Now, again, the Mishkan represents a healing of the bond between Hakadosh Baruchu and Klal Yisrael. And Hashem tells us, "Kohanim, bring korbanos, I'm going to come down." Yet, he didn't. Listen to what Rashi first says. God's presence, however, did not appear immediately upon the completion of the offerings. Why? If that had happened, it might have lent credence to the pagan superstition that in the offering procedures there is a mysterious quality that has a magical effect upon God and produces an appearance of God to man in a kind of physical cause and effect. But, this is not the case. Rashi says something absolutely amazing. If Hakadosh Baruchu Shechinah would have just come down immediately after the korbanos, so again, you would have thought Korbanos is kind of like some hocus pocus, you know, bring a sheep, right, bring an ox, bring some flour, bring some wine, and tada, the Shechinah appears. What Why does it work? I don't know. It just works. Almost as if korbanos by themselves have some type of power to bring heaven down to earth. And Hakadosh Baruchu was teaching us a profound lesson. Korbanos are powerful. But, do you know why korbanos are powerful? Korbanos are powerful but not because the korban is powerful. The korban is powerful because of the person who brings it. People have power. Korbanos, offering sacrifices, animals, don't have power. And so as such, something amazing here happened. Kodesh Baruch Hu had the Sh'khinah come down right after the carbonos. Again, you would have thought it's carbonos that bring down the Sh'khinah. So, what does Kodesh Baruch Hu do? He orchestrates something amazing. He goes and ensures that even after all the carbonos, after all the carbonos are brought, nothing's happening. What has to happen? Vayavo Moshe v'Aharon el ohel moed. You want Sh'khinah in this world? People bring down the Sh'khinah. We bring down the Sh'khinah. Kodesh Baruch Hu, do you see there's a danger in the Mishkan? What's the danger? That you forget that you as a person have power. That you invest all of the sacrificial rites and rituals. Oh, those are the things that has a power. The carbon has a power. The Mishkan has a power. Me, I'm powerless. But an offering, a sacrifice, that has power. Mishkan, a structure, that has power. Shev Shev Farosh says, "No. Kodesh Baruch Hu was teaching us, people have power. We have power. You want to bring the Sh'khinah down to this world, that's on you. There's no sheep, and there's no cow, and there's no ox, and there's no meal offering, and there's no libation that is powerful enough to bring down the Sh'khinah. But you know who is? Moshe Rabbeinu is, and Aaron is, and people are, and we are. We possess the power through our actions to bring the Sh'khinah down to this world. Carbonos are a powerful tool to help us self-actualize. A powerful tool to help us connect. But carbonos do not have a power in and of themselves. The power that carbonos have is the power that we invest into them. But without our personal, personalistic investments, a carbon is just a shape. Carbon is just a cow. It's just some fine flour. But when Moshe and Aaron, Moshe and Aaron represented Klal Yisrael, who has the power to bring the Shekinah into this world? And dear friends, the answer is us. I think Rav Hirsch's teaching was something incredibly amazing that we forget sometimes the power that we possess. And especially coming on the heels of Pesach, where again we were reminded of our freedom. And freedom gives us the opportunity and the ability to do great things. And one of the greatest things, one of the greatest accomplishments that we can have is to bring the Shekinah, to bring to bring the divine presence into this world. Every mitzvah we do, every tefillah we utter, every act of tzedakah that we give, it brings the Shekinah, it brings the divine presence into this world. And when we bring the divine presence into this world, we make the world holier. We make humanity holier. We infuse light not just into our lives, but to everything around us. And by the way, the pasuk goes on cuz if you notice, Moshiach and Aaron don't just walk in. Rather, what do they do? They come into the Mishkan, vayetzu, then they come out. And what do they do when they come out? Vayevarech et ha'am, they bless the people. Because part of the way in which you bring the Shekinah, you bring the divine presence into this world is not only for what you do for yourself, but it's also what you do for the other. When you bless the other, you know, there are many ways that we can bless people. And sometimes it's with words, we can give people brachas. And a lot of times we can bless people with our own efforts, with our own abilities. A kind word, a smile, a little bit of help, some encouragement. There are so many ways in which we could be a source of blessing onto other people. And Rav Hirsch explains, "And then after that," so after again, after the Moshiach and Aaron recognizing that it's not the carbon that brings the Shekinah down to this world, but it's you and I, it's Moshiach and Aaron who brings the Shekinah down to this world. How? Through our own personalistic development, but also vayetzu, vayevarech et has a through what we could do to the other for the other. And once we have that, working on ourselves and giving to the other, then what happens? Then the shkhinah comes down. Carbonos aren't some hocus pocus, but everything in this world derives its energy from us. We derive our energy from our Kodesh Baruch Hu, and he asks us to fuel everything around us. Carbonos are beautiful because we bring them. The Mishkan is beautiful because we built it. The shkhinah comes down because we choose to work on ourselves, and we choose to give it to the other. We each possess this enormous power to bring the divine presence into this world. May we zocheh b'meheras Hashem to first of all acknowledge and appreciate the power we possess, but then to utilize it. Everything we do in the realm of our spiritual development doesn't just make us better and holier, but it brings the shkhinah into this world. Everything we do for the other doesn't just lift another person up and make our people holier and better and stronger, but it brings the shkhinah into this world. And the more shkhinah, the more divine presence that we bring into this world, the more beautiful, holier, and luminescent our whole world becomes. And most of all, the more shkhinah we bring into this world, the closer we get to the Geulah, which we should experience m'heira b'yamenu, amen. Wishing everyone a good Ner Shabbas and a beautiful Shabbos Kodesh.