Ego on the Alter - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

You know, it's as if the heavens wanted to close a circle, right? We received back the body of Tvie Feldman, missing since 1982. 45 years, 43 years, he lay beyond our grasp, but not just, you know, beyond beyond our physical grasp, but not beyond our love and not beyond our prayers because we are people who do not forget. Not a name, not a soul, not a body. What what nation treats its fallen this way? As far as I know, only Am Israel. Because we know a soldier's body is not a casualty. It's a vessel of holiness. And holiness must be returned to its place. It's no coincidence that this para, which begins with the death, quickly shifts to instructions about the holiest day of the year, yum kipur, and the holiest place in the world, the kesh hakoshim, the holy of holies. And so why is this the order? The Torah is teaching us something that I think is is radical. Kadusha holiness often begins after loss. When death threatens to crush us, that is precisely when we must rise and sanctify life. I've heard it taught that the term after death there is holiness is referring to the death of the ego. That's just another dimension of it, right? Amote opens with the aftermath of the death of Aaron's sons Nadav and Navu and their mysterious death right when they came close before Hashem with a strange fire. It's often interpreted as a cautionary tale of spiritual overreach but also a moment of intense yearning for transcendence. But what did they do? They weren't able to fully nullify themselves. Their own desire to come so close to Hashem. It was their own desire, their own egos. They couldn't fully overcome it. And although they loved Hashem's in ways that perhaps are difficult for us to even imagine, they still came before Hashem as they wanted to and not as Hashem wanted them to. Right? To truly to truly approach God, one must let go of self. The very next verses command Aaron to enter the holy of holies only in the prescribed way that Hashem expressed that he wants to be approached. Aron submitted his will to God and his ego to the divine order. One doesn't burst into holiness. One surrenders to it. One nullifies to it. And that's why the core of the portion is the yum kipper service. The day of atonement. The day when the high priest becomes a vessel shedding all of the titles and the garments entering the inner sanctum alone and barefoot. The ego is stripped layer by layer. This is a day where all Israel under go under goes symbolic ego death. No food, no comfort, no dominance, just the soul and the source. And then comes parhat kadoshim. Parat kadoshim the the Torah portion. Kadoshim to you and you shall be holy. Kadoshim to you. You shall be holy for I Hashem your God am holy. But what does this holiness look like? It's not mystical ascension or ecstatic prayer but acts of humility and kindness. Right? Don't take revenge. Don't bear a grudge. Leave food for the poor. Don't gossip. Love your neighbor as yourself. Right? What do all of these things have in common? These are all achievable by the person who is able to sublimate their own ego and their own need for revenge and their need to understand. A person whose life is not centered on me, right? But on we right on on Hashem on the truth on the spiritual high of of Yom Kipur that leads us to grounded ethical otherfocused life. This is the legacy of Vishi and of Yam and of the legacy of the heroes of Israel that have sacrificed everything for their God and their nation. Their their deaths are not just tragedies. They are calls for us to live differently, to live higher. They're calls for each and every one of us to put more of ourselves and more of our egos and more of our own personal desires on the altar. [Music]