What Judaism can teach the world at this difficult time

Over shabbat I had a flash about how the Jewish People can continue contributing to the world, and in particular, with one thing that is so sorely needed at this time.

And it is deeply embedded in our tradition.

A mentor of mine who is a veteran Israel educator would often say that in order to begin to understand or even relate seriously to the current dilemmas as well as the history, we must internalize that two different intelligent and well informed people can look at the exact same facts or events and reach different conclusions.

I heard Rav Weinberger quote a teaching on the verse from Psalms, “יֹ֭שֵׁב בְּסֵ֣תֶר עֶלְי֑וֹן בְּצֵ֥ל שַׁ֝קי יִתְלוֹנָֽן׃” “O you who dwells hidden on High, and abide in the shadow of Sha-dai” (91:1) We often translate b’seter as “hidden” — but the word is also stira – contradiction.

Rav Weinberger explains that Gd dwells in the place of contradictions, in the places where we do not know the answers.

In this past week’s Torah reading, in the aftermath of the death of Aharon’s two sons, Nadav and Avihu, there is a powerful confrontation between Aharon and Moses regarding the ritual of the day.

I had always understood it as a moment of Moshe making a mistake, and being gently taught by his brother what the correct answer was.

That in and of itself is a valuable lesson — if only we could take away from this story how to humbly correct our teachers, and how to humbly accept the rebuke and instruction from our students — dayenu! That would be enough!

But there is something deeper happening here.

The conflict between the two brothers is not about a forgotten nuance of the law, it is actually a fundamental dispute, rooted in two different world-views.

Let’s remind ourselves what they disagreed about:

In the height of the celebration of the inauguration of the Mishkan (Tabernacle), there was the tragic death of Aharon’s sons. Aharon now has a new status as a mourner, but he is still in the midst of the inauguration ceremony.

There were two different types of sacrifices on that day, the ones that were unique to the dedication ceremony, and the ones that are the standard daily and monthly sacrifices.

Moshe commanded Aharon to consume the unique flour offering for the day, and when he learned that the cyclical offering for the new month had been burned instead of eaten, Moshe became very angry.

Aharon taught Moshe that on a day like today, when he had lost his sons, it would not be appropriate to also consume the monthly sacrifice.

Moshe was entirely connected to the Divine. It was Moshe that spoke mouth-to-mouth Gd. It was he that saw Gd face-to-face, and it was he that brought the word of Gd into the world at Mt Sinai and for 40 years in the desert.

Aharon, however, was connected to the People, with his feet on the ground. He was busy with bringing the people’s sacrifices, and with negotiating conflicts between the Israelites.

Moshe saw all the sacrifices on this day as the same expression of connection to the Divine.

Aharon differentiated between those that were unique to this special day, and those which are part of our ritual cycle. Whereas there was a dispensation to consume the flour offering for the inauguration ceremony, his status as mourner overrode the need to consume the monthly sacrifice.

Aharon was saying to his brother that there is a need to stay connected to this world and the needs that we have here, where Moshe saw the entire day as an opportunity to connect with the Divine. The original plan was to celebrate and consume all of the sacrifices, but the situation has changed — we are in a different place and need to figure out how to act in this new reality.

Especially in this moment of crisis, when the law may not be clear, we need to examine the basis behind the action,

And Aharon’s path wins the day — Moshe agrees, and it was good in his eyes! (Leviticus 10:20)

Friends, when we look at the disagreements that we have, and try to deeply understand what stands behind that position that is different from ours, we are coming closer to staying together.

Both approaches may be correct, but sometimes we can only move forward with one of them.

When we humbly present our own perspective, and humbly listen to the other, we can learn a great deal.

And when we can do this in a moment of crisis and incredible pressure, we will have deeply internalized this lesson.

And if only we can model it at home with the divisions among the Jewish People.

Then we may be able to show the world how to lovingly and respectfully disagree and walk forward together.

In this week of Yom Hazikaron and Yom Hatzmaut, may we be blessed to grow together, to open our hearts and return home to our strength and unity. My the hostages come home, and may we build a stronger home together.

Shavua tov!