Parshas Emor 5786
In 1982, seven people in the Chicago area died from cyanide poisoning, despite having swallowed nothing more ostensibly lethal than Tylenol. Bottles of the medication had been tampered with by an unknown criminal, and the result was deadly. Johnson & Johnson CEO James Burke responded with a recall that cost the company over $100 million dollars—in 1981 money. Burke later led the company in designing tamper-proof packaging that would thereafter become the standard for the entire industry.
Following the poisonings, Tylenol lost nearly 30% of the market share it once held. Within a year, they had recovered.
Johnson & Johnson was a victim of the crime, not the perpetrator. But they opted to clean up the mess rather than insist they simply hadn’t made it.
Kohanim are different. Whereas all other Jews are encouraged to participate in all the various aspects of caring for the dead—preparing the body for burial, the burial itself, and subsequently visiting the grave—not so for Kohanim. Owing to their unique position at the spiritual peak of Jewish society, they must remain pure of the ritual impurity resulting from direct contact with or even being in the same airspace as a dead body.
Moshe Rabbeinu is told to relate this principle to the Kohanim. Well, to all except one.
וַיֹּאמֶר ה׳ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה אֱמֹר אֶל־הַכֹּהֲנִים בְּנֵי אַהֲרֹן וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם לְנֶפֶשׁ לֹא־יִטַּמָּא בְּעַמָּיו.
(ויקרא כא:א)
And Hashem said to Moshe, “Say to the Kohanim, the sons of Aharon, and you shall say to them, ‘To a soul among his nation none shall become impure.’”
(Vayikra 21:1)
The instruction is to be issued to the sons of Aharon. But what of the most prominent of all the Kohanim? What about Aharon himself? Why is he not included?
Rav Aharon Levin in HaDrash V’Ha’Iyun suggests that the answer is based on a comment made in the Midrash Rabbah (Shemos 41:7). At Har Sinai, the Midrash explains, The Jewish People were liberated from the Malach HaMaves—The Angel of Death. As their souls were elevated as a result of Revelation, their bodies had become redeemed as well.
Yet they soon found themselves returned to their original state. The culprit? The Chet HaEgel. In constructing an effigy to serve as the intermediary between themselves and Hashem, the direct connection they once enjoyed had been strained. They had fallen back to earth, and were subject to the limitations of that existence. The Angel of Death returned.
Why not include Aharon in the conversation with the rest of the Kohanim? Rav Levin brilliantly explains, as a matter of sensitivity. It was Aharon who had played a hand in the construction of the Egel. It was Aharon who had reintroduced death and its resulting impurity back into the nation. It was Aharon who had made all the laws that were now to be discussed with the Kohanim a necessity. How uncomfortable for Aharon to have been present while this conversation took place.
I would suggest—along the lines of Rav Levin’s interpretation—that there may be yet another facet to consider. Perhaps Aharon was absent from the conversation not only in consideration of his own thoughts and feelings, but also to properly direct the attention of everyone else who would be seated around the table.
Had Aharon been there, he would serve as a reminder for how they had arrived at this place. We only have to be mindful of tumah, deal with tumah, because of him. Had the egel never been built, there would be no death. We’re burdened with these laws because of him.
A company in crisis can spend its time and resources on properly assigning blame, and venting angrily at the person who caused the problem. Or it can initiate a costly recall and develop tamper-proof packaging. The latter elicits consumer confidence and produces huge sales. The former does neither.
When your two year-old overturns the box of Cheerios onto the kitchen floor, the mess is not your fault, but it is your problem. Ranting about not being the one to blame does little to prevent Cheerios from being crushed underfoot and sending pulverized Cheerio-dust into every corner of the kitchen.
And when it comes to kids, we usually get it. There’s the implicit understanding that the parenting contract makes us responsible for their messes. But the truth is actually far deeper than that. It’s that we’re ultimately responsible for any mess we don’t want to live with, no matter who caused it. Child or adult. Progeny or stranger.
Kohanim want to be pure. Need to be pure. If not for the Golden Calf—something Aharon was regrettably involved in creating—purity would have been easier to achieve and to maintain. So what will you do now? Spend your time blaming anyone who had a hand in the Egel? Or learn the recipe for maintaining purity in a post-Egel world?
Aharon’s absence sends a critical message: It may not be your fault, but it is your problem. Whoever may have caused the mess is largely irrelevant. If we don’t want to live with it, we must choose responsibility over blame.