Leviticus Cycle Three Acherei Moth and Kedoshim 16:1 to 20:27

Acharei Moth and Kedoshim


This week’s reading is about loving kindness and sacred boundaries. It’s like man and woman, feminine and masculine. Each wraps around the other, defines the other. It’s an endless continuum, boundaries within boundaries, love within love, a cylindrical beam of light and by staying within it (our eyes on the point) we are Torah; We are holy. As Chafetz Chaim has said…our prayers read, “For with the light of your countenance, you have given us Oh Hashem, our God, a living Torah and the love of chesed” (Ahavath Chesed, 80).

The first line in Acharey Moth (16:1) shows us the construct of this holiness. The prohibitions around sexual behavior (18) give us a chance to apply it and be holy. What we finally discover is that each boundary is intricately connected to the next. Take one away and the whole starts coming apart, like the hem of a woman’s skirt.

And who’s the woman wearing the skirt? Well, it’s the Shechina. And she’s not going to dare peak her face out from exile if she isn’t even dressed.

But, in a country in which we get to pick and choose, it isn’t surprising that our mentality would not only allow but support the picking and choosing of boundaries. The very structure of our capitalist ethical code (if there is one) is based not on honoring love but fitting one’s individual barriers, a fence here, a gate there, a gap there, with that of others. Sooner or later what we have is one of those houses that you look at and wonder, architecturally, how it could stay standing. This isn’t to say that freedom of choice isn’t good. It’s great. What’s needed though is to show how we can apply our secular habits to the form of our spiritual behavior so the choice to be chosen will free and propel us together, as one, into the light of holiness.

Let’s look at 16:1 in Acherei Moth. We read… v’yedaber Adonai el Moshe achrei mot shenay benai Aaron b’karvatam lifnay adonay v’yaomtu…God spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron in (that) they brought an offering before Adonai and died. Here, the idea of death frames the sentence and the action of the offering. You can almost say that the singular idea of nothingness is the paticha and the chatimah of the verse (making it a blessing) and the blessing continues with the purification offerings of Aaron and the repeated references to death. In this context life is the blessing to fill with what we want. Nadav and Avihu decide to fill theirs with pure offering…the reflection of loving kindness towards God. While the rabbis say many things about their tragic death, it’s still as if we are being asked the question: How do we apply the form of holiness to ourselves? How are we to fill that space between the human boundaries, the death on both ends? With what?

Now let’s look at the sexual prohibitions. We are not to uncover our mother, our father’s wife, our sister, our son’s daughter, daughter, daughter’s daughter, father’s wife’s daughter, father’s sister, mother’s sister, father’s brother (homosexually), father’s brother’s wife, son’s wife, brother’s wife, a woman and her daughter, a woman and her son’s daughter, a woman and her daughter’s daughter, one’s wife’s sister while both are alive, menstrually impure women, any forbidden woman. And we are not to have sexual relations with an animal. At first glance it’s easy to say, well, of course. It’s also hard to believe that our ancestors were taking part. So why the prohibitions? Well, in a reality in which we are each imprisoned in our human forms, sex is the one physical way we can really merge, one to one, know each other beyond the mind, free ourselves. While consciousness (and therefore death) is (for now) the merge of minds, sex brings it to our bodies. Between our two deaths therefore these are the next boundaries within.

Here’s more. In the Mishnah it reads that on Yom Kippur you do not eat, drink, wash, anoint oneself, put on sandals or have sexual intercourse. There’s a step by step process here. Often in Torah, this process moves us from the most mundane to the most spiritual. In Midrash (for example) the color blue is like the ocean which is like the heavens which is like the throne. The placement of sex at the end of the above statement in Mishnah (therefore) emphasizes its placement near death (and nothingness) on the hierarchy.

To continue, Rabbi Judah ben Pazzi deduced that the juxtaposition of the sexual prohibitions in Leviticus 18 and the emphasis on holiness in Leviticus 19:2 shows that those who fence themselves against sexual immorality are called holy. Even more, in Leviticus Rabbah Rabbi Joshua ben Levi says that the fence against sexual immorality leads to sanctity.

Finally, it’s important to look at the amount of space given to this subject. Instead of saying simply thou shalt only have sex with your wife when she isn’t menstruating, we get a whole chapter. Even more, most prohibitions are separated by white space that sets their sanctity.

In the end, if we want to fill the space between death with offerings of loving kindness (like Nadav and Avihu) we certainly want to fit these offerings within the truth of the sexual boundaries. The fact that we receive so many attests to God’s love. It’s almost like we’re being given binoculars. The outer stuff is being cut out of our vision so we can focus on and be the radiant point at the center.

Finally, are these all of the sexual laws? Of course not. They infer the many others in Torah though simply through their magnitude and presence. Therefore the prohibitions include sex outside of ritual marraige. After all, as the Beatles sing with tints of skepticism why don’t we do it in the road? We can always add…why don’t we just expose ourselves completely, all of ourselves, without the protection of God? Why don’t we make idols of each other and flaunt it? Why don’t we pretend that it’s all right, natural, good, an act of love?

Well, clearly, an act of love for each other is not always an act of love for God. It’s that simple. I don’t mean to be tough here. Everyone loves sex. We love ourselves, our bodies, the intimacy, the warmth, the touch, the momentarily forgetfulness, the excitement, the joy, the secrets, the primal and solid truth of completion. If we’re out of God-love though we’re faking it, to each other as well as to ourselves. Best to stay within the boundaries and love your husband or wife everyday if you want, twice a day. Even better.

So, may we find the path of holiness. May we understand the inter-relation between boundaries and chesed. May we see both as necessary to our intimacy with God. May we fill our lives with offerings as do Nadav and Avihu and help each other as we step by step become closer to the freeing of the Shechinah, the one magnificent (and erotic) release.