Leviticus Acharei Mot 2017

Acharei Mot 2017

(in process)

Spirituality is beautiful revolution. A spiritual behavior is revolutionary.  We learn this and more in Acharei Mot.

For a quick reference, recently we have been in Torah with the intense and exquisite consecration of the Levites, there with the appearance of God’s kavod or  power, there when Nadav and Abihu, the sons of Aaron,  offer more than requested and become the offering itself, there with the specific rules of kashrut and kosher food, there when inspection moves from outer to inner, to anything corrupt within our hearts that might cause illness.  Clearly, there's a cycle here, a continuum. Inner corruption creates the yearning for outer corruption that leads to the chaotic zeal as in the case of Nadav and Abihu. 

.

It’s certainly a cycle that is destructive. It's certainly a cycle that needs to be stopped or re- investigated in some way.

What do we do though once the cycle is not stopped and we see a zeal that ends up destroying our beings, our art and our whole world? I think of my students at the community college who are vets from Iraq and Afghanistan. I think of the mentally ill and drug addicted as well as the high rate of recidivism in our country. I think of the sacrifice of the earth for oil companies, the sacrifice of our lives for money, the sacrifice of families for gurus or swamis or spiritual leaders who have a heavy price, the sacrifice of loved ones for loved ones who abuse.

Clearly, sacrifice or offerings, when taken literally and when fed twisted instinct and too much fire, result in tragedy.

Simply look at Brutus in the play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. He believes he’s doing a spiritual action by sacrificing a future despot, a manipulator, a man who will certainly destroy his nation. His confusion around sacrifice is fed by his friends’ jealousy as well as his racing thoughts.

Look at Shylock, the character in The Merchant of Venice who almost sacrifices Antonio because of the enthusiasm to satisfy a civil contract.

Acharei Mot though is not about that enthusiasm run wild. We’ve witnessed it. What do we do afterwards though? Do we fight and wage a war like Brutus to stand up for what we know has been questionable? Do we simply acquiesce (once stopped pre-sacrifice) and take on a new mask of another religion like Shylock so that we won’t go up in flames?

Or do we check within for corruption and outside for corruption and then protect ourselves and maintain our holiness while we try once again with mindfulness and moment to moment focus to do the offering right? This is what Aaron does.

Today, true sacrifice is revolution.  It is being holy because we do have a God.  This is when we join the temporal to the universal and the universal to the temporal, when we join God to man and man to God, when we use all of our mind and heart to create that joining and to be clear and real before ourselves and the other and the divine. If we look to Shakespeare again, I think of Hamlet.

 Little is done within the median these days without superficiality and manipulation. Little is done that sends thunder through our spines and love into solid earth and  the heavens so that we breathe life and not fire, so that we shine and not burn. 

Those who take part in true sacrifice are those who I respect. My tendency is to judge when enthusiasm for law or God even seems corrupt. I think it’s because I too have been Nadav and Abihu, wild with enthusiasm, racing for the stars, wishing to bring all to God in one piece of writing, in one class or one hour of yoga or in one relationship. I too have wished someone would just eradicate evil in one moment and finally just stab the bad guy as does Brutus or maybe kill him by mistake.  We have all died a million deaths with that kind of wishing. We have all died a million deaths like Nadav and Abihu and Brutus and the one Shylock could experience and the one Aaron will die if he does the sacrifice without proper attention. But there is a fine discernible difference between killing and sacrifice and we need to prevent one while taking part in the other. Wishing for sacrifice is different than wishing for death. True sacrifice demands revolutionary and holy moderation. This means respect, silence, and that vision and hearing that causes us (sometimes) to cry in the night.

 May we all be patient  and  focused and strong as we  bring redemption and revelation into continual action, into renewed covenant and enact the true spiritual  sacrificial revolution of Aaron as instructed by Moses as instructed by God in Acharei Mot.

May we make that revolution real without blood but with ribbons and ribbons of incense, all over this country, all over this world.