Shemini

Passion and Social Discipline

Inspired by Michelle Wasserman

Nadav and Avihu, sons of Aharon the High Priest, offer a strange fire before God. A fire flares up from the altar, burns them as if they are a sacrifice, and they die. Yet the parasha tells how the cousins of Nadav and Avihu "carried them by their tunics to the outside of the camp." The fire did not burn their clothing or, as Midrash claims, even their bodies.

 What is the metaphorical meaning expressed in this impossibility?

Fire can be seen as a symbol for passion. Nadav and Avihu burn with personal passion for God - with an inner fire. At the same time, they have a public responsibility to perform a tightly prescribed ritual. In this parashah, they bring their personal passion to the public ritual, and it burns them up inside.

In sefirat ha'omer, this week is the week set aside to meditate on our inner gevurah, discipline.  Parshat Shemini lays out for us a delicate balancing act we must all perform. We are motivated to work, volunteer, have friends and family because of our inner passions. Yet sometimes, in our interpersonal or public interactions, we have to mute those very passions that motivate us. In order to effectively serve as friends, parents, children, professionals we have to filter our passion through social ritual. And it can be so difficult we feel we are burning up inside!

Parshat Shemini raises the question for all of us, but each of us must learn to deal with the thoughts and feelings that roil inside us, and work towards finding our own balance. May we all be blessed to find the chesed sheh b'gevurah, the love expressed through discipline.

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