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Weekly Torah portion: Shemini
The immense religious energy must flow through channels – the mitzvoth, otherwise the spiritual energy might leak
We live in a time when religion has become more frightening than ever before. Acts of nuclear zealots and the voices from Teheran calling for destruction, the mad suicide bombers which we have encountered with such pain on our streets and even here, the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was carried out by a mad and evil believer.
Herein lies the painful question, and I will phrase it carefully but clearly: Can religion be dangerous? My answer is – yes.
The energy pulsating through the believer and the congregation of believers is analogous to the nuclear energy thrumming through the pipes of a nuclear plant. When we have a leak in the house above our own it is unpleasant, but it is not terrible, it is only water.
But when there is a leak in a nuclear plant, it is terrible, from that tiny crack bursts forth dangerous energy, untamed, devastating. An all-consuming, destructive energy. And all because of a small puncture. The religious energy in a man is similar to that nuclear energy in the world of physics.
This week's Torah potion, Shemini (Leviticus 9:1 – 11:47), depicts such a leak in a nuclear plant called the Tabernacle (or Mishkan), the temporary temple for the Israelites in the desert.
On the eighth day of the inauguration of the temple all activities were devoted to its consecration and that of the priests (Cohens) working in it. The priests laid down the ritual sacrifice at the alter and waited, with all the mass of people assembled there, for God to send forth fire from the heavens and consume the offering. Such a fire, should it come, would signal that God was pleased with the actions of the people.
Burning urge to bridge terrible chasm
According to one interpretation the fire never appeared. The crowd waited patiently, but the sign never came. We try to imagine the faces of the leaders, Moses and Aaron. Humiliation? Concern? Anxiety? Were they gripped by fear or terror? What happens now? Where do we go from here? In this moment of anxiety two men broke the ranks of the numb leaders, two of Aaron's young sons, Nadav and Avihu.The distress in Nadav and Avihu had given birth to a feeling of ecstasy, a burning urge to bridge the terrible chasm created. With coal pans filled with incense they burst forward and lighted an alien flame - a human flame God did not order for in the temple there is only room for a divine blaze.
And God's response was overwhelming. Fire came down from the firmament and burned the two young priests were they stood.
Why such sharp retribution? Could they not have been forgiven? And why on the greatest day of celebration, the inauguration of the Tabernacle? Why did the death of the two young Cohens have to mar the joy of that day? Especially since their motives were pure of heart.
The answer brings us back to the beginning of the article. Spirituality is not only a soft, poetic, delicate thing. It is an awe-inspiring drive for meaning. It motivates the individual and society as a whole to act, to progress, a need for good and purity and benevolence. But only so long as the energy is entrapped in the appropriate channels; that canalize it and refine it. Otherwise the energy becomes zeal and it consumes all who dare deny it.
Judaism constructed an entire world of protective, canalizing 'channels'. The immense religious energy must flow through these pipes. And these pipes are called mitzvoth. These precepts delve into every detail and define exactly how we are allowed to realize this religious energy. The Torah forbids ongoing holy war.
The wise scholars of the Mishna don't even allow for one to admonish those who do not keep to the mitzvoth. The halacha guarantees the accuracy of the spiritual energy. A puncture in the framework of the halacha, even done out of spirituality and a pursuit of meaning like Nadav and Avihu, may result in a dangerous nuclear meltdown.
Therefore, believers, and their leaders in particular, are required to pay careful attention not only to cultivating spiritual energy, but also imprisoning it within the halacha's channels. Not keeping with the basic morals, those pertaining to a man and his friend, of human dignity, whoever that human may be, is quite simply dangerous. Maintaining the basic laws of decency and integrity transform belief into the most profound part of human existence. Not keeping with them - is frightening.
