Acharei-Kedoshim - When the Good Suffer

You're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari Goldwag, recorded with the show's never-ending assistance in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel, 5785 2025. This week's parsha is parsha Acharei Mot and Kedoshim. And I must say that when we get to Acharei Mot, I'm excited. It is my bar mitzvah parsha. And it has the entire avodah. It has the order of the service of the high priest of the Kohain Gadol on Yom Kippur. The holiest day of the year, the holiest person in Am Yisrael acting on behalf of Am Yisrael to get atonement, to get forgiveness. Am Yisrael gets forgiveness inside of the Kodesh Hakodashim, the Holy of Holies through the efforts of the avodah, the order of the service of the Kohain Gadol. And our parsha starts off with a very interesting introduction. And it tells us The introduction to the entire Seder Avodah, which is where Hashem is going to instruct Aaron exactly how to go about a mitzvah which is not even going to happen for another 6 months, right? The story that we're talking about here, the events that we're chronicling are happening in Nissan when the when the Mishkan was put up. And the death of Nadav and Avihu happened in Nissan on the first day of Nissan. Yom Kippur is not going to be for another 6 months. But for some reason, the introduction to the story or to the description or the mitzvah of atonement for Am Yisrael, the introduction is with the death of the sons of Aaron. I'd like to share with you a midrash. Now, the midrash when we read it is a little shocking. To tell you, it was a little shocking. I read it, I'm like, why is the midrash telling us this story? It's such a It's such a terrible story. But with that introduction, let's read the story and you'll see what I mean. And we'll try to understand what is the idea of this of this story. We're going to bring it back to another midrash which contains an incredible mystery. Incredible mystery. We'll try to ask the questions. And I don't know if we're going to answer the questions, but we'll have food for thought in trying to understand the mystery. Rebbe Abba bar Kahana in in introducing this idea, in introducing our parsha, the parsha of Acharei Mot, so he started his drasha, he started his speech by bringing the pasuk in Koheles, it says, "Lischoq marti mahol." He said, "Jokes, laughter, joy, it's overrated." That's the pasuk in Koheles, in Ecclesiastes. Melech, King Solomon, the wisest of all men, said, "Everyone's praising jokes, everyone's praising happiness, lightheartedness. You should know, it's overrated." If mixed into the joy is is some kind of thing that mars the joy, and it seems like the midrash is saying there's no such thing as a happy occasion that's not marred or a happy moment that's not marred by some kind of sadness. So, if that's the case, that every experience that I have, every happy experience that I have, there's always something that mars, that takes away from the happy experience, then what's the good of the happy experience? So, it sounds like a very negative statement. Sounds like a very sad statement, but we need to understand what it means. There was a story of one of the great people in this in this town of Kovno. He was marrying off his son. It was Wednesday. Wednesday is the day that you marry off your kids, as Chazal tell us in the Mishnah in Kesubos. And they all came for the party. They ate at this party, they drank at this party. They were in a jolly mood, they were really happy. He said to his son, the chassan, he said to the groom, "I want you to go up, bring down a barrel of wine from upstairs in the attic. Go bring it down." The groom goes upstairs, goes to get the the barrel of wine. And amongst the barrels of wine, there was a snake, a poisonous snake. The snake bit the groom and the groom died. So, this dignitary of the town of the town of Kovno, he's waiting for the the son to come back, the groom. He doesn't come back. He says, "I'm going to go see what happened." He saw that he'd been bitten by a snake and that he was on the floor dead amongst the barrels. Now, when he went downstairs back to the party, he didn't tell anybody what happened yet. He waited till the meal was over. I guess I don't know how they didn't realize that the groom wasn't there. They bentsched. Said the grace after meals. At the end, there are special blessings for a for a wedding. And he said to them, "Don't say the blessings for the wedding. Instead, say the blessings for someone who has lost a close relative." Said the birkas aveilim, the mourner's blessings. "You came to celebrate as we brought my son into the chuppah, into under the wedding canopy, but come and and help me bring him to be buried." And Rebbe Zakkai, he in in the eulogy, or perhaps he was he was from Kovno, so maybe he spoke spoke at this at this uh levayah, at the at the funeral, he said, "Lischoq marti mahol." He quoted this verse in Ecclesiastes. It's a very tough midrash. Very tough story. The guy, it was the day of his wedding. Excitement, joy, the ultimate joy, and he dies of a snake bite. Joy is overrated. Joy is overrated. So, I'm reading this story, I'm like, what is this story? It's really a heavy story. And I realize, I mean, it's if you have, that's the story of Acharei Mot, right? This is the story of the sons of Aaron. It was the wedding day. Am Yisrael is excited. It's the moment we've been waiting for. We we got together and we donated and we created all the different parts of the Mishkan. And here we are, ready to serve Hashem. And the Kohain, the Kohain Gadol, Aaron, is there, and Nadav and Avihu, this ganei hakohanim, they were the the second in command. They're the ones who are going to serve for us. Come into God. It's the wedding day of Am Yisrael with Hashem. And what happens? They die. In that moment, they die. The the incredible joy is marred by an incredible loss, an incredible tragedy. What's the idea? What's the what's the teaching here? And as we're going to see in the midrash, it gets heavier. It gets heavier. We're going to try to understand what is the concept. Of course, this is the concept that Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem about. Hashem did not answer him. Hashem did not answer him. Moshe Rabbeinu, the Gemara tells us, I believe it's in Berachos, Moshe Rabbeinu asks Hashem, "Why do good things Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good people experience tragedies? Why does Aaron Hakohain lose his two sons in this And in this moment of incredible joy? What a time." Stay with me. This is a challenge. This is a mystery. Let's see if we can understand the mystery and also in so far as clearly this mystery is related to the the avodah on Yom Kippur of all things. Somehow, the death of Aaron's sons is the introduction. Is the is the preface to atonement somehow. I don't know what that means exactly. We're going to explore it together. Let's let's And we got to think about it together. Try to understand it. Cuz there's a great depth here. In the question mark, there's a great depth. The first midrash in the parsha says Rebbe Shimon pasuk Rebbe Shimon, he gave us a different pasuk to be as his preface, to serve as the introduction for this parsha. Pasuk says in Koheles, "Hakol kasher lakol." If you look around a little bit, if you look at life, if you have experience in life, so you'll see something that's difficult, very hard to understand. A person could be a tzaddik. Person could be a righteous individual. And you can have another person who's a Russia who's wicked and they can meet the same fate. They can meet the same fate. I'm going to give you a preview of the very end of the measure where the measure says about another and not even a view that they were great sadikim. They were righteous and they brought their fire pans into the Kodesh Hakodashim to serve Hashem with the ketores which means it sounds like they were trying to atone for Am Yisrael. They died. But you know, there's another group of people who tried to do the same thing and they also died, but they were wicked. The Adas Korach the measure says at the end the group who came along with Korach in the rebellion against Moshe and against Aharon they also brought a fire pan with the ketores with the incense and they also we let's say it would seem were trying to atone for Am Yisrael but they died. They lost their lives. So you see that two different sets of individuals one wicked, a wicked set they died and a righteous set, they died. They came to the same end. Perhaps with the same mistake. Sounds like it's the same mistake. Let's let's explore the measure together. So the possuk refers to the righteous and the wicked but sadik, the first example that the measure gives comparing a righteous individual and a wicked individual who met a similar fate. The first example of the sadik is that Noach Noach who built the teiva, he built the ark saved all of the animals in the world, was the beginning of the next stage of mankind. He is referred to as a sadik sh'ne'emar ba'ish sadik. He was a righteous man. What happened to him? What was his end? What happened to him? As Noach was about to leave the ark which we need to understand what is the concept, right? In a measure we always need to understand the concept. The teaching. In order to understand the teaching you need to understand a concept is when Noach leaves the ark. As he's leaving the ark he's bitten by the lion on his leg. And his leg was broken by the lion. He wasn't able to bring a carbon. This is actually the main issue here. We can talk about the fact that he's leaving the ark but he couldn't bring a carbon. When he left the ark, what's the first thing that they did? They brought carbonos, they brought sacrifices to thank Hashem that they were spared. That they lived. That they would begin anew. Noach was not able to bring that carbon. He he lost his chance. Cuz his leg was broken. And he can't be a baal mum. Can't have a blemish if you want to be a kohen, a priest who brings a carbon. Instead his son Shem took over for him and brought the carbonos. The Russia the possuk refers to a sadik and a Russia who meet a similar fate. Who's the Russia, the wicked individual who met a similar fate to Noach? It's the Pharaoh Necho. There was a a Pharaoh and Pharaoh Necho and he's the one who killed Yoshio King Yoshio, King Hoziah, Hoz Josiah, I don't know how to pronounce it in English. So he's took the the special throne. There was a throne that Hamelech had built special throne that he would sit on and on to reach the top of the throne there were all kinds of magical supernatural or the better word is supernatural. I don't know if it's magic. There is something called white magic which is kabbalistic magic. There were animals on it that would prevent you. There were lions on on each side that if you walked up you had to know how to tame the lions in order to get up on the throne. So Pharaoh this Pharaoh stole he killed Yoshio Navi Yoshio Hamelech, I'm sorry and he took the throne and he tried to get up onto the throne. But he didn't know how to he didn't know how to work it. He didn't know the the the way up onto the throne. And the result was that the lion that was embedded on the throne bit him and broke his leg. The Both of them spent the rest of their lives lame. The result was similar for both of them. They both ended up their lives lame. They couldn't they couldn't function properly anymore. Noach couldn't bring carbonos anymore. Right? The carbonos represent the fact that we are serving Hashem. He couldn't do it anymore. Shem had to take over, his son had to take over for him. Pharaoh also became lame. I don't know what how that affected his ability to be to be the king. But he went for the rest of his life with this inability, with this disability. For the good, for the pure, for the impure, the toiv is Moshe. For the good, it's Moshe. The possuk refers in the next possuk after this in in Koheles, it talks about the one who is good the one who is pure, the one who is impure. So the good one is Moshe Rabbeinu. Possuk refers to the toiv and the tohor and the tamei, calls him good. Measure says he was called good because he was born circumcised. He didn't need a removal of the foreskin. The tohor is Aharon which indicates as the meforshim explain that there was a certain fineness of character that he was born with. He didn't have something some kind of klipa, some kind of negative force encompassing him. He was completely bottle, he was completely beholden to Hashem using his koach hanefesh, using his abilities, his creative energy his spiritual energy in service of God. The tohor the Aharon, the pure one is a reference to Aharon. Right? What was his his job? He would come in and purify Am Yisrael. He would bring atonement The kohen's job is to bring peace, right? And he brought peace between us and God. He would bring carbonos, sacrifices to atone for our sins. Who are the impure ones that are referred to in the verse? It's the meraglim, the spies who spoke negatively of Eretz Yisrael. They spoke negatively. They said, "Don't go to Israel, you can't make it there. It's too scary, it's too hard. How will you have parnassa? How will you be mechanech your kids?" That's what the meraglim said. Aharon and Moshe said how great Eretz Yisrael is. They said, "That's the place we want to go. That's the land flowing with milk and honey. That's where where our destiny is, Eretz Yisrael." That's how Moshe and Aharon spoke. And the meraglim spoke negatively of Eretz Yisrael. Can't make it there. They both had a similar fate though. The meraglim, they died obviously immediately. And they didn't go into the land of Israel and they caused all of Am Yisrael not to go into the land of Israel. But I'll tell you something. And it's pretty sad. But Moshe and Aharon also didn't get to go into the land of Israel. They didn't merit to enter the land. Even though they spoke positively of the land of Israel. And it is written that they're all the same. That's what the verse means. It says they all have a a similar fate. Which is very interesting. Why did they have that fate? And the possuk says there was something missing in the way that they created the relationship with Hashem. We'll try to think about that shortly. But for some reason they both did something that was opposite of each other in relationship to Eretz Yisrael and they all didn't get into Eretz Yisrael. To understand what's going on here. Measure seems to be saying a question, how could it be? It's not going to answer it. Maybe we'll we'll have a hint, but we're not it's not answering it. The question is an important question. We need to ask the question. We're allowed to ask the question. The measure just posing it, placing it in front of us. Possuk in Koheles says it. We do see that that happens. Someone can be good, someone can be righteous. Someone can say the praise of Eretz Yisrael and doesn't end up in Eretz Yisrael. How do we understand it? How does he have the same fate as a wicked person who spoke negatively of Eretz Yisrael? Measure brings another example of a verse of Yoshiyahu. Yoshiyahu HaMelech, who we spoke about before that he was killed by Pharaoh Necho. Yoshiyahu HaMelech brought the people of Israel to teshuvah. They repented. They brought korbanos. They went back to the Beis HaMikdash. Shemuel Yoshiyahu Bnei Yisrael sank Bnei Yisrael Bnei Yisrael. They returned and they brought a korban Pesach which hadn't been brought in a long time. Like us, why are we not bringing the korban Pesach? We don't think about it really. We have a We have a place We have the place, right? Why don't we bring that korban Pesach? Why aren't we pining and yearning for it? Well, Yoshiyahu in his time they hadn't brought the korban Pesach in many years. They had lost their connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and he brought them back to to doing that, to bringing that korban Pesach. He gave all of the people the the sheep that they needed. Lo Asher Lo Zaveach Achav Shemitu Korbanos. Posuk refers to the person who brings sacrifices and the one who doesn't bring sacrifices. Achav was an evil king of the northern kingdom. He prevented the people in his kingdom from going to the Beis HaMikdash, from going to the temple to bring korbanos. What did he do? Adonai Tziva Yitzchak Achav Ten Boker Lariv. Instead, he brought sacrifices to idolatry. Z Zaveach Lo Zaveach Bnei Korbanos. He brought He brought these sacrifices. Not korbanos to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He didn't bring us back to Hashem. Korban Milashon Lekarev. He didn't bring us close to Hashem. He brought us He sacrificed us. He destroyed our souls. Ah. Excuse me. Zeh Meis Pachitzim Zeh Meis Pachitzim. They both came to a similar end. Yoshiyahu was a tzaddik. He helped us do what's right. He helped us have a relationship with Hashem, but he died. Why did he die? Doesn't say it here in the Medrash. He died because he didn't listen to the navi. He died with the arrows shot through him. Ein Zeh Dechiv Lo Zaveach Lo Asher Ein Zeh Zaveach. And so did Achav. Achav who didn't allow Am Yisrael to bring korbanos. He also died with arrows shot through him. And uh we say on Tisha B'Av Eicha Yirmiyahu Al Yoshiyahu. Yirmiyahu HaNavi who tried to guide this righteous king. He eulogized and he wailed sad songs about the loss of someone who could have been Mashiach. But he messed up. There was a mistake. There was a mistake. And here we're coming I'm going to I'm not going to There's not enough time to read the rest of the Medrash. I'll just quickly say it that the Medrash says that David HaMelech built the Beis HaMikdash. Nevuchadnetzar destroyed the Beis HaMikdash. They both They both were kings for 40 years. Tzidkiyahu HaMelech He made an oath. He He made a false oath. Shimshon Shimshon respected an oath. He had the oath. He was Shimshon and he He He didn't cut his hair his whole life. He was someone who respected a vow, what it means to make a make a commitment to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And both of them died with their eyes gouged out. Pretty heavy. And then it comes back to the Bnei Aaron which we said at the beginning. What is the message here? We got the mystery. We got the mystery. It sounds like someone who could be righteous, someone who's wicked, same same end can happen to them. I was thinking about it in terms of this is the introduction to the avodah of the Kohen Gadol. Where he goes Lifnei V'Lifnei Nim. And what does it mean that he goes Lifnei V'Lifnei Nim? It means he's getting forgiveness for Am Yisrael. Am Yisrael has done wrong. Am Yisrael has made mistakes. And as I keep reminding you and myself, we're here to make mistakes. We make mistakes. The whole Most of the korbanos, much of the purpose of the sacrifices in the Mishkan and the Beis HaMikdash was to atone for our mistakes, to for us to recognize our mistakes and to fix those mistakes, to do teshuvah. To repent. To give up the animal sides of ourselves. And what is What is the the way that we get into atonement? The Torah gives us a very specific and clear way of getting in and it's the Kohen Gadol. I'm talking specifically our parsha. The Kohen Gadol, the high priest on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement inside of the Kodesh HaKodashim, in the Holy of Holies right next to the Keruvim that box that contains the Torah that has the angelic figures on it which represent Am Yisrael and Hashem in our special relationship. That's where it's done. Now, this is a very delicate a very delicate location. It says that in the times of the second Beis HaMikdash, every year there was a new Kohen Gadol because they would go in there and they would die. They were wicked and they would die. And then there were other tzaddikim who were able to go in there for their entire lives, 40 years, 80 years. Yitzchak HaKohen Gadol. And they did it right. This is a delicate place. This place of open relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu of connection to Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It's delicate. It's got to be done very very carefully and very right. And the deeper I get in, the deeper I go, the more it needs to be done correctly and carefully. The The Let's Let's think about the Adas Korach for a moment. 250 people came and they said, "We're We're going to serve to atone for Am Yisrael." You want to atone for Am Yisrael. That means that you want to bring Am Yisrael back together with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. That's very holy. And that's very That's God's light is going to be revealed in that moment. That fire. God is fire, the living fire. To To be in that space managing between Hakadosh Baruch Hu and and Am Yisrael, that's a very delicate place. You got to do it right. Those 250 people, they didn't do it right. They weren't even inside of the Kodesh HaKodashim. They didn't do it right. They died. Nadav and Avihu also, they were righteous. They were great. But according to how righteous and great they were, they needed to create that connection in the most sensitive and the most precise way possible over there. It needed to be done right. It was a little bit off. They didn't ask each other. They didn't ask Moshe and Aaron. They They did it how they felt like doing it. Maybe that's okay for somebody else, but it's not okay for them. And not in that location. They didn't die outside. They didn't die in the Kodesh with that fire. They didn't die in the Azarah with that fire. They died inside of the Kodesh HaKodashim. You can't go in there. You want to atone for Am Yisrael? You got to be really high and really careful. Moshe and Aaron are about to enter into the land of Israel. Do you know what it means to come to land of Israel? It's the Holy of Holies. You want to live in Eretz Yisrael. The Torah says at the end of our parsha. It's not a coincidence that if we don't We're not careful about our relationships with each other and specifically the the relationships that could be marriage or could be not, the land will spit a person out. This is the Holy of Holies of the world. If we're living here, we got to do it right. And Moshe and Aaron, the Meraglim did it in a very goss way. They said, "Don't go in. We can't make it." Which honestly, there's a truth to that. You got to be very You got to be very righteous and spiritual to merit Hakadosh Baruch Hu taking care of you here. They just died. Moshe and Aaron, Hakadosh Baruch Hu tells them as they're about to enter into land of Israel, speak to the rock. Here's a very specific way that Am Yisrael needs to come into Israel. There's a very specific way that we need to have a relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu properly in order for it to work and for the land not to spit us out. Each of these examples that the Medrash brings, you can look at them all yourself. I'm out of time here. But each of them has to do with a king leading his people. Noach bringing korbanos as he's about to start a new world, which is very similar to Am Yisrael coming into Eretz Yisrael. It can only be done with extreme caution, with extreme I don't know why exactly he was bitten by the the lion and what that represents, but there was something missing in the way that he was walking out of that teivah, the way that he was walking out of the ark. Each and every one of us, as we strive in our relationship with Hashem, as we deepen our relationship with Hashem, we need to know we're entering into the Holy of Holies. I'm a parent. I'm a teacher. And I don't have to be teaching on a podcast to be a teacher. I walk around and people see me and they learn from me. I'm not just talking about myself, I'm talking about every one of us. I have to be careful as I become more, as I become more of a liaison, a connector person between Baruch Hashem and others. If I'm the If I'm the God in my family, I'm the God in my school, I'm the God in my community. If I'm somebody who's bringing Hashem's light to others, and that's all of us, I got to be more careful than ever. I got to be more than ever. I have to be more is asked of me. As I'll say it, call me it's a God in the middle. Whoever is greater has a greater that means that there's more room for mistakes and the mistakes need to be carefully examined and corrected carefully. I want to bless you and ask you to bless me that we should be able to recognize and see where it is that each and every one of us is serving others, is serving as a connector between Baruch Hashem and others. So we should help us to be willing to go there, to be willing to do that, and to refine ourselves all the more. As we indeed do that, Hashem should help us to be able to understand what it is that he wishes from us. Hashem should help us to see the signs of his instruction, like he's giving Aaron the exactest instructions of the Kodesh. This is exactly how you come in. There's a way that there's a precise order. Hashem should help us to see and understand for each and every one of us what is our precise order. Hashem should help us open our eyes to the direction that he's giving to each and every one of us. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful day. This podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you. For more podcasts like this, please visit www.arigoldwag.com or search on iTunes Ari Goldwag.