From the Rabbi’s Desk

Rabbi Manes Kogan

Acharei Mot – Kedoshim

May 5, 2001

The service of the High Priest, the Cohen Gadol, serves as the main reading of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, and it is the subject of the first of the two Torah portion of this week, Acharei Mot.

Rabbis through the centuries, and especially in the last hundred years have tried to understand the meaning of the High Priest’s holy service, the complex rituals of the day and the successive confessions he made.

Though I myself lack the time and the knowledge to explore all the details of the service, I would like to focus my attention on the meaning and the order of the successive expiations of the High Priest on the day of Yom Kippur.

First of all "Aaron shall bring near his own sin-offering bull and he shall provide atonement for himself and for his household; then he shall slaughter his own sin-offering bull" (Leviticus 16: 11)

As a second step "He shall slaughter the sin-offering he-goat of the people, and bring its blood within the Curtain; he shall do with its blood as he had done with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it upon the Ark-cover and in front of the Ark-cover: Thus shall he provide atonement upon the Sanctuary for the contaminations of the Children of Israel, even for their rebellious sins among all their sins; and so shall he do for the Tent of Meeting that dwells with them amid their contamination" (Leviticus 16: 15-16)

Finally, "When he is finished atoning for the Sanctuary, the Tent of Meeting, and the Altar, he shall bring the living he-goat near, Aaron shall lean his two hands upon the head of the living he-goat and confess upon it all the iniquities of the Children of Israel, and all their rebellious sins among all their sins, and place them upon the head of the he-goat, and send it with a designated man to the desert: The he-goat will bear upon itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land, and he should send the he-goat to the desert" (Leviticus 16: 20-22)"

We find, therefore, three successive expiations: the first one is for himself and his household, the second one is to purify the physical sanctuary, to cleanse it from the sins of the Children of Israel, and finally he provides atonement for the Children of Israel through the scapegoat, which is sent to the desert.

What can we learn from this order? Why does the High Priest start by himself and then proceed with the sanctuary? Why does the congregation come last in this process of expiation and purification?

The Talmud explains -in the Tractate of Yoma page 46: "His expiation precedes the expiation of the Children of Israel"

And the Maharsha comments on this Gemarah: "We usually find that the congregation takes precedent over the individual, so why does it say, "His expiation precedes the expiation of the Children of Israel"? Answers the Maharsha: Because nobody can provide atonement for his fellow’s sins , unless he provides atonement for his own sins first".

In other words, the Torah is teaching us, by describing the order of the High Priest’s service, that the leaders cannot "fix, change or improve" their congregations unless they "fix, change or improve" themselves.

Aharon, the High Priest, dressed with his holy garments, needs to recognize and confess his own sins before he even looks at the sins of his congregation.

What an important lesson in humility, what a strong reminder, for whomever wants to serve as a religious or lay leader.

The Torah, in its holiness, chooses carefully the words to use. We read regarding the High Priest’s sacrifice. "he shall provide atonement for himself and for his household".

Why his household? The commentators explain the Hebrew word "Beito" - his household, refers to his children, his closest circle of influence.

When you are a leader, your family, your children and your wife, are on the spot. If you don’t want that to happen, you better choose another job, another vocation. Is this unjust? Maybe. It does not happen to physicians, lawyers and CEOs? You are right. But those are the rules of the game: if you are a leader, and especially, if you a re a religious leader, your family will be always on the spot.

If a Rabbi can not convince his own children to attend the Synagogue with enthusiasm, he won’t have better luck with his congregants’ children. If the Rabbi’s wife is not ready to make her home an extension of the Synagogue and herself an extension of her husband, it is better for the family to consider another career.

People will look upon the Rabbi and his family for inspiration and example, and a Rabbi, at least the Rabbi I have in mind, should be ready for such a challenge.

I didn’t understand the implications of being a rabbi when I entered the rabbinical school in 1986, and I wasn’t very aware of those implications when I was ordained 7 years later. However, now, my wife and I, are familiar with the challenge and ready to accept it, and hopefully my children in the future will do the same.

The order of the High Priest’s expiation starts in a spiral. He goes first, then his family, and finally the rest of the congregation of Israel.

In the middle of the process, the physical sanctuary needs to go through a process of purification as well, just to remind us that our daily behavior, the good and the bad, our love and our hate, our actions and our speech, affect our physical environment as well.

Rabbis and leaders in general are not free from making mistakes. Moreover, their position of influence makes them susceptible of making more mistakes, to fail others, to forget important aspects of their congregants’ lives, to sin by action or by omission.

We don’t read in the Torah: "If the High Priest should sin". The Torah takes for granted that the High Priest sins. Everybody in a position of leadership will sin, everybody who is willing to assume responsibility, will fail –at times - to deliver what he or she had promised.

The challenge that leaders face is not perfection, but humility and willingness to improve themselves. The challenge is to serve as a role model even if you know that you will never be perfect.

Aharon was a leader, not because of his perfection, but because he was aware of his imperfection. He was a leader because he knew that when you want to change your congregation, you need to start by changing yourself. He was brave enough to say "I am sorry", as we read in the Torah: "Aaron said to Moses, "I beg you, my lord, do not cast a sin upon us, for we have been foolish and we have sinned" (Numbers 12:11)

I would like to finish my Devar Torah with a real story, in which the main actor is the exiting president of our congregation, Al Baril. About one months ago, professor David Barzilai from Virginia Tech came to speak about the Holocaust. The presentation, although of a high level, wasn’t very well attended. Within the dozen of participants were Pat and Al. The next day I asked Al: What do you think about yesterday’s presentation? He answered me: Rabbi, he was fine, but I have difficulties dealing with the subject of the Holocaust and attending such presentations. So I asked him: So, why did you come? Because I am the president of Beth Israel, was his answer.

Being a leader is not always fun, but the sweet, as well as the sour, are part of the challenge of being a leader.

Happy are those who understand the complexity of such a challenge and are ready to accept it upon their shoulders.

Shabat Shalom.