Aharei Mot / Kedoshim Leviticus 16:1 - 20:27
Shabbat Shalom-
It's really amazing how easy these current chapters in Leviticus make it for someone to spin a sermon. These chapters are qualitatively different from what came before. Our previous chapters were mainly ritual instruction manuals for the priests, whereas chapters 17-27 and especially 19-26 contain more of moralistic legal non-cultic content called by biblical scholars the Holiness code. One might say that while the priestly cult (ritual) brings man to God by dealing with God, the holiness code brings man to God by dealing with man.
One may see as a transition the reading this week that completes the story of the death of Aaron's two sons with the Yom Ha-Kippurim offering, the ritual of the Day of Atonements. One verb in particular here is of interest since it is so principal to the understanding of the ritual and whose translation is somewhat uncertain. The root word KPR can mean, besides atonement, to cover with pitch (Gen. 6:13), ransom (Ex 21:30, 30:12 ad loc.), to annul a covenant (Isaiah 28:18), to deny (as in heresy, B Baba Batra 16b, San 90a ad loc.), various types of flora (Songs 1:14, M Sheviit 7:6) and is the root for the cherubim that overshadowed the Ark of the Covenant (Ex 25:22)*.
Understanding Hebrew will always be a mixed bag for a non-native speaker. On the one hand, I must research and learn the (difficult) words to really understand them, and I am not as often thrown off by modern Hebrew meanings that differ. On the other hand, I often rely on accepted English translations of words which do not adequately convey the original sense of the Hebrew. Hence, le-KaPeR is usually translated as 'to atone' which we understand having to do with wiping away sin, but whose precise meaning has become somewhat unclear (at least to me).
This week I read an academic commentary (Olam haTanakh) which brought up some interesting points I hadn't noticed or known. Firstly, the root verb KPR seems to be paralleled in Ugaritic (a related, now-defunct, Semitic language) by the root verb SLH, meaning to forgive (e.g. Ex 34:9), as is also paralleled in Lev 4:20 and 19:22 ad loc. Here, KaPaRaH/atonement is the human activity bringing about God's SeLiHaH/forgiveness of sin. Leviticus 12:7 further makes clear this 'wiping away of impurity' idea by the new mother's KaPaRaH/atonement results in purity/ToHoRaH (see also 12:26, 31, 35, 14:19). Hence, we get a more nuanced understanding of atonement/KaPaRaH to mean the action which results in the removal of the stigma of sin or ritual impurity.
Up till this point, we only understand what atonement does. We have yet to explore for whom KaPaRaH atones and when said atonement is effective. The ritual of the Day of Atonements/Yom Ha-Kippurim is designed to remove the sins, crimes, and iniquities of all the people Israel through confession (**Lev 16:2, 34) ultimately so that the sanctuary remains pure and God's presence continues to dwell therein.
It occurred to me that this Day of Atonements ritual could only function for the living inasmuch as those put to death for capital crimes can no longer have their sins transferred to the goat through confession. If so, only those guilty of lesser crimes would still be alive and able to repent their misdeeds. As it turns out, I was not the first person to notice this possible understanding. Jewish law harmonizes the justice of these two crimes (perhaps by clueing in on the plural form of 'atonements' to include the dead) by allowing that if the Torah's law is to be a just law, then the death of the criminal in court is a punishment that wipes away his sin/impurity. I have quoted a number of these points from a 12th century law code, Maimonides' Mishnah Torah, below***.
Ultimately, there can be no atonement without repentance as hinted at by the priestly confession and self-affliction particular to that day. Hence, a whole literature of what proper repentance is blossomed trying to be fair to all sinners as well as all saints. Can repentance remove sin if one intends to sin again? The Mishnah in the 2nd century answers no****. Can one achieve forgiveness from God for sins against a fellow human being? The Mishnah answers only if his fellow has first been appeased can God accept one's repentance. And what is complete and true repentance? Complete repentance, answers Maimonides, is when one is in a similar situation to that in which he sinned and he has so thoroughly revoked his evil inclination that he does not again sin (Teshuvah 2:1).
We have learned that we have a part in our state of moral purity, that it is up to ourselves to repair all our relationships to wipe away/KPR the ethical impurities we have accumulated. The Torah provides a ritual framework and a timetable for us to look inside ourselves and improve our lives. We are to shun the questionable ethical practices of foreigners and focus on the imperatives in God's life-giving law (Psalm 19:8, Leviticus 18:1-5). I must add that I do not think all Biblical laws are appropriate in detail to execute today, but that it is clear that their purpose was to focus man on the results of his practice. Eating animals in a predatory and primal nature is to be shunned (Lev 17:4,10,15) so that our restraint reminds us who we are as humans. Forgetting our power to construct our own universe of relationships with ourselves and the world renders us ritually and morally impure, in need of KaPaRaH/purification. And how we treat our relationships with others is ultimately what reflects our relationship with God.
May we all strive to treat others with respect and gain atonement!
Have a caring week!
Benjamin Fleischer
* KaPoReT, perhaps a means of wiping away sin, purifying the people, or appeasing God. See Olam haTanakh on Lev 16:2.
**Lev 16:21 "And Aharon shall lay his two hands on the head of the living hairy (goat) and confess upon it all the iniquities of the Children of Israel, and all their crimes, for all their sins, and put them on the head of the hairy (goat) and send it with a designated man to the wilderness."
Lev 16: 34 "And this shall be to you an everlasting rule to atone for the Children of Israel from all their sins once a year..."
Lev 18:1-5 Don't follow Egyptian or Canaanite law but "And you shall keep my rules and my laws by which if a man does them and he lives by them, I YHWH"
***Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah law code, 12th century CE, writes regarding repentance (translation slightly adapted by me):
Teshuvah 1:4
[1:9] Even though repentance atones for all transgressions, as does
the very aspect of the Day of Atonement, there are nevertheless some sins which
are not atoned for immediately upon repentance, and there are some which are
atoned only after some interval [after repentance]. If, for example, one had
transgressed a positive commandment which does not carry a penalty of excision
and one then repented, one is not atoned until one has been forgiven, for it is
written, "Return, faithless children, and I will restore your
decline" (Jer. 3:22).
[1:10] If, for example, one had transgressed a negative commandment which does not carry a penalty of excision or death and one then repented, then one's repentance is held in suspense, and the Day of Atonement completes the atonement, for it is written, "For on that day He will forgive you" (Lev 16:30).
[1:11] If, for example, one had transgressed a commandment which carries a penalty of excision or death and one then repented, then one's repentance and the atonement of the Day of Atonement are held in suspense, and one's death completes the atonement. Full atonement is never really achieved until the punishment is carried out, for it is written, "...then I will punish their transgression with the reed, and their iniquities with lashes" (Psalm 89:33).
[1:12] This is talking only about a situation where one hadn't desecrated God's Name when one transgressed, but if one had desecrated God's Name then even if one repented and the Day of Atonement arrived and one received one's punishment, one's atonement is completed only after one's death, for it is written, "And it was revealed to me by the Lord of Hosts; surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven for you till you die" (Isaiah 22:14).
Teshuvah 2:1 Repentance is completed when an opportunity to commit one's original transgression again arises but one doesn't and repents instead, but not if the reason for repenting was that someone was watching or because of physical weakness....
Teshuvah 2:2
[2:3] What exactly is repentance? Repentance involves forsaking sins
and removing such thoughts from one's way of thinking and resolving firmly never
to do it again, as it is written, "Let the wicked man forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord" (Isaiah
55:7). One
should also be remorseful over what one has done, as it is written, "For
after I had returned away I repented" (Jer 31:18). One also has to testify to God that
one will never return to that sin, as it is written, "...nor shall we say
any more to the work of our hands" (Hoshea 14:4). All of these three declarations have to
be made out loud.
Teshuvah 1:2
[1:6] ...for without repentance the goat sent to Azazel repents only
for the less-severe transgressions.
[1:7] Severe transgression are those which a Court of Law can punish by death, or which carry a penalty of excision, and also false oaths and falsehood, even though they do not bear a penalty of excision. Transgressions of negative commandments or other transgressions the transgression of which does not carry a penalty of excision are considered less-severe.
If a person said,
“I will sin and repent, and sin again and repent,” it is not enough for him to do repentance.
“I will sin and the Day of Atonements atones,” the Day of Atonements does not atone.
Transgressions between man and God, the Day of Atonement atones.
Transgressions between a man and his fellow, the Day of Atonement does not atone until one appeases his fellow [by asking for and receiving his forgiveness -BF].
You are also welcome to send comments and suggestions to bfleischer@nyc.rr.com