Parsha for Kids: Acharei Mot 2023
Below is the transcript for this week’s episode of Parsha for Kids, Acharei Mot 2023.
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Season 3 Episode 6:
Hello! My name is Chana and this is Parsha for Kids. The Parsha of the week is Acharei Mot. Acharei Mot means “after the death.” In this case, it refers to the time period after the deaths of Aharon’s two sons, Nadav and Avihu.
This parsha starts out with a warning. Before we get to the warning, here is some relevant background. There were three sections in the Mishkan. The Azara, or courtyard, was where the Mizbeach HaNechoshet, or copper altar, was housed. Regular people were allowed to come there to offer korbanot. The second section was called the Kodesh, or Holy, and contained the Menorah, or candelabra in English, Mizbeach HaZahav, golden altar, and Shulchan, table. The third section was called the Kodesh HaKedoshim, or Holy of Holies. This is where the Aron, or Ark, was housed.
God warned Aharon that he was not permitted to enter the Kodesh HaKedoshim whenever he pleased. He was only allowed to enter during a specific day- Yom Kippur- and even then, only during particular moments during the avodah, or service.
It seems that God gave Aharon this warning because He wanted to make sure that Aharon would not die the same way his sons Nadav and Avihu had died. Clarifying the rules of exactly how Aharon was to conduct himself in the Mishkan would ensure that outcome did not occur.
TRANSITION
God then taught Moshe the laws of the Yom Kippur Avodah. Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish year, and it means Day of Atonement. It is when we as a nation have the opportunity to cleanse ourselves, atone for our sins, and start fresh.
Yom Kippur is a special day for the Kohen Gadol, or high priest, which Aharon was. There is a very involved service that must be performed that day. All of the korbanos of Yom Kippur are offered by the Kohen Gadol, and not by the regular kohanim.
You may remember that the Kohen Gadol wore eight garments in total. Four of them resembled the garments that a kohen hedyot, or regular kohen, wore. These were the white pants, long shirt, belt and turban. The other four garments were special for the Kohen Gadol. They contained gold. These were the me’il, or coat, which had golden bells dangling from its hem, Choshen, or breastplate, which contained the gems symbolizing the twelve tribes, the aifod, or apron and tzitz, or golden piece worn across the forehead that said Kodesh L’adonoy, Holy for God.
On Yom Kippur, before the Kohen Gadol would go into the Kodesh HaKedoshim, he took off his four golden garments. One of the reasons behind this was so as not to remind God of anything wrong Bnei Yisrael did. One of the wrong choices Bnei Yisrael had made was creating the Golden Calf, so the Kohen Gadol was careful not to call attention to their sin by not wearing his gold garments. Additionally, this meant the Kohen Gadol was only clothed in white. White symbolizes purity, which is something we try to achieve on Yom Kippur.
The Kohen Gadol changed his clothes on Yom Kippur five times. Each time he dipped his body in a mikveh, or natural body of water such as a spring, stream or collection of rainwater.
TRANSITION
The Kohen Gadol brought special Korbanot on Yom Kippur. These included:
The Korban Musaf, which was made up of a bull, ram, seven sheep and a goat, and paid for with public money
The Kohen Gadol’s personal korbanot, which he paid for with his own money. These included a bull as a chatat offering, a ram that was burned as an olah, and two goats.
We’re going to talk more about the two goats and the way in which they were offered - it’s very interesting! The Kohen Gadol would stand in the courtyard with his segan, or assistant kohen gadol, to his right. On his left stood the leader of the division of kohanim who were on duty that week.
Two goats stood in the courtyard. One would be for God and the other would be for Azazel. The Kohen Gadol stood before a wooden box containing two lots that were made of wood. One had the word “L’Adonoy,” for God, written on it, and the other had the word “L’Azazel,” for Azazel, written on it. The Kohen Gadol put both of his hands in the box and took one lot in each hand. He put the lot that came up in his right hand on the head of the goat standing at his right, and put the lot that came up in his left hand on the head of the goat at the left.
The goat that had the lot that was for God would be offered up as a chatat, sin offering, sacrifice to God. The goat was slaughtered in the courtyard and its blood was later sprinkled in the Kodesh HaKedoshim, Holy of Holies.
According to the Midrash, the goat for Azazel was taken to the desert by a special messenger who had been selected for this role before Yom Kippur. This messenger pushed the goat down a cliff, where it died.
Why did God command this? We do not know the answer. This is one of the chukim of the Torah, where we cannot come up with a rational reason as to why this law exists. (That makes it different from the kind of law we do understand, like “Do not steal.” Obviously if everyone was stealing from one another, society would not be a safe or good place to be.)
The Midrash understands the word Azazel as being a name for the accusing angel Satan. Since Satan receives the goat as a gift, he does not criticize Bnei Yisrael on the day of Yom Kippur. Through fulfilling this unusual mitzvah, Bnei Yisrael demonstrate their close relationship with God, and Satan refrains from criticizing them. This enables God to forgive Bnei Yisrael’s sins.
TRANSITION
The Kohen Gadol goes into the Kodesh HaKedoshim four times on Yom Kippur. This is what he does each time he is there:
First time- he offers ketoret, good smelling spices.
Second time- he sprinkles the blood of his own bull eight times in front of the Aron
Third time- he sprinkles the blood of the goat “for God” eight times.
Fourth time- He returns to take out the spoon and pan that he left in the Kodesh HaKedoshim after burning the good smelling spices.
It was dangerous to enter the Kodesh HaKedoshim, even on this holy day. For this reason, before the Kohen Gadol entered, a golden chain was attached to his foot. That way, he could be pulled out of the Kodesh HaKedoshim if he died.
TRANSITION
Yom Kippur is referred to as “Shabbat Shabbaton” within this parsha, a Shabbat of eternal rest for you. We are told that we must afflict ourselves on this day. What this means practically is that a Jewish boy who is 13 years of age or older and a Jewish girl who is 12 years of age or older fasts for the entire day. They may not eat or drink. Additionally, we don’t wear leather shoes or put lotion, creams or perfumes on our bodies on this day.
Once the Beit Hamikdash was destroyed, we were no longer able to bring korbanot and witness the Kohen Gadol performing the Yom Kippur Avodah. Nowadays, we perform the avodah with our lips, using our words to pray to God and to talk about the korbanot we would perform if the Beit Hamikdash was rebuilt.
On this day, we are purified before God. God removes any impurity from us that we created by performing aveirot, sins, as long as we sincerely repent. However, when it comes to mitzvot bein adam l’chaveiro, between a man and his fellow, we also first need to apologize and ask forgiveness from the human we hurt. To sincerely repent means we truly are sorry and do not intend to perform the sin again. It also means we didn’t go into Yom Kippur with an attitude where we decided we would sin the whole year only to ask forgiveness on Yom Kippur- that won’t work.
TRANSITION
God clarifies in this week’s parsha that when we have a central place of worship, such as a Mishkan or Beit Hamikdash, we are no longer allowed to offer korbanot on a personal mizbeach that we might build elsewhere. For example, we cannot make our own mizbeach outside of our home and decided to offer korbanot there rather than traveling to the Mishkan to offer our korbanot.
There are several reasons this makes sense. First, it ensures a sense of community- because everyone is coming to one location, especially on special holidays like Pesach, Sukkot and Shavuot- to worship and bring offerings together. Second, if people were allowed to offer their personal korbanot near their homes, over time this practice might become corrupted and they might start offering these korbanot to idols, which would be a big problem.
TRANSITION
God warns us not to eat an animal’s blood, a decree we also saw earlier, because an animal’s blood contains its soul or life force. (This is why we salt our meat as part of making it kosher, because salt absorbs and removes blood from the meat..)
We also are not allowed to eat a neveilah, which is an animal that died on its own or was not slaughtered according to Jewish law.
We also cannot eat a tereifa, which is an animal that was harmed by another animal. It is also called a tereifa if it is missing a major organ or if the organ is so damaged that the animal would not have survived for another year.
We also learn about a special mitzvah called kisuy hadam, covering the blood of wild kosher animals and birds. If a person slaughters a deer or a bird, we must cover its blood with earth. We do this out of respect.
But why do wild animals and birds specifically deserve this? The Midrash tells us it is because of a story that took place in Sefer Bereshit, that of Kayin and Hevel. This was when Kayin decided to strike his brother and ultimately killed him. What happened to Hevel’s body? According to Midrash, the birds and wild kosher animals dug a grave for Hevel and buried him. That is why if we kill them we cover their blood with earth.
TRANSITION
Moshe warns Bnei Yisrael about behaviors they saw modeled in Egypt. For example, the Egyptians would allow a brother to marry his sister, or a mother to marry her son. The Canaanites in the land of Canaan would permit similar things. Moshe explained that God had declared that we as the Jewish people were forbidden to copy these behaviors.
A Jew cannot marry his mother, stepmother, sister, daughter, granddaughter, aunt, or daughter-in-law. He also cannot marry a woman and also marry that woman’s sister, daughter or granddaughter in addition to her.
If someone deliberately chooses to enter a forbidden marriage, God says He will punish that person with Kareit. Kareit means “to be cut off.” There are several interpretations of what that cutting off looks like. Some of them include that the Jew might die young, or he might die but without having children. Additionally, it could refer to God cutting off his soul’s access to Olam HaBa, the World to Come, such that the soul will not be able to connect with God.
God explains that the Land of Israel is a holy land and it cannot tolerate sin. If the Jewish people engage in these forbidden marriages, the land will spit us out, having become “sick” as it were because of our sins.
God also forbids us to engage in a kind of worship called Molech worship. Molech was an idol. The way to serve this idol was for parents to have their children pass through his fire. The children walked through two rows of fire, and often the fire burned them severely or even killed them. God forbids us to give any child to Molech and tells us not to imitate these idol worshippers.
TRANSITION
So here’s what we learned this week!
The Yom Kippur avodah was an incredibly elaborate, special affair. Anyone who witnessed it was awed. It was the most important day of the Kohen Gadol’s life, and a responsibility the priest had to take very seriously.
Nowadays, we respect Yom Kippur through prayer, fasting, and remembering and referencing the amazing avodah the kohen would have performed on that day.
God rewards good deeds, which is why we must cover the blood of wild kosher animals and birds - since they helped bury Hevel.
We must be careful not to engage in forbidden relationships, even though they were what we saw modeled in Egypt and were going to see modeled in Canaan. Just because other people are doing something does not mean it is the right thing for us as Jews to do.
If you have any questions or comments on this week’s episode, please email me at parsha4kids@gmail.com. That’s parsha the number 4 kids at gmail.com. Good Shabbos!
