Parsha for Kids: Shemini 2023
Below is the transcript for this week’s episode of Parsha for Kids, Shemini 2023.
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Season 3 Episode 3:
Hello! My name is Chana and this is Parsha for Kids. The Parsha of the week is Shemini. Shemini means “eighth.”
But the eighth of what?
It referred to the eighth day after the seven days of Miluim, or preparation and training for how to use the Mishkan. This was inauguration day, dedication day, the special day when Aharon and his sons would step into their roles as kohanim, priests, and Bnei Yisrael would see whether or not God had chosen to accept all their hard work.
Have you ever seen a building project? Maybe your house was being remodeled and a new bathroom or kitchen was being put in. Or maybe your school was being rebuilt. If you have, then you may know what it feels like when the building project finally comes to an end. After weeks or months of planning, construction and execution, finally, the building is ready. At this point, you get to use it, or move into it, or begin school there. It is finally ready to be used for its true purpose.
As you can imagine, this is a very exciting time. And Bnei Yisrael were extremely excited. They were waiting to see God’s presence rest upon the Mishkan in the form of His cloud. They knew that this would signal God’s pleasure at their having created a place for them to connect with Him.
TRANSITION
Everything started off well.
On the eighth day of the Miluim, the first day of the month of Nissan, Moshe called Aharon, his sons and the elders of Bnei Yisrael to come together.
Moshe told Aharon to take a bull calf as a chatat or sin offering. According to Rashi, Aharon’s offering up this chatat was a way of God demonstrating that He had forgiven Aharon for his part in the situation involving the Golden Calf. There were additional korbanot Aharon needed to offer as well but they would be on behalf of the entire nation.
Moshe explained that once Aharon had successfully offered the korbanot, וְיֵרָ֥א אֲלֵיכֶ֖ם כְּב֥וֹד יְהֹוָֽה, the glory of God would appear to you. This meant that God’s presence, in a cloud, would come to rest upon the Mishkan.
So Aharon and his sons approached the mizbeach, altar and did as Moshe instructed. After Aharon had finished offering up all the sacrifices, he lifted up his hands towards the nation and blessed them. Rashi explains that he blessed them with the Birkat Kohanim that our kohanim still say today.
יְבָרֶכְךָ֥ יְהֹוָ֖ה וְיִשְׁמְרֶֽךָ- May God bless you and keep you
יָאֵ֨ר יְהֹוָ֧ה ׀ פָּנָ֛יו אֵלֶ֖יךָ וִֽיחֻנֶּֽךָּ- May God make His face shine towards you and give you favor.
יִשָּׂ֨א יְהֹוָ֤ה ׀ פָּנָיו֙ אֵלֶ֔יךָ וְיָשֵׂ֥ם לְךָ֖ שָׁלֽוֹם- May God lift His face to you and give you peace.
The text of this prayer is not written down in our parsha, but appears later in Sefer Bamidbar, the Book of Numbers.
Aharon then came down from the Mizbeach. Rashi tells us that Aharon expected God’s presence to immediately come down and rest upon the Mishkan. When this did not happen, Aharon became upset. He turned to Moshe and said, “My brother Moshe, is this what you have done to me, that I have done the work required and am now being embarrassed? I know that God must still be angry with me about the Golden Calf and that’s why the Shechinah didn’t come down!” Moshe did not want to see his brother in distress. Immediately, he entered the Mishkan together with Aharon. There, they both prayed for mercy from God. They came out and blessed the people. This time they did not say the Birkat Kohanim- that was a special prayer only for Aharon and other priests to say. Instead, Rashi says that they blessed the nation with words found in Sefer Tehillim, the Book of Psalms. They said:
וִיהִי נֹעַם ה' אֱלֹהֵינוּ עָלֵינוּ, יְהִי רָצוֹן שֶׁתִּשְׁרֶה שְׁכִינָה בְמַעֲשֵׂה יְדֵיכֶם
This means, “May the pleasantness of the Lord our God be upon us; May it be God’s will that the Shechinah rest in the work of your- meaning Bnei Yisrael’s- hands.”
Rashi explains that Bnei Yisrael had been disappointed during the seven training days when Moshe was setting up and taking down the Mishkan. Each day, the Children of Israel hoped that God’s presence would rest upon the Mishkan, and each day, it did not. They worried that perhaps God was still angry with them about the sin of the Golden Calf. Moshe reassured them and told them that on the ACTUAL day of inauguration, when the Mishkan truly was dedicated for real, God’s presence would rest upon the building that the nation of Israel had so lovingly and painstakingly created.
And indeed, that is exactly what happened. The glory of God appeared to all the people.
We learn several lessons from this narrative.
First, we learn that Moshe and Aharon were close brothers. You might have thought that since Moshe was raised by Bat Pharoah in the palace while Aharon was raised by his own Jewish father and mother, maybe the two of them did not get along. But that is not the case at all. Not only did they get along, but Moshe felt Aharon’s pain acutely. When he saw Aharon was distressed that the Shechinah wasn’t coming down, he went immediately to pray with him. And he also reassured the nation that Aharon was more worthy and important than he, Moshe, was. Once Aharon performed the avodah, or service, in the Mishkan, the Shechinah would indeed come down. And that is exactly what happened.
The second thing we learn is an example of how to give a beautiful blessing. We will talk more about the Birkat Kohanim when we get to Sefer Bamidbar, but each line of that blessing has a deeper intricate meaning. For now, we will focus on the blessing that Moshe and Aharon BOTH gave to the Children of Israel. They blessed them “May it be God’s will that the Shechinah rest in the work of your hands.”
This is a blessing we can and should still give each other today. When someone has worked hard to create something for God, we hope that God dwells in whatever they have created. During the time when Bnei Yisrael were in the Midbar, this referred to having God rest in a physical dwelling place, the Mishkan. But nowadays, maybe a person works hard as a doctor in an effort to heal their patient. Maybe a person works hard as a teacher in an effort to inspire their students. Maybe a parent works hard in an effort to make sure their children grow up to be fine, upstanding people. It is proper to bless people that God should dwell in the work of their hands- that God should be found in the place where they have put in the utmost effort.
TRANSITION
Fire came down from heaven and devoured the korbanot that Aharon had prepared upon the mizbeach. When the nation saw this, they were amazed, sang songs of praise, and prostrated themselves before God (which means they stretched out their whole bodies on the ground as a way of bowing to God.)
As you can see, everything was going well. It was dedication day. The Mishkan was beautiful, shining and gleaming in the sunlight. There was a sense of joy and euphoria. Aharon had been forgiven for helping to make the Golden Calf. The nation had been forgiven as well. They had seen God rest upon the Mishkan and had witnessed God send His holy fire to devour the korbanot.
But then tragedy struck.
Something went wrong.
Two of Aharon’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, took their pans, put fire in them and placed ketores, good smelling spices, upon it. They brought an eish zarah, strange fire, before God, which He had not commanded them to bring.
Fire came down from God and burned them on the inside, so that they died before God.
Can you imagine? On this, the most special, exciting and celebratory of days, on this, the day that the kohanim were beginning their service, two of the kohanim, Nadav and Avihu, lay dead within the Mishkan.
Why did God do this? What had Nadav and Avihu done wrong?
This is a matter of great debate. The commentaries have many different ideas as to what Nadav and Avihu’s mistake was, and why they died for it. The approach that I am going to share with you comes from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
Rabbi Sacks explains that there are two different ways in which God connects to and communicates with Bnei Yisrael. One way is through the Navi, or prophet. Moshe, for example, was a Navi for God.
The other way is through the Kohen, or priest.
There are different rules regarding how a Navi can and does behave as opposed to a Kohen. Here’s the thing about a Navi. Their job is to connect the nation of Israel to God, and God to the nation of Israel. This means they need to get creative. Some Neviim might choose to give beautiful speeches or share poems meant to connect Bnei Yisrael to God. Other Neviim might try to illustrate their ideas through telling stories, or using props like clay jugs or yokes. Neviim do not need to speak in the same way, dress in the same way, or come from the same family. They are different according to the needs of each Jewish generation. As a Navi, Moshe was able to make the decision to throw down the Luchot and break them when he saw the sin of the Golden Calf being committed. He knew he needed to get Bnei Yisrael’s attention and thought this was the best way.
But a Kohen is different. A kohen must follow precise rules. A Kohen has special rules about the types of clothing they must wear when they are on duty in the Mishkan. They must offer the korbanot in a certain way and style and they must not deviate from it. A korban chatat or korban olah or korban mincha must always be offered in the same way. It should not matter whether Shimon the Kohen is on duty or if Yossi the Kohen is on duty. If I as a member of Bnei Yisrael come to the Mishkan to bring up my korban, it should be offered the same way each and every time, and the kohen should be dressed in the same special ceremonial garments each and every time. The way a Kohen connects Bnei Yisrael to God is through timeless tradition. It is a tradition that is always the same and will always stay the same, whether the Kohen is offering up the korbanot or lighting the Menorah in the Midbar, wilderness, or Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel.
If you think about it, you will realize that there are times in your own life when you want things to be different and times when you want things to stay the same. For example, you probably enjoy receiving different presents on each birthday. You wouldn’t want to get the same one over and over again. You are excited to learn about and play with a new present each time. In contrast, you are probably happy to have one or two teachers in your classroom each year who stay the same. Imagine if every single day you had a completely new and different teacher who had to learn your names and who you were from scratch and try to teach you something. That would lead to chaos and be very frustrating. It would be impossible to learn.
The problem, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks says, is that Nadav and Avihu made a mistake. They confused the role of the Navi, who is supposed to be creative, with the role of the Kohen, who is supposed to remain tied to tradition and do things the exact same way each time. By deciding to offer their own korban that had not been commanded by God, Nadav and Avihu were stepping into the role of being spontaneous and creative. But that was not the right role for them to inhabit within the Mishkan.
The Mishkan was a holy place, but it was also a dangerous place. It was not a small thing for God’s presence to rest there. Think of electricity. Electricity is powerful and important. It is what allows us to turn lights on, to get energy to power our computers and phones, and much more. But if you stick a key in an electric outlet, you can hurt yourself and maybe even die. When you use something powerful in the wrong way, there can be severe consequences. And that is what happened with Nadav and Avihu.
Nadav and Avihu’s deaths served a purpose, because they taught everyone in Bnei Yisrael a very important lesson. People needed to be careful in how they connected to and served God. They needed to make sure they were doing it in the right way. Making up their own ideas about how it should work was usually not correct.
After the deaths, Moshe told Aharon, “This is what the Lord spoke when He said ‘I will be made holy through those near me, and before all the people, I will be glorified.’”
TRANSITION
How did Aharon react to the deaths of his sons? One moment, Aharon had been rejoicing that he had properly done everything God asked of him. The next moment, two of his children were dead.
The pasuk tells us “Vayidom Aharon” - and Aharon was silent.
But why was Aharon silent?
Was he silent because he understood why Nadav and Avihu had died, and accepted their deaths as just even though he was sad about them? Was he silent because he simply did not have any words to say? Was he silent because he was shocked?
Different commentaries disagree as to the reason behind Aharon’s silence.
In any event, the situation needed to be dealt with. So Moshe told Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aharon’s uncle Uziel, to pull out Nadav and Avihu from the Mishkan by their long shirts. (This is why Rashi thinks they burned from the inside but not from the outside; because Nadav and Avihu’s shirts were still able to be used to pull their bodies out of the Mishkan.)
Then Moshe spoke to Aharon and his two other sons, Elazar and Itamar. He warned them that they were not allowed to engage in public mourning practices. They could not tear their clothing in mourning and they could not allow their hair to grow long. But everyone else in Bnei Yisrael could and would mourn on behalf of Nadav and Avihu.
Why weren’t Aharon and his other two sons permitted to mourn publicly?
It was because they had two different roles. On the one hand, they were private individuals- fathers and brothers who were sad that their sons and siblings had died. But on the other hand, they were the representatives of the entire nation as Kohanim. And this was still a happy day, the day that the Mishkan was being dedicated. Their mourning would have taken away from the overall joy of the day, and in their public role, this was not permitted.
If you think about it, even nowadays there are people who are in positions like this. For example, the President of the United States needs to inspire calm and confidence in his or her nation, even when there is a crisis. There have been times in American history where something horrible happened and the President probably just wanted to sit down and cry. But the nation did not need the President’s tears right then; they needed his leadership. And the same likely applied in this situation.
During the COVID 19 pandemic, the Queen of England gave a remarkable speech that also showcases this idea of leadership during a time of crisis. I am sure the Queen was very upset about the number of people in her country who were sick as coronavirus swept the nation. But her speech was one of hope. She acknowledged that she was speaking to the nation during a challenging time. She thanked all doctors, healthcare workers and essential workers for their help. She also thanked those who were staying at home in order to stop the spread. And she stated, “We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.”
People who are in a position of leadership do not always have the luxury of being able to cry or break down publicly. This means that we as private individuals can feel even more respect and admiration towards them, because even when they may be feeling very sad, they focus on how to best help us in their role of aiding the nation.
TRANSITION
God spoke to Aharon and informed him of a new rule. The kohanim were not permitted to drink wine that would lead to becoming drunk before going to perform their avodah in the Mishkan. First, it would not be respectful to God to serve Him while drunk. Second, if the kohanim were drunk, they might be more likely to make mistakes, which could potentially lead to more of their deaths, something God did not want.
TRANSITION
Later in this parsha, God spoke to Moshe and Aharon and taught them which animals are kosher and which animals are non-kosher.
We can tell a land animal is kosher if it has split hooves and chews its cud. Chewing its cud means that the animal returns food from the stomach to the mouth and chews it a second time.
An animal needs both of these signs in order to be kosher. If it only has one of these signs, it is not kosher. A pig, for example, has split hooves, but it does not chew its cud, so it is not kosher.
When it comes to water creatures, like fish, the fish must have fins and scales in order to be kosher. For this reason, Jews cannot eat jellyfish, or crabs, or shrimp, or any kind of water creature that does not have fins and scales.
When it comes to birds, God does not give us a sign regarding which birds are kosher. Instead, God taught Moshe and Aharon which birds were not kosher. There are 24 forbidden birds. They are birds of prey and hold their prey with their claws. The eagle, raven and stork are examples of birds on the list. We can eat birds that are not on the list, but in practice, we only eat those birds where we have a reliable mesorah, or chain of tradition, that says they are kosher.
We are forbidden to eat insects and creeping animals like snakes, scorpions and worms. There are eight kinds of grasshoppers we would be permitted to eat per the Torah, but most of us do not have a reliable tradition regarding which ones are kosher and which ones are not, which is why most of us don’t eat grasshoppers.
The Torah also clarifies that just as the meat of non-kosher animals is forbidden, we may not drink their milk. We can only drink milk that comes from a kosher animal.
TRANSITION
There is a certain spiritual state called being tamei. Tamei means being impure, but it doesn’t refer to impurity because you are physically dirty. It is simply a status a person is in until they take steps to return to a status of being tahor, pure, which usually means they would be eligible to go into the courtyard of the Mishkan and offer a korban. When someone is tamei they are not allowed to go into the courtyard of the Mishkan.
Some of you who lived through coronavirus might remember that there, too, you could have different kinds of status. You could be covid positive, in which case you might need to isolate and quarantine for a certain number of days. You could be covid negative, in which case you might be able to go out into society. And you could have taken your COVID test but not gotten the results yet (before the days where we had at-home COVID tests) which means you would be in limbo, having to stay at home or wear a mask wherever you went until you figured out whether or not you had COVID.
At the end of this week’s parsha, God tells us that certain animals can make us tamei when we touch them. This includes a dead animal not slaughtered according to Jewish law, which is called a neveila. There are also eight species of creeping creatures, like a mouse or lizard, which can make a person tamei if the person touches the creature when it is dead. If one of these eight dead animals touches a dish it too becomes tamei.
There are then certain rules about what a Jew must do to return to a state of being tahor, or pure. Some of these rules involve dipping one’s body or one’s clothing into a body of natural water like a spring or cistern, and then waiting until evening to become tahor again.
TRANSITION
So here’s what we learned this week!
Moshe and Aharon had a strong relationship as brothers. Moshe wanted the best for Aharon and was willing to pray for him.
It is a beautiful blessing to tell people that you hope God blesses the work of their hands, which is what Moshe and Aharon told Bnei Yisrael about the Mishkan.
Sometimes the same exact day can be a time of extreme joy and also extreme sadness.
Leaders are sometimes placed in a difficult position because they are expected to lead a nation during a time of crisis. This means they might have to tamp down their expression of how they feel, including their personal sadness, in order to lead the nation well.
We learned how to determine if an animal, fish or bird is kosher.
We learned a little bit about the laws of tumah and tahara, which means spiritual purity and impurity.
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!