Miller's Musings Parshas Emor: Pure and Simple
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The very word ‘impure’ carries immensely negative connotations. Impurity is something we would always try to avoid, yet it seems from our Parsha that this is never more so than for Kohanim. They were required to distance themselves in particular from the spiritual defilement engendered by coming in contact with a dead body, in the Kohen Godol’s case, even that of a close relative. We must therefore ask why Kohanim were especially sensitive to this source of contamination, as opposed to anyone else?
The cause of Odom and Chava’s banishment from Gan Eden was their eating from the Tree of Knowledge when they were expressly told not to. But the Shem MiShmuel tells us if we delve deeper and look for what precisely led to such a terrible error, it was in fact a lacking in the trait of ‘Temimus’-‘Simplicity’. Far from being a naive or unsophisticated way of thinking, it rather means a wholehearted, active decision to do that which is right and that which we are commanded without a need for considerations of whether they are right or wrong in our mind. It is a deep trust in Hashem that requires no explanation for His actions or instructions. When the snake ensnared Chava, suggesting that Hashem only forbade the fruit in order to protect Himself, Chava should have responded with this ‘simple’ mode of thought and fulfilled Hashem’s bidding unconditionally. Death in the world was the outcome of this terrible error, which occurs when the forces of impurity bombard and cleave to a person to the extent that the soul can no longer bear it and is forced to leave the body. A lack of this Temimus in Odom and Chava allowed impurity into the body thus creating the possibility of death. Aharon, the archetype and primogenitor of all Kohanim, epitomised this quality of simplicity, as evidenced by his absolute silence after the death of his sons and after the decree preventing him from entering the Holy Land. Hence all future generations of Kohanim had to also embody this attribute. This is why impurity, the diametric opposite, enemy of ‘Simplicity’ and that which attacks when it is absent, had to be kept far away from the Kohanim as much as is possible.
Not to question what we are told is something that is inherently challenging for all of us. Our ego demands that if there is something we are commanded, we deserve to know why. If there is something that happens to us, we have the right to know the reason. But when it is Hashem that is bringing it about, and ultimately it always is, then there is in truth no place nor no need for questioning. He is our Loving father who only created us for our benefit and only wants good for us. If He asks us to do something, it is because that which He asks will bring us true happiness and genuine betterment for ourselves. We need to remind ourselves of this whenever we face disappointment and loss. We must retell ourselves this whenever there is a task that we do not understand. Simplicity is not blind faith without reason. It is a firm resolve that we trust that Hashem only desires good for us and know that He guides our lives with the greatest love, care and compassion that is imaginable and infinitely more besides.
*May the purity of Shabbos endow us with a purity of faith in Him*
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