Shabbat Shalom from Valerie Russo

In this week’s Torah portion, Moses and Aaron are told by God that they will not enter the Promised Land. Further, God instructs that Aaron’s vestments be put on his son Eleazar prior to Aaron’s death.

As I read this passage, I could almost picture Aaron taking his vestments and deliberately, carefully, with honor and with love, literally passing them down. I wondered, what might those vestments hold? What lessons, what wisdom, what history and tradition, what encouragement, is Aaron passing down to his son, to the next generation, in that moment? How will Eleazar use these gifts?

This passage leads me to think about the gifts, the love, the traditions, the support, the sense of responsibility that have been passed down to me by my parents, and the opportunities I’ve had recently to once again, but with ever deeper understanding and appreciation, express to them my gratitude, in words and in actions, for those gifts. The parashah also offers a reminder to focus, with heightened intentionality, on the opportunities to pass down the present-day equivalent of those vestments to our own children, to our loved ones, to the next generation.

What lessons, what wisdom, have been passed on to you? How have you used those gifts? How has your appreciation for them deepened over time? How might you use those gifts going forward? What lessons are you passing down to your loved ones and to the next generation, to those who look up to you? What lessons should you be passing down, but haven’t yet done so?

Shabbat Shalom.

–Valerie Russo, Executive Director of PAS