Bring The Sacred Down To Earth, Longform, Longform, This Week In Wisdom, Uncategorized / 17 Jun 2021

Passing the Mantle

Torah is endless. We conclude our reading of Deuteronomy and begin anew with Genesis in the same breath each Simchat Torah. It is continuous, a blueprint for the world that unfolds before us. By contrast, the humans spoken of in the Torah are temporal beings, whose ends are sometimes of greater significance than their beginnings. In this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Chukat (Numbers 19:1 – 22:1), we read of the death of the original High Priest, Aaron. We know far more about it than we do of his birth, or even of his early years. Its finality resounds, both painfully and in a manner that offers release to the spiritual leader and spokesperson for our great prophet Moses. Entwined with emotion, we learn that the very same act that precipitates Aaron’s death ensures the continuity of his life’s work: the priesthood. What a lesson about the holy potential and pain inherent to our life’s work, or even our more quotidian work, to a close. In Numbers 20:26, we hear God’s commands to Moses for Aaron’s final moments upon Mount Hor: “Strip Aaron of his vestments and put them on his son Eleazar. There Aaron shall be gathered unto the dead.” The Medieval commentator, Abraham Ibn Ezra, emphasizes that the very instant that Moses strips Aaron of his priestly garments, Aaron will die. At first glance, the circumstances of Aaron’s demise seem anything but uplifting: Moses’ disobedience to God — and Aaron’s evident complicity — ensure that neither will enter the Promised Land. Yet there is also softness in the denouement of Aaron’s life, suggesting that this ostensible punishment might also be a backhanded blessing to one who does not know how to let go. Aaron is gifted with the chance to work until his very last day, living out his…

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