If you were to think of the worst day of your life, what would it be? There are so many different answers and so many different possible ways of having a terrible experience that the constellation of tzoris is as wide as the world is broad. In fact, the well of pain seem endless. I think the writer of Ecclesiastes must have felt this way too when he said, “..the day of death than the day of one’s birth.” Talk about being in a lousy place!
One of the truths about Jewish tradition and culture is that we wear our troubles on our sleeve. Prophets were always complaining about their troubles. Job speaks about his troubles and doubts for an astounding 42 chapters in our Tanach. And Ecclesiastes goes on and on about how useless everything is. I suppose that is the origin of the joke about the waiter who, upon waiting a table filled with Jewish patrons asked, “Is anything alright?”
Ours is indeed a tradition of complaining. After all, what is a complaint that the expression of a desire for something to be better? In fact, this entire nation is built upon complaints – we complained to the British, we complained to slave holders, we complained to the racists, and so on. In fact, complaining is the first step in being a prophet. Prophets do not soothe first – they kvetch first and bind the wounds later.
There are good reasons to complain and on one particular day long ago, Moses and his brother Aaron had lots of reasons to just want to go home and forget about the whole deal. In this week’s portion, the culmination of the dedication of the Tabernacle is all set and, on the eight day, Aaron and his sons are about to be ordained as the priests. Everything is moving along like clockwork and then the unthinkable happens: Aaron’s sons Nadav and Abihu offer an unauthorized sacrifice at the altar. And, ‘poof’ – just like that, God turns them into ashes. Even though we have no indication of exactly when it happened, the story can be easily read as if it happened right after Aaron and his sons were all ordained. It is as if the new rabbi rode into town and immediately upon arriving proceeds to dismiss, disregard and disrespect everything and everyone who came before – not that, God forbid, anything like that could ever happen!
And so Aaron was the new high priest and, on the same day perhaps, lost his two sons. But, wait, the day is just beginning.
Right after that event, there is another sacrifice, this time by Aaron’s two other sons, Eleazar and Ithamar. When they make their sacrifice, they do it in the wrong place and seem to do it all wrong. Upon seeing this, Moses basically freaks out and loses his temper with Aaron and with his remaining two sons. It takes a calmer Aaron – remember the same Aaron who just lost his two sons – to explain to Moses why his sons were right and did what they did. Moses agrees. The text tells us, ”and it was good in his eyes” which can be easily understood as “and he was good in his eyes.” But a moment later, Moses is much calmer. Indeed, in one moment he acknowledges Aaron as the expert, believes in his leadership, and understands that there is not just one leader of the Jewish people. It really is an extraordinary moment. After the death of Aaron’s sons, the embarrassment of Moses, the stress from the past eight days, the tumult of the ordination of the priests and the tension of all that put together – one might say that both Moses and Aaron had a lousy, terrible, no good day.
It is no wonder that right after this story God commands Aaron and his sons not to touch any alcohol or be intoxicated in the least degree before coming to the sacrifices. After all, on a day like they just had, I bet Moses and Aaron could have used a drink!
But they responded to the terrible day by doing something extraordinary. Aaron went back to the Tent of Meeting and spoke with God and Moses and Aaron have a conversation with God a little later where God tells them the kinds of food they can and can’t eat. In other words, Moses, Aaron and God all get past the terrible, lousy and screwed up day and get on with the challenges of living. Instead of kvetching and complaining – as they certainly had a right to do – everyone focused on life and the living, making the moments of life holy and choosing life even though the world seemed to fall apart.
There is such a valuable lesson in this episode and of Aaron and Moses’ reaction to everything that happened. It is as if our Torah, which began with the words, “Let there be light,” has transformed itself into “Let there be life.” And let that life not be one just of survival, but of meaning and holiness. So many people disparage the Book of Leviticus because they deem it to be of ancient and meaningless descriptions of sacrifices. But that is hardly the case. In this story alone we understand that even the greatest leaders have lousy days and from their lousy day they have taught us to never stay in the pit and wallow in self-pity. Life, we are told, is for the living. Moses and Aaron showed us what that meant. Through the pain of his loss, Aaron still sought holiness. Through the pain of his embarrassment, Moses grew to appreciate his brother’s gifts. No one denied the reality of the pain but neither did they dwell on it and immobilize themselves or the people.
Hugh O’Brian is an actor you may or may not know. He appeared in 164 episodes from 1955 – 1961 as Wyatt Earp. But today, his is a faded television memory, When he was interviewed about his career he said,
“I found out early that no matter who you are and no matter what business you are in, all of us go through five stages of life.
The first stage is: “Who is Hugh O’Brian?” This is where you begin your journey when you sow the seeds for success.
The second stage is: “Get me Hugh O’Brian.” That is when you have your first taste of success.
The third stage is: “Get me a Hugh O’Brian type.” That’s when you are successful—when you are at the top of the ladder, when they cannot afford you, but they want somebody like you.
The fourth stage is: “Get me a young Hugh O’Brian.” We all grow old through the fourth stage.
The fifth stage brings us back to the first: “Who is Hugh O’Brian?”
“Who is” is the question that brackets both ends of our lives. How we fill in the space between the brackets is something that Moses and Aaron have once again taught us. In our Talmud, Rabbi Simeon said, “There are three crowns. The crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood and the crown of kingship. But the crown of a good name excels them all.” I look at this verse in light of Aaron’s and Moses’ terrible day and I see that the crown of Torah is the crown that Moses wears. The crown of priesthood is Aaron’s crown. And God’s is, of course, the crown of kingship. But the crown of a good name excels them all – no matter how bad they all felt and no matter how much of a right they both felt they had to just pack it in, Moses and Aaron and God continued to reach for the holy. For they knew that what is holy is good and what is good is worth always reaching for.
It is told about Charles Steinmetz, famed electrical engineer who invented over 200 devices during his lifetime.
Puzzled scientists at a large corporation once called Steinmetz in to try to figure out the malfunctioning part of some complex machinery. He spent some time walking around the enormous machinery-filled room examining everything carefully.
Finally took out some chalk and marked an “X” on a particular part. The company engineers disassembled the machine and were amazed to see that he had found the precise location of the defect.
Some days later, the company received a bill for $10,000 from Steinmetz. Now this was in the early part of the 20th century when $10,000 was a fortune.
Annoyed, the company president requested an itemized bill that Steinmetz obligingly sent back. It listed:
Making one X in chalk——-$1.00
Knowing were to place it—-$9,999.00
Our lives are always works in progress. Our striving for holiness despite our failures, sins and even our disinclination to do so is one of the highest good we reach for. We need to know where to put the X’s in our lives so that we can find the defects and work through them despite the pain we know we may have caused or the pain that we are in. Our tradition always looks toward the future and that is the way it should be.
At the beginning of the sermon, I quoted Ecclesiastes who goes on and on about how pitiful life is and how the day of death is better than one’s day of birth. There is good evidence to show that the book ended on a very low and sour and self-pitying note. But ending the book like that was simply not Jewish. And so, before the book was voted into our bible, the Rabbis did something astounding. They turned it into a Jewish book by adding a couple of chapters. The added words that spoke of faith despite the sorrow, of choosing life over and especially after death, and of striving for holiness when all you feel is worthlessness. They did what Moses and Aaron did – they turned a terrible, no good, lousy day into something different and, in doing so, sought, and found, the holy.
May all of us seek the holy, acquire the good name, and choose life and hope despite all the pain. And may we, like our Rabbis, add chapters to our lives that speak of faith and holiness for in doing so, we would be following the footsteps of Moses and Aaron and God. And to do that is to be in pretty good company.
From <https://americanrabbi.com/moses-and-aarons-terrible-no-good-lousy-day-by-cy-stanway/>
