This portion Shemini covers a variety of topics. Our sages highlight the following: after seven days, which is the number of creation, the eighth day appears representing the circle, the spiritual, the day on which the service of the Mishkan would be inaugurated, teaching us that, to reach the Olam Habah, the World to Come, we must grow through service to God. We come full circle as we notice that the service was inaugurated on the first day of the month of Nisan when God began His creation in Bereshit.

Then, on a glorious day of rejoicing when God’s presence would be manifested, a tragic and unexpected incident took place after the office of the cohanim began – Aaron’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, were consumed by an Eish Zarah, a Divine fire. Notice that this fire was spiritual because we later read that Moses asked that their bodies and clothes be removed from the place, from which we can deduce that they were not burnt to death. Aaron was equally astonished and remained silent at what happened.

Then Moses has a disagreement with Aaron regarding the instructions for the offerings as he was mourning the loss of his sons. Next come the instructions on purity and impurity, beginning with our food and continuing with the ritual purity derived from the mikvah.

I want to focus today on the Haftarah, but not on the moment described in 2 Samuel 6, but rather on what had happened 20 years earlier. Let us not lose focus on Vayikra 11:45 “You shall be holy, for I am holy,”. The question then, is how do we achieve holiness? Following the previous idea, two verses can be interpreted to answer this question, the first is in Vayikra 10:11 “Only when you are sober will it be relevant for you to distinguish between the actions that sanctify your offerings and which ones disqualify them, making them profane” and the second is in Ezekiel 44:23 “And they will declare to my people what is holy and what is profane, and they will inform them of what is pure and what is impure”.

Let’s begin with 1 Samuel: 4 to 8. To summarize the history of those days, we read that Eli (which means “my God”) was serving as high priest; he had two sons, Pinchas (from peh-nachash or serpent’s mouth) and Hophni (meaning boxer or wrestler), descendants of Aaron who served as priests. Eli’s nature was to be pleasant with everyone; he got along with everyone he met and behaved, as we say in my country, “la fiesta en paz – the peaceful party”, so much so that he never reprimanded his sons, although they behaved very poorly in the Divine service, as we read 1 Samuel 2: 12-26.

Suddenly God issued His judgment against Eli’s house through a man of God declaring in 1 Samuel 2: 27-36 “You have honored your sons more than Me” (verse 29); “The time is coming when I will break your power and the power of your father’s house, and there will not be an old man in your house… And this will be a sign for you: the fate of your two sons, Hophni and Pinchas: both will die on the same day. And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will act according to My desires and My purposes. I will build him a lasting house, and he will walk before Me anointed forever. And all the survivors of your house will come and bow down to him for a reward and a morsel of bread, and they will say: ‘Please assign me a priestly task, so that I may eat a morsel of bread.’”

This sentence was handed down when Samuel was still a child, so there was no way he could have known about this incident. This young Samuel, not being the son of a descendant of Aaron, couldn’t have been a priest, yet he heard the voice of the Eternal. And Samuel again receives confirmation of the judgment upon the house of Eli (1 Sam. 3:13-18): “On that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I will condemn his house to eternal punishment for the iniquity of which he knew, for how his sons committed sacrilege at will and how he did not rebuke them. Surely, I swear by the house of Eli that the iniquity of the house of Eli will never be atoned for with sacrifice or offering.” However, unlike Eli, Samuel declared everything even though he was afraid to speak, which was evident from his age and his financial dependence on Eli, and it seems that the story of Aaron is repeated, when he says in verse 18, “He is the Lord; He will do what seems good to Him.” That is, he acted passively in the face of problems. We see how Aaron was passive and evasive in the incident of the golden calf as wells as this portion regarding his sons.

And this is how 1 Samuel 4 begins: “And the word of Samuel went out to all Israel.” Since Samuel was not a priest, it was not up to him to consult and pass judgment through the Urim and Thummim (Shemot 28:30); this should have been up to the high priest. However, we read that Israel (under the mindset of “I can, I am strong, I am mighty, no one can bend me”) decided to go fight the Philistines. God had not commanded this war, nor had they consulted God about whether or not they should go to this battle. 1 Samuel 4:2 says that Israel was defeated by the Philistines and that 4,000 people died in that battle. Then verse 3 continues: “When the [Israelite] troops returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, ‘Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from Shiloh’. Thus, He will be present among us and will deliver us from the hands of our enemies.”

By this, we see that their trust was not in the God of Israel, but in the artifact, which had become a talisman or idol, losing its true meaning.  Again, we don’t read that they went to consult God, but rather that it was out of their stubbornness that they decided to go to war, thinking that they could bend God’s will to theirs and that because they were carrying the ark, luck would be on their side. How many people act like this today!? Symbols like the mezuzah, the Magen David, a Torah scroll, etc. have become lucky charms. Furthermore, they liked to handle the Ark of God without respect or decorum; this was a symbol that should be treated with respect, not like a Jedi sword.

Everyone’s blindness was such that it is said that when Israel “saw the ark of the covenant returning,” they saw it as a super weapon because everyone shouted so loudly that the Philistines questioned what it was (see 1 Samuel 4). Such was their idolatry that the Philistines related that the object (i.e., the ark) was a god, saying that God had come to the camp, and the truth is God never arrived. What was the result of this battle? Well, there were 30,000 dead, the Ark was captured (stolen) and taken before Dagon, and finally Eli’s sons were murdered. Then, the same day, a Benjamite brought the news to Eli, of whom the writing says “his eyes were fixed in a blind gaze” which is very profound because it does not say that he was blind, it says that he had a dull vision, and then commented on the story that he died, interestingly by his neck (representing obstinacy) when he fell, thus fulfilling the words announced by an unnamed prophet of God and by Samuel.

What happened to the Ark? Well, the Philistines placed it in the most profane place in existence, in the temple of Dagon, represented by a man on top and a fish on the bottom. This was a god of fertility, of vengeance, and was considered “father of the gods, creator of heaven and earth, and a judge.” This god was worshipped by presenting offerings of animals and grains. The image was clear: for the Philistines, the ark was God (Adonai), and they placed it at the feet of their god, Dagon, for obvious reasons. They wanted to give the image that Dagon was more of a god than Adonai and that it was at his feet as a symbol of surrender. However, here I realized that God doesn’t need anyone to defend Him or demonstrate that He is God.

Without the presence, let’s say, of a believer, during the night, the pious people saw their god rise from the ground in front of the Ark of the Eternal. Then, the worshippers lift Dagon and place him back in his place as if he were holding GOD under his feet. The next day, Dagon appears on the ground again, but now with his hands and head are cut off but his mouth remains intact. Immediately, a plague of hemorrhoids spreads. Thus, they moved the ark to Gaza (Gat), where its inhabitants were struck with plagues. Then, they moved it to Ekron, invading its inhabitants with a deadly panic. It remained in Philistia for seven months until they decided to return it to Israel, paying a ransom as compensation for the theft. They sent the ark with five golden mice and five golden hemorrhoids. Of course, in their ignorance, they presented something in good faith that was impure. Then, they humbled themselves before God because they recognized that He had previously acted poorly with Egypt due to its harshness, so they returned it to Israel, transported by two dairy cows.

They said, that if the cows went up the right way to Israel, God had sent these plagues; if not, it was a coincidence. The Scriptures say that the cows arrived at the right place – Beth Shemesh, proving that it was the Eternal who had brought all the evils upon the Philistines. This is how our Haftarah begins. After 20 years of the ark being in Kiriath-jearim, David wanted to return this symbol to Jerusalem, where his heart was to make a permanent home for God, and where the temple that his son Solomon would be built.

Once again, emotions (not sobriety) controlled David, and although Uzzah was driven by good intentions, he touched the ark and died. Then, an act that should have been joyful again turned to tragedy, but forced David to educate himself on how the ark should have been properly transported, because at the end of the day, what is holy, profane, pure, or impure has nothing to do with intention, nor desire nor emotion, rather it had to do with respect for the character of God, as to whether we are presentable, suitable, or worthy to stand before Him and whether we are obedient to His words or not. Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (understanding).” And it is here where what is written in our portion perfectly catches on, our lack of knowledge and understanding, can lead us to commit sacrilege before the Eternal and turn joyful days into sad ones. Avihu and Nadav, Hophni and Pinchas seem like a mirror in time; likewise, the stories of Eli and Aaron coincide by not doing what God asks us to do. Some offered fire not required by the Eternal, and others ate what they shouldn’t have eaten in addition to practicing bribery. Eli and Aaron were two great leaders, but because they danced around to please everyone and be in everyone’s good graces, they lost their loved ones. Let us ask ourselves: Am I doing what God has asked me to do? Am I presentable before Him? Do I fear His presence? Have I turned symbols into amulets, replacing the true God? My desire is that I can learn to differentiate the holy from the profane and the pure from the impure, in order to live a life without unhappy surprises.

Shabbat Shalom

Mauricio Quintero