What a strange name for a Parsha!

In the holiest place in the world, the Holy of Holies, on the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, the holiest man in the nation, the High Priest, offers incense and atones for the sins of the people.  This was the main service of the day, in addition to the many other offerings and sacrifices that were done on that day.  This was an atonement process that Hashem gifted us, offering us the opportunity to start a new year with a clean slate.  

So what would you title this lesson?  “Atonement?”  “Holiness?”  “Reset?”  “Yom Kippur?”  It seems very strange that the name of this Parsha is “Acharei Mot - After the Death.”

Now it is true that Hashem instructed Moshe to teach Aharon the Yom Kippur service after his two sons, Nadav and Avihu, died.  As we discussed a few weeks ago, the first day the Sanctuary in the desert was dedicated by Aharon, his two sons brought an offering that they had not been commanded to bring and they died.  

This was definitely a tragic event for Aharon, his family and the community, and I would imagine it was on Moshe and Aharon's minds at the time.  But should we define the entire Yom Kippur service this way?  

We all remember the Holocaust, a horrific event that happened just a few decades ago, and it has certainly had a powerful effect on our generation.  But while we will occasionally discuss it and its impact, we don’t define everything we do as “after the Holocaust.”  In fact, the greatness of our community is that our response is to rebuild bigger and better.  

The greatest testimony to the resilience and eternity of the Jewish people is the thousands of Jewish schools, synagogues, Chabad Houses and other institutions that have been built around the world, including in the worst places in Europe, and the Jewish revival that we are experiencing.

So it does seem strange that the eternal name of this Parsha, rather than looking forward to thousands of years of Yom Kippur, seems to be stuck in one tragic event of the deaths of Aharon’s sons.  Obviously there is a message here, and it goes to the very core of the Yom Kippur service.

Aharon’s sons’ sin was not that they were disobedient or that they were bad people.  They were very holy people, living very spiritual lives.  The Talmud tells us that they were not married and had no children.  This is an important piece of information because it represented their chosen lifestyle of asceticism.  

Nadav and Avihu wanted to devote themselves to only spiritual matters and not be held down by the physical world.  Marriage and family would, they felt, disturb them from the great spiritual heights that their souls could reach if untethered by material pursuits.  So when the great moment of revelation happened and a fire came forth from heaven and consumed the offerings on the altar, their souls reached a level of ecstasy that their bodies could not contain.  They expressed this ecstasy by spontaneously offering incense, and their souls leapt out of their bodies.

Now Hashem is telling us how to behave going forward.  Yes, we need to strive to connect to holiness and spirituality.  At the same time, the purpose is not to leave the world behind but to affect the world.  The material world is not an impediment to our service, it is the purpose of our service.

There is a striking video of a prominent Jewish leader speaking to the Rebbe, who remembered a conversation they had had 25 years before.  The man is clearly shocked that the Rebbe would remember, and says to the Rebbe “you are amazing.”  The Rebbe responds with a smile (paraphrasing), “how does it help the world that I am amazing?”  

If I am intensely spiritual and holy, but I am staying away from the physical world, how is my holiness impacting the world?  It may feel good to me, but my purpose is to make the world a good place, so my purpose in the world is being neglected.

So on the holiest day of the year, in the holiest place on earth, Hashem reminds the holiest person in the nation to remain grounded, not to let his soul leave the physical world as the two sons of Aharon did.  This message, “After the Death,” is reminding us of the entire purpose of the entire service.

So when we see the world as a place full of obstacles to goodness and light, a place of darkness, we are reminded that all of that is there for us to overcome and transform.  Rather than feeling as if we can’t reach our spiritual goals because of the darkness of the world we can realize that overcoming the darkness is exactly why we are here.  And bringing a little light to the world is the definition of success in our service to Hashem.