The Entry of the Kohen Gadol into the Kodesh Kodashim
PARASHAT HASHAVUA
Please pray for a refua sheleima
for Yisrael ben Rut and Reut bat Sima,
Alon Shevut youth injured in separate accidents over
Chol Ha-Moed.
PARASHAT ACHAREI-MOT
The Entry of the
Kohen Gadol into the Kodesh
Kodashim
Rav Amnon Bazak
A.
Two readings of the parasha
Parashat Acharei-Mot begins with the procedure of the
Kohen Gadol's entry into the
Kodesh Kodashim. It is
introduced with a warning to the Kohen
Gadol lest he treat the occasion with less than the required awe and
dignity:
God spoke to Moshe after the death
of the two sons of Aharon, when they drew near to God and they died. And God
said to Moshe, Speak to Aharon, your brother, that he not come at all times
into the Kodesh that is inside
of the curtain, before the covering which is upon the Ark, so that he will not
die; for (ki) I appear in the
cloud upon the covering.[1](16:1-2)
Immediately thereafter, the Torah sets forth the way in which
the Kohen Gadol is to enter: the
sacrifices that he must bring for himself, the goats which he must take from
Bnei Yisrael, the special
garments that he is to wear, and a detailed order of service, including bringing
a censer of burning coals with incense into the
Kodesh Kodashim.
What is the connection between the order of service as set
forth here and the "death of the two sons of Aharon, when they drew near to God,
and they died"? Rashi explains, citing the Midrash:
This may
be compared to someone who was ill, and so he went to the doctor. The doctor
said to him, Do not eat cold food, nor sleep in a damp place. Later, someone
else came to the doctor, and he said to him, Do not eat cold food and do not
sleep in a damp place, so that you will not die as so-and-so died. This is a
more effective deterrent than the first message. Therefore it is written, After
the death of the two sons of Aharon."
Nevertheless, it seems that there must be a more substantial
connection between the actions of Aharon's sons and the special caution that is
required when entering the Kodesh Kodashim.
Our question also pertains to a different matter. At the end
of the parasha we find a number
of verses concerning the obligation of the
Kohen Gadol's service on Yom Kippur:
And it shall be a statute for you forever: in the seventh month, on the tenth
day of the month, you shall afflict your souls and you shall perform no labor
neither the home-born nor the stranger who sojourns among you.
For on this day atonement shall be made for you, to purify you; you shall be
purified of all your sins before God
And this shall be an everlasting statute
for you, to make atonement for Bnei
Yisrael because of all their sins, once in the year
(16:29-34).
What do these concluding verses, dealing with Yom Kippur, have to do with the
rest of the chapter? There are two possible explanations: We might conclude that
the Torah first tells us how the Kohen
Gadol is to enter the Kodesh
Kodashim, and then afterwards explains when this is to be done only
"once in the year," on Yom Kippur. Alternatively, we might determine that these
concluding verses simply tell us that once a year, on Yom Kippur, the
Kohen Gadol must enter
the Kodesh Kodashim, and when he
does so he must follow the order set down in the
parasha without ruling
out the
possibility of the Kohen Gadol
entering on other occasions, as long as he follows the prescribed procedure.
Both readings are discussed and debated in the
midrashei Chazal and the
commentators. Since it is very difficult to choose between these two
interpretations, we will examine each of them separately and try to understand
its significance, including its connection to the death of the two sons of
Aharon.
B.
"Whenever he wants to enter, he may enter"
Let us begin with the approach that is more prevalent among
Chazal, although surprisingly
most of the Rishonim reject
it. According to this approach, the parasha comes to limit only the manner in which the
Kohen
Gadol is to enter the Kodesh
Kodashim, but not the timing. According to the following
midrash, Moshe had thought that
from now on, Aharon would not be permitted to enter regularly, but God assures
him that this is not so:
R. Yehuda
said in the name of R. Simon: Moshe was greatly troubled over this. He said,
Woe is me! Perhaps Aharon, my brother, has been removed from His Presence?...
God said to Moshe, It is not as you think
Rather, whenever he wishes to enter,
he may enter, but he should enter according to this procedure." (Vayikra Rabba, parasha 21:7)
Another midrash
teaches:
Thus
Aharon would enter the Kodesh Kodashim
at all times, and were it not for the many merits that entered with him and
aided him, he could not have entered. Why? Because the ministering angels were
there. (Shemot Rabba, parasha
38)
According to this approach, there were actually two "tracks"
for the Kohen Gadol to enter the
Kodesh Kodashim. There was an
obligatory entrance once a year, on Yom Kippur, and there was a voluntary track,
whereby he could enter whenever he wished to. What is the nature of this second
track?
Apparently, the Kohen
Gadol might have reasons of his own to enter the
Kodesh Kodashim perhaps just for the opportunity to stand in the
place of the Divine Presence, and perhaps to pray for the needs of himself, his
family, and all of Israel. The message of the
parasha is its view of the Kohen Gadol as a "shaliach
tzibbur" rather than as a private individual. The Torah places no
limitations on the reasons for which he might decide to enter, but it demands
that he involve all of Am Yisrael
in doing so both on the practical level, by taking sacrifices from the nation,
as well as on the level of his own intentions, as entry into the
Kodesh Kodashim is conditional
upon atonement "for himself and for the people" (16:24).
This requirement is apparently closely related to the sin of the sons of Aharon
mentioned at the beginning of the
parasha. In our shiur on
Parashat
Shemini, we saw that the Torah emphasizes the contrast between the
actions of Aharon and his sons in chapter 9, all of which were carried out
exactly as God had commanded Moshe, and the "strange fire" offered by Nadav and
Avihu, an act "which He had not commanded them" (10:1). But beyond not having
been commanded by God, the offering of a strange fire also represented extreme
individualism, a stark contrast to Aharons actions. The series of actions
performed by Aharon on this great day was characterized by the sense of
partnership between himself and Am Yisrael. The word "ha-am" ("the people") appears seven times in chapter 9, and is thus
to be regarded as a key word. Moreover, the actions of the eighth day correspond
to the command set forth in our chapter in many respects, including two
parallels pertaining to partnership between the
kohanim and the people. First,
both parashiot speak of
sacrifices taken both from Aharon and from the people. In our
parasha we read:
With this
shall Aharon come to the Kodesh:
with a young bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt offering
And
from the congregation of Bnei Yisrael
he shall take two he-goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.
(16:3-5)
Concerning the eighth day, we read:
And it was
on the eighth day that Moshe called Aharon, and his sons, and the elders of
Israel. And he said to Aharon: Take for yourself a bull-calf for a sin offering
and a ram for a burnt-offering without blemish and offer them before God.
And speak to Bnei Yisrael,
saying, Take a he-goat for a sin-offering and a calf and a lamb, both of the
first year, without blemish, for a burnt offering." (9:1-3)
Second, in both instances there is a need for atonement for
Bnei Yisrael. In our
parasha we find:
And he
shall make atonement for himself and for his household and for the whole
community of Israel (16:17).
On the eighth day, Moshe tells Aharon:
"
And
make atonement for yourself and for the people, and perform the offering of the
people, and make atonement for them" (9:7).
This partnership between the
kohanim and the people is altogether lacking in the actions of Nadav
and Avihu, who act on their own initiative, according to their own ideas, and in
partnership with no one. They sought for themselves their own private religious
experience, separate from Am Yisrael,
and for this they were punished severely. The
tikkun for their sin is the
integration of the private religious experience of the
Kohen Gadol with a sense of connection to the people and his identity
and role as their emissary. The Kohen
Gadol's right to enter the
Kodesh Kodashim and to experience the uplifting and sanctity of this
proximity to the Divine Presence arises not from his personal status, but rather
from his role as the representative of
Am Yisrael. For this reason, he can enter only if the nation is a full
partner in the process.
C.
"He enters once a year"
The other reading of the
parasha appears in the later
Midrash Ha-Gadol at the beginning of
parashat Vayikra (1:2):
Can [the
Kohen Gadol enter the
Kodesh Kodashim] whenever he
wishes to, following this order? We learn [that this is not so] from the end [of
the verse]: once in the year once in the year he enters; he does not enter
whenever he wishes to.
According to this approach, the concluding verses of the
parasha do indeed limit the
Kohen Gadol's entry into the
Kodesh Kodashim to just once a
year, on Yom Kippur.
Interestingly, most of the commentators adopt this approach.
Rashi, for example, writes:
With this
shall Aharon come And even then, not at all times, but only on Yom Kippur, as
specified at the end of the parasha
(verse 29): In the seventh month, on the tenth of the month.
Similarly, the Ramban writes:
The reason
for [the words] at all times is that since Yom Kippur has already been
mentioned previously, as it is written, Aharon shall make atonement upon its
corners once in the year (Shemot
30:10), the text therefore says here: He shall not come into the
Kodesh at all times, but rather
only thus that is, on the day when he is to offer these sacrifices for
atonement. And then the parasha
goes on to specify what he brings when he enters, as it is written, And he
shall bring inside of the curtain (verse 12), and it specifies the day it
must be on the tenth of the seventh month (verse 29), and it repeats again
that this will be once in the year (verse 34).
According to this approach, it seems that the sin of Nadav and
Avihu leads not only to regulation of the conditions under which the
Kohen Gadol may enter the
Kodesh Kodashim through a
series of actions expressing the connection between himself and
Am Yisrael but also to the cancellation of his right to enter at
his own initiative, whenever he so chooses. From now on, he may enter only once
a year, on Yom Kippur. What is the connection between the sin of Nadav and
Avihu, and the limitation of the entry of the
Kohen Gadol into the Kodesh
Kodashim to one day in the year?
There are two possible ways of explaining this.
We might posit that the limitation is directly connected to
the sin. This approach might be anchored in another aspect of the sin of
Aharon's sons: their lack of proper awe. The
midrash teaches: "Filled with joy upon seeing the new fire, they
decided to add love to the love already present" (Torat
Kohanim, Shemini,
parasha 1). Their sin was based
in the fact that they became carried away with love and were devoid of the
proper balance in relation to fear and awe of God, and part of the
tikkun for their sin was
therefore a distancing between God and man. The Torah thus forbids the
Kohen Gadol altogether from
entering the place where the Divine Presence rests except for just one day in
the year, Yom Kippur, when he and the entire nation undergo an obligatory
process of atonement.
However, we might explain the limitation in a different way
as the result of the need for a special process which will allow the
Kohen Gadol's entry. According
to this approach, in principle there is no reason to limit the entry of the
Kohen Gadol into the
Kodesh Kodashim. However, from
this point on, his entry is conditional upon the performance of the order of
service set forth in our parasha,
and such a unique process, which brings atonement to all of
Am Yisrael for all their sins, can be carried out only once a year.
Accordingly, the fact that from now on Aharon can no longer enter "at all
times," but rather only on Yom Kippur, is not the direct result of the sin of
Nadav and Avihu, but rather an indirect result. Since entry into the
Kodesh Kodashim now involves
such a complex and unique process, which can be carried out only once a year,
Aharon will henceforth be able to enter no more than once a year.
Support for this interpretation may be found in the concluding
verse of the command concerning the incense altar:
And Aharon
shall make atonement upon its horns once in the year; with the blood of the
sin-offering for atonement once in the year shall he make atonement upon it, for
all your generations. (Shemot
30:10)
This command was issued, of course, prior to the sin of Nadav
and Avihu, and if "once in the year" means "once in the year and no more," then
even before the sin it was clear that the atonement process of Yom Kippur could
be performed only once a year. The limiting of the
Kohen Gadol's entry to just one
day is thus simply the result of the conditioning of his entry on this process
of atonement.
Even according to this second understanding of the
parasha, the emphasis is on the
sense of awe. According to this direction of interpretation, the
parasha comes to tell us that
atonement for Am Yisrael is not
something that can be undertaken at any time. The necessary degree of awe
requires that we avoid a high frequency of such powerful processes in the bond
between Am Yisrael and God.[2]
Translated
by Kaeren Fish
[1]
The
commentators are divided in their understanding of the latter part of the verse.
Rashi and Rashbam explain the word "ki"
to mean "for" and that the "cloud" that is mentioned here is a reference to the
resting of the Divine Presence between the
keruvim above the Ark: "[This is
to be understood] according to its literal meaning: For it is from within the
pillar of cloud that I appear at all times upon the covering
And if the
kohen sees [the Divine
Presence], he will die" (Rashbam). However, Ibn Ezra suggests that the word "ki" means "but" or "rather" and
that the "cloud" is the physical cloud created by the incense, by means of which
the Kohen Gadol is able to enter
the Kodesh Kodashim, as
explained further on in the parasha: "Such that the cloud of incense will cover the covering that is upon
the Testimony, in order that he will not die" (16:13).
[2]
Sefer Chokhmat Adam (end of
Sha'ar Ha-Simcha) cites a suggestion that combines these two approaches
in the name of the Vilna Gaon. This approach posits that that the track that
facilitates entry into the Kodesh
Kodashim at all times, even not on Yom Kippur, is meant for Aharon alone,
but not for his successors: "The other
Kohanim Gedolim are prohibited from entering the
Kodesh Kodashim other than on
Yom Kippur, but Aharon was permitted to enter at any time, so long as did so in
accordance with the order set forth in this
parasha." The Vilna Gaon arrives at this distinction based on the fact that
throughout the parasha, it is
Aharon's name that is mentioned, while in the verses dealing with Yom Kippur, no
mention is made of his name. Instead, we read: "The
kohen who will be anointed and
who will be consecrated to serve as
kohen in his father's stead shall make atonement and shall wear the linen
garments, the garments of sanctity" (16:32). The Vilna Gaon extends this
understanding also to the end of the
parasha: "And he did as God had commanded Moshe." In his view, the verse
is saying that immediately after the command, Aharon entered the
Kodesh Kodashim, in accordance
with the order of service described in the
parasha. (He also brings further
proofs for this interpretation.) According to his approach, we may therefore say
that the right to enter the Kodesh
Kodashim at any time was reserved for Aharon, who always acted "as God
had commanded Moshe." When it came to his descendants, concerning whom there is
no guarantee that they would follow his example after all, his own sons had
stumbled and demonstrated a deficiency in their fear of God entry was
restricted to Yom Kippur alone.