The Humility to Defer

Insight of the Week

Parashat Shemini tells about the events on the inaugural day of the Mishkan, when Aharon and sons served as kohanim for the very first time. After the seven-day period when they were prepared to be kohanim, on the eighth day, they began performing the service in the Mishkan. In honor of the event, Aharon offered a number of sacrifices. He offered sacrifices for himself, and he also offered sacrifices given to him by the nation for him to bring on their behalf. One of the animals which was offered that day was an עגל – a calf. Aharon offered an עגל for himself, and Beneh Yisrael gave him an עגל which he sacrificed for them. The reason why Aharon and Beneh Yisrael offered an עגל as a sacrifice is clear. Several months earlier, they worshipped the עגל הזהב – golden calf – and so now that Hashem was coming to reside among them in the Mishkan, they needed to atone for that sin through the offering of an עגל. But in addition, Hashem commanded the people to offer a שעיר – goat. The Midrash gives a very surprising explanation for why the people needed to sacrifice a שעיר at this time: to atone for the sin of מכירת יוסף – the sale of Yosef as a slave. Many years earlier, Beneh Yisrael’s ancestors – ten of Yaakov’s twelve sons – sold Yosef into slavery, and then proceeded to slaughter a goat and dip Yosef’s special coat in the sheep’s blood, so that their father would think that Yosef was killed by a wild animal. This sin is thus associated with the goat, and so to atone for this misdeed, Beneh Yisrael offered a goat as a sacrifice. We must wonder, why were Benei Yisrael required to atone for this sin specifically now, on the day of the Mishkan’s inauguration. Why did they need forgiveness for this sin committed by their ancestors several generations earlier? To answer this question, let us take a moment to try to understand the sin of the golden calf. A number of Rabbis explain that Beneh Yisrael did not actually worship the golden calf as a deity. They made the golden calf to replace not Hashem, but Moshe. Afraid that Moshe was never returning, they felt they needed some representation of G-d, and so they decided to make a graven image. Their intentions were sincere, but they went about it the wrong way. They should have consulted with the leaders whom Moshe had appointed to be in charge in his absence – Aharon and Hur. But the people did not listen to Aharon and Hur, and instead demanded that they make a golden calf. When Hur refused, the people killed him. Aharon then felt threatened to comply. The sin of the golden calf, then, was that the people decided for themselves the right way to serve Hashem, without consulting with their religious leaders. They lacked the humility and integrity to defer to those who knew better. This was also the mistake made by Yosef’s brothers. The brothers had legitimate fears and concerns about Yosef. But they acted without consulting with Yaakov. Instead of deferring to him, they took matters into their own hands. The goat which they slaughtered to deceive Yaakov represents this failure to respect and to defer to his authority. And this is why a goat was offered on the day of the Mishkan’s inauguration. Beneh Yisrael were atoning for the mistake of taking matters into their own hands, rather than deferring to the knowledge and expertise of those who know better. This also explains a different aspect of the events of this day. Instead of turning directly to Beneh Yisrael and commanding them to provide Aharon with the animals for their sacrifice, Moshe instructed Aharon to speak to the people and tell them to give him the animals. As part of their atonement for forcing their will on Aharon, the people needed to obey Aharon and humbly heed his instructions. We instinctively like to feel that we know better than other people. And many enjoy feeling that they know better than their Rabbis – and they spend a great deal of time at their Shabbat tables ridiculing Rabbis, or criticizing the things they say. If we always assume that we know better, and we refuse to respect and to defer to those who know better, we will never learn and we will never grow. In order to be worthy of Hashem residing among them in the Mishkan, Benei Yisrael needed to show that they had corrected this mistake, and were prepared to obey the instructions of their leaders. This is a prerequisite for building a relationship with Hashem – because it is only by humbly deferring to authority that we will know the proper way to serve Hashem. May we all learn to live with humility, with the willingness to learn from other people, and to acknowledge that we have much to gain by consulting with, and deferring to, those with knowledge and expertise.