Come Closer
This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. All that preparation has led you to the doorstep. Now, it’s happening. But suddenly, you have a flash of a memory. You flow backward in your mind’s eye to the last time this happened. You can feel the shame, the disappointment, and the fear. Then, just as soon as you’re about to succumb, a hand gently reaches out toward you pulling you into a warm embrace.
That is one way of looking at a seemingly unremarkable moment in the beginning of the parshah this week when Aaron is preparing to take on the mantle of leadership in the Tabernacle, specifically through the task of the lighting of the eternal flame. Exodus 28:1 reads as follows:
וְאַתָּ֡ה הַקְרֵ֣ב אֵלֶ֩יךָ֩ אֶת־אַהֲרֹ֨ן אָחִ֜יךָ וְאֶת־בָּנָ֣יו אִתּ֗וֹ מִתּ֛וֹךְ בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לְכַהֲנוֹ־לִ֑י אַהֲרֹ֕ן נָדָ֧ב וַאֲבִיה֛וּא אֶלְעָזָ֥ר וְאִיתָמָ֖ר בְּנֵ֥י אַהֲרֹֽן׃
You shall bring forward your brother Aaron, with his sons, from among the Israelites, to serve Me as priests: Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron.
At first glance, it all seems like a normal logistical statement. Moses is calling Aaron and his sons to the task at hand. When you look closer at the Hebrew, the verb to draw close הַקְרֵ֣ב, cause him to come close, indicates something else. Said in the causative form, bring him forward, it tells us that some pressure needs to be put on Aaron to come. Why would that be though?
This is his moment.
Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz, a 17th Century Rabbi from Prague known as the Kli Yakar has a theory:
הוסיף כאן לשון ואתה לומר לך שמצד מעשה העגל נתרחק אהרן כמו שנפסלו בכורי ישראל ומשה קרבו בתפלתו כמ"ש (דברים ט כ) ובאהרן התאנף ה' מאד להשמידו ואתפלל גם בעד אהרן בעת ההיא. וענין תפלה זו שתלה משה בעצמו לאמר הלא אחי ובשרי הוא והשמדתו כאילו נאכל חצי בשרי
It adds the language of “and you” to remind Moses that Aaron feels distanced as a result of the golden calf. Moses, as he later tells in the book of Deuteronomy, intercedes on his behalf to bring him closer. The matter of this prayer was that Moses put his life on the line for Aaron. Since he is my flesh and blood, destroying him would be like destroying half of me.
Reflecting on the jarring events of the golden calf where Aaron seemed to have some sort of role in the fashioning of this idol, the Kli Yakar argues that Aaron is ashamed of what he’s done. Sure, this is the moment he’s been waiting for, but the freshness of the wound of his participation in the golden calf is keeping him at a distance. So, he needs some help and love from his brother.
What a gift this is for him. After all, Moses doesn’t have to do this. He burned with indignation when seeing this golden calf as well. But he understands that it’s bigger than him and bigger than his brother. His brother needs him just like he so dearly needed his brother in Egypt when he couldn’t complete the task alone of bringing the people out of Egypt.
We need these types of people so dearly in our lives. Someone this week asked me who was on my personal board of directors. As he explained the question to me, he remarked that it wasn’t about surrounding yourself with the smartest people; rather, it’s about finding a team of people with whom I want to be in the muck and mire.
They’re the people who can see you at a distance because of whatever past misdeed is flashing through your brain and recognize that you need some help. They’re the ones who reach out that hand and draw you close to the work you’ve been waiting for. May we all have the good fortune and good relationships to find those people.
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Weekend