Parshas Acharei Mot
Enjoyment as a Guide
This week’s parsha deals extensively with forbidden marital and sexual
relationships. It contains within it the traditional liturgical reading
for the mincha service of Yom Kippur, which is comprised of these verses
of descriptions of forbidden sexual relationships. The Torah is very
explicit about which relationships are forbidden. The Torah pays no
attention to the modern world’s “two consenting adults are allowed to do
whatever they want” theory of proper human behavior. Instead the Torah
demands probity of conduct, self-discipline and a sense of higher morality
in dealing with one’s desires. Personal situations and desires, emotions
and wishes are to give way before the Torah’s absolutism. Thus these laws
are certainly a source of controversy in sections of modern society who
place personal satisfaction and enjoyment at the top of the list of their
lives. Perhaps in no other area of the Torah is the contrast between the
Torah’s value system and that of modern Western society revealed so
clearly. The Torah recognizes no possibility for the existence
of “alternate life-styles.” The ultimate question that lies behind this
clash of values is that of defining what is the goal in one’s life. Is it
to be pleasure and narcisstic self-satisfaction or is it to be the
attainment of the goal of being kedoshim - a special, unique, spiritually
developed human being? It is in the area of forbidden physical
relationships that the measure of kedoshim is to be found. That is why
this entire list of forbidden relationships is repeated once again in
various sections of the Torah, especially in the parsha of Kedoshim
itself. The idea is worthy of repetitive care and emphasis.
I think it to be no coincidence either that this subject of values and
personal behavior is raised in the parsha of Achrei Mot. Achrei Mot means
as we all know “after the death,” after the passing of the sons of Aharon.
Their sin, as the Torah related it to us in parshat Shmini, was the
substitution of their own ideas of ritual behavior – an aish zarah, an
alien fire – for God’s specific instructions. The aish zarah eventually
died out of its own accord, as it always does, while God’s instructions
remain eternally valid and beneficial. But the aish zarah brought immense
human tragedy with it. The world has gone through many periods of
permissive licentious behavior over its many centuries. The ancient world
of paganism, the classical world of Greece and Rome, the ribald world of
later times; all were hedonistic in nature and sexually immoral. Judaism
and the Jewish people always stood against such ideas and behavior. It
viewed them as being an aish zarah – a destructive strange fire of
uncontrolled passion, selfishness and desire that only eventually and
inevitably led to achrei mot, the demise of that society itself. Such a
clear picture of what an uninhibited and hedonistic society does to itself
should be retained by us. It should be stressed in our educational systems
and our social lives. We should never forget the contrast between the
parshiyot of Achrei Mot and Kedoshim.
A happy and kosher Pesach to all with all blessings for good health and
peace.
Rabbi Berel Wein
Text Copyright © 2005 by Rabbi Berel Wein and Torah.org
Visit www.rabbiwein.com for a complete selection of Rabbi Wein's books and tapes.
