Thursday, May 2, 2019

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Acharei Mos

The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

The first vort that Rabbi Frand said was based on a Medrash in Tehillim (78:63) on the Pasuk which states that “Fire consumed His young men, and His maidens had no marriage celebration.” The Medrash explains that the fire consumed these men because they chose not to praise the maidens and that as a result many maidens remained unmarried. The sons of Aharon looked and said - our father is in the Kohain Gadol. One of his brothers is the King and the other is the Nasi of the tribe of Levi. We ourselves are each the Sgan (assistant) to the Kohain Gadol - there are no women worthy of us. 

The Da'as Zekeinim M'Ba'alei Tosafos explains that this is why the end of the pasuk which mentions  their death (Vayikra 16:1) mentions their death at the beginning and the end of the pasuk - they died and they left no legacy because they never married and had children.

R' Frand also said a vort about the avodah done by the Kohain Gadol in the Kodesh HaKadashim on Yom Kippur. In Vayikra 16:17 the Torah states that no person should be in the Ohel Mo'ed when the Kohain Gadol did his avodah. The Medrash states that even angels could not be there during the avodah. So why does the pasuk use the word "Adam"? The basic answer is that the faces of angels are like people. But R' Frand said a deeper thought on this as well.

R' Frand quoted a Gemara in Menachos which states that Shimon HaTzadik was the Kohain Gadol for 80 years. In his last year of life, he came out after performing the avodah on Yom Kippur and said that he would not live throughout the year. They asked him why and he explained that every year he saw an old man who wore white and accompanied him into and out of the Kodesh HaKadashim. But this year the man wore black. The Yerushalmi asks - but if no man or angel could accompany the Kohain Gadol, who was the man that Shimon HaTzadik saw? The answer is that he saw Hashem, B'Chvodo U'Vatzmo. 

R' Frand also quoted the Ricanti, who explains that the angels could not come into the Kodesh HaKadashim at that time, because this was the "alone time" (my words) for the Kohain Gadol with Hashem, just like on a lesser level, the time that a chassid has with his Rebbi.

R' Frand closed the vort by quoting R' Bukspan who mentioned that the Yismach Moshe observes that the Beis Hamikdash is called Beis Habechira. In fact the Rambam codifies the laws related to this in Hilchos Beis Habechira. The Yismach Moshe explains that the name derives because this is the place that Hashem chose (Bachar) to dwell on earth. But R' Bukspan went a step further and explained that the Beis Hamikdash is the place where man chooses to become close to Hashem. Thus the angels cannot enter there, as they do not exercise choice.

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