30/04/2023
THIS WEEK: PARASHAT ACHAREI MOT-KEDOSHIM: ENTERING THE HOLY OF HOLIES!
Acharei Mot-Kedoshim, as we posted earlier, opens with the very involved instructions for the performance by Aharon, the Kohen Gadol, (High Priest) of the service on Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement. These instructions include Aharon's approaching and entering into the Holy of Holies with a fire pan containing ketoret incense to place before the Ark of the Covenant. Some commentators, in light of the verses' close proximity to the mention of the death of Aharon's sons Nadav and Avihu, understand this as HaShem's teaching Aharon the correct and only way to approach HaShem in the Holy of Holies without meeting the fate of his sons. The Kohen Gadol would enter into the Holy of Holies only one time each year, on Yom Kippur.
"And he [Aharon] shall take a pan full of burning coals from upon the altar, from before HaShem, and both hands' full of fine incense, and bring it within the dividing curtain. And he shall place the incense upon the fire, before HaShem, so that the cloud of the incense shall envelope the ark cover that is over the tablets of Testimony, so that he shall not die." (Leviticus 16:12-13)
"And he shall take a pan full of burning coals from upon the altar, from before the Lord, and both hands' full of fine incense, and bring [it] within the dividing curtain.
13And he shall place the incense upon the fire, before the Lord, so that the cloud of the incense shall envelope the ark cover that is over the [tablets of] Testimony, so that he shall not die." (Leviticus 16:12-13)
