Shabbos Parashas Acharei Mos - 5776

Shabbos Parashas Acharei Mos - 5776

Rabbi Hal Miller

He shall take a shovelful of fiery coals from atop the Altar that is before Hashem, and

his cupped handsful of finely ground incense-spices, and bring it within the curtain.

[Vayikra 16:12]

How did Aharon pull this off? He is charged here with making atonement for himself

and for all the people on Yom Kippur. With that awesome responsibility on his mind,

he is commanded here to enter the Holy of Holies carrying at a minimum three hands

worth of things, two of incense and a shovelful of burning coals.

Further, once he gets all this stuff in there, he has to do something with it. There was no

workbench where he could put things down for a bit, thus he needed at least one more

hand to "place the incense upon the fire before Hashem" [16:13] and do some blood

sprinkling. By my count, that's a minimum of four hands. But verse 17 says, "No person

shall be in the Tent of Meeting when he enters to provide atonement in the Sanctuary

until his departure." Thus, Aharon is on his own. What was he doing and why?

The Mishnah (Yoma 47a) gives us an initial answer: "They bring him out the ladle and

the shovel. He scoops up his (two) cupped-hands-full and places it into the ladle...He

takes the shovel in his right hand and the ladle in his left hand." The Gemora asks our

question: "Why is the ladle needed on Yom Kippur? ... Because it was not possible

(to bring two handfuls of incense and also the coals) for how should he perform (both)?

The Gemora suggests that maybe Aharon would make two trips, but proves that

impossible.

That helps, as it allows both handfuls of incense to be carried in the ladle in one hand,

and the shovel of coals in the other hand. But still, there's the blood for sprinkling, there

is the service to be performed.

In 16:23 and the few following verses, the Torah tells about Aharon having to stop

and change clothes. The fancy clothing that he wore for the service in the Holy of

Holies is put aside permanently, and he puts on a new set of white clothing. This new

set is also not his weekday suit, so there must still be some portion of holy service

yet to be performed. At this point, the Torah tells us that he went back to perform this

additional service. Ramban rules out any other possibilities and explains that this

means he went to pick up the shovel and ladle.

Are an empty incense container and a shovelful of hot coals so holy that the Torah

must tell us all this? For an answer, we look to the measurements of the Temple. It

turns out that by strict measurements, as given in the verses, there is no spot for the

Ark, yet there it is. Its measurements, when measured independently, show it taking

up space, but when placed inside the Holy of Holies, it required no space at all. This

is clearly beyond natural mathematics.

The Holy of Holies is the place where G-d's Presence appears strongest to us. We

might think that Aharon was just tidying up. The Torah tells us instead that there is

preciousness to each part of this service and this place, beyond that which we would

think in the natural world. Aharon was performing the holy service.