Shabbat Parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim - 5783

Shabbat Parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim - 5783

Rabbi Hal Miller

Aharon shall bring near a sin-offering bull that is his and atone for himself and

for his household. [Vayikra 16:6]

Our verse seems pretty clear, until we look at verses 16:11 and 16:24, which seem

to say the same thing. Why would the Torah write this three times in virtually the

same language? Further, as Rashi notes, verse 16:3 tells us that Aharon brought a

bull of his own, so why would we need to be told that again these three times?

The commentators justify the repetitions by saying that each verse stands for

something different, but they do not agree on the specifics. Rashi, for example,

cites Torat Kohanim that in our verse, "household" means "wife". We have seen

this understanding in many places, so it is no surprise to see it here. But Rashi then

goes on to say that in verse 11, "household" means "his brothers the Kohanim for

they are all called his household".

The Gemora in Yoma [36b] divides these verses by type of sin, along the lines of

verse in Shemot [34:7] describing God as "Forgiver of iniquity, wilfull sin, and error"

thus here Aharon atones for each one separately. Although of interest, our verses

all use the word chatat, which is usually translated only as the "error" of the

verse in Shemot, and in any case, indicates that all three atonements are for the

same thing, not different ones. The Gemora goes on to indicate that verses 6 and

11 are verbal, and it is not until 24 that the sacrifice actually takes place, thus the

earlier two are verbal atonements and the third is the throwing of the blood.

So we see a difference between the third instance [24] and the earlier two [6, 11]

in that only the last time is there actually a sacrifice. Thus, there has to be some

level of atonement achieved only by the verbal confession, even without the

actual sacrifice of an animal. We understand this from the phrase asking God to

accept the expressions of our lips in place of the animal, which should scare us into

watching all of our speech! But other than the explanations of the word 'household'

we still do not know why Aharon made two verbal confessions even before getting

to the throwing of blood.

Rav Hirsch gives us a possible answer. Aharon's first confession clears him of some

of his negatives with God, so his second confession begins from a higher level and is

thus more effective. This indicates that verbal confession does not necessarily work

completely, or perhaps that there is a danger based on the sincerity level of the person

confessing that they did not "get everything". Perhaps that fits into the extensive Rosh

Hashanah and Yom Kippur liturgy, where we repeat the confessionals throughout.

Sforno also provides us some thoughts. The first two times clear Aharon of his sins,

prior to the actual confession over the animal that allow him to confess on behalf of

the entire nation. This might be an argument over the verbal-versus-sacrifice difference.

Further, Sforno cites Vayikra Rabbah asking why would Aharon have to repeat his

confessions, and answers that in the short intervening period, he may have had "evil

thoughts". We see this in the ma'ariv service immediately after ne'ilah ending Yom

Kippur, where we ask why, after having just spent a full day confessing, do we still

include the confessional prayer in the Amidah, it being in case we had an evil thought.

It pays to pay close attention to everything we say.