Weekly Torah Portion: Shemini

This week’s Parsha, Shemini, begins by describing the 8^th and final day of the consecration of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) for use in the desert.  For the first 7 days, Moses did all of the services himself, and on the 8^th day his brother Aaron took over from him, bringing the sacrifices and blessing the people.

This was an extremely joyous event.  The people had not felt as close to God as they did at this point in time since receiving the Torah on Mt. Sinai.  But the happiness of the moment was spoiled by death of Aaron’s two eldest sons.  After Moses and Aaron finished the service commanded to them by God, Aaron’s two eldest sons, Nadav and Avihu, decided on their own to enter in the Holy of Holies and bring an incense offering.  This unsanctioned act of worship led to their deaths. 

The Midrash quotes a verse from Psalms (75:5), “say to the boastful, don’t boast,” and then gives a list of examples of different characters in the bible of people who had a lot to be happy about, but who also experienced sadness in the lives.  The sentiment conveyed in this midrash is that even when things in your life are working out, don’t boast about it.  Even some of our greatest heroes have had moments of great happiness, but they also all have had sorrow too.  Having ups and downs is a part of life; everyone has their good moments, and everyone has bad moments.   The first example that the midrash uses to make its point is God.  God, the Midrash tells us, was incredibly happy when he created the world and mankind, yet he was very distressed when man brought the world down by sinning.  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all had immense blessings and so much happiness in their lives, and yet there was sadness and grief in their lives as well.  Skipping a few examples, we get to the example which makes this Midrash relevant to our Parsha. 

“Elisheva, the daughter of Aminadav was the wife of Aaron the high priest.  See how much happiness she had in her hands; her husband was the high priest; her brother in law, Moses was a king and a prophet; her sons were the assistant priests;  her brother, Nachshon, was the leader of the tribe of Judah.  Nevertheless, she had unbelievable sadness in her life when her sons went to bring their offering and were devoured by the flames of God.   Therefore the wise one says, ‘tell the boastful not to boast’.”

The message about not boasting impresses upon us the sobering reality of life.  We are given the feeling that when we are happy at the way things are going in our lives, we should not brag, because it’s just a part of life.  Especially when looked at in comparison of the greatness and blessing experienced by the heroes in the midrash, our reasons to boast are far less in comparison.  Additionally, if we think that we’re so great because things, thank God, are currently working out for us, the Midrash reminds us not to get too carried away;  There is no life that doesn’t have some sadness. 
But, in addition to this sobering lesson, if you look between the lines of what this Midrash is saying, there is an important, hopeful, message here as well.  It can be depressing to see other people’s lives and assume that they are more happy than we are because they have so much more to be happy about.  The Midrash is reminding us that all happiness is relative, no one is going to have only good things happen to them, and similarly no one in the world will only have bad things happen to them.  With this depiction of the way the world works, we can take comfort in the fact that we are never completely alone alone. 

Sometimes when we are going through things in our lives that make us feel depressed, we also might feel that no one can understand what we’re going through; that we’re alone.  This Midrash is pointing out that everyone in life, even our greatest heroes, have great moments but also have dark moments as well.  Experiencing ups and downs in life is universal. 

When we seclude ourselves, and cut ourselves off from other people, we limit our ability to see the complexity of other people’s lives.  On the surface, most people seem pretty happy most of the time.  So for the person who is struggling, if they cannot see beyond a surface judgement of the lives of the people around them, they will feel very alienated.  But when you get deeper glimpse into other people’s lives, you start to see the full spectrum of their experiences, both good and bad.  For the person who is struggling, the lesson is, push yourself to reach out for support.  Hopefully you will learn through the process of being supported that people care about you and that you’re never totally alone.  But doing this is a serious challenge to the person who is already struggling and is already feeling alienated.  Therefore the lesson for everyone is that we don’t always know what is going in the inner lives of the people around us; we don’t always know who is suffering.  With that realization we can train ourselves to be more sensitive to the people around us and more accessible as a means of support to someone in our community.