Accepting Guidance - Parashat Shemini 5779 - March 29, 2019

This week’s parasha, Shemini, deals with the eighth and final day of the inauguration of the mishkan.

At the beginning of the parasha, the Torah presents a list of korbanot – sacrifices – that are to be offered on this inauguration day. Two of these sacrifices include a command for Aharon to bring a calf as a sin offering and for the People of Israel to bring a goat as a sin offering.

Rav Matis Blum, in his sefer, Torah Le’Daat, discusses why, on the final day of the dedication of the mishkan, there was a command to offer not one, but two, sin offerings – Aharon’s calf and B’nei Yisrael’s goat.

Maimonides, in his Guide to the Perplexed, suggests reasons why specific animals were commanded to be offered in the mishkan and in the beit hamikdash. In discussing the calf and the goat as sin offerings, HaRambam explains that each of these animals has an association with a previous sin of the Jewish People. The Rambam suggests that the calf is connected to the sin of the Golden Calf. On this day of the inauguration of the mishkan, Aharon was commanded to offer a sin offering and to seek atonement for the sin of the Golden Calf.

To what sin is bnei yisrael’s goat as a sin offering connected? Rambam suggests that the goat signifies the sin of the brothers when they sold Yosef and rubbed his coat in goat blood to demonstrate to their father that Yosef had been killed.

Building on the Rambam’s explanation, Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, the author of the Meshech Chochma, addresses our question of why there is an extra obligation of a goat offering on the day we dedicated the mishkan. He suggests that both the sin of the brothers and the sin of the calf had a common denominator. They share the element of b’nei yisrael’s resistance to accepting guidance from its leaders. When first looking at the story of Yosef, we might think that the brothers were justified in their punishment of Yosef. Yosef would consistently tell his father about his brothers’ wrongdoings and, as a consequence, they believed that Yosef was a gossiper. Because of this quality, they thought that Yosef was not fit to become the next leader of the Jewish people.

Shifting to the sin of the Golden Calf, our Rabbis teach that the Jewish People were resistant to heeding the rebuke of their leader. Specifically, Chur, son of Miriam, rebuked the Jewish people to stop sinning with the Golden Calf. Rather than listening to him, they killed him to avoid his rebuke and guidance.

The Meshech Chochma suggests that the Jewish people’s resistance to guidance and rebuke predates the incident of the Golden Calf. Their killing of Chur demonstrates how deep this resistance was and further explains why Yosef did not confront his brothers directly and instead went to his father with reports about the brothers. Yosef feared this same level of resistance and retribution from his brothers.

This quality of resisting rebuke is the reason why we must bring a second korban. The mishkan is a place for b’nei yisrael to reflect on their shortcomings and to seek full atonement. This atonement can only be achieved if we accept leadership and guidance. B’nei Yisrael’s sin offering of a goat teaches us that failing to heed the teachings and warnings of those around us is also a shortcoming and a sin.