This commentary is on the entire portion of Aharay Mot which includes the following themes:

* A detailed description of the clothing worn by the Kohaneem (the priests) as they perform their Yom Kippur rituals: The clothes are white, modest, yet symbolic of Yom Kippur’s spiritual nature. On Yom Kippur the Kohayn Gadol (the High Priest) entered the Holy of Holies, the sacred chamber which included the tablets. In the Holy of Holies he would pronounce the Tetragrammation, the four letter name for God, which he would not pronounce at any other time of the year. In this chamber, the High Priest (in the wilderness the Kohayn Gadol was Aaron, Moses’ brother) did not wear expensive clothing because Yom Kippur was a day for modesty and humility. For the High Priest, for the other Kohaneem – and indeed for all Jews – inner deeds took precedence over external appearance.

Even today on Yom Kippur, we evaluate our actions – without concern for personal status of any kind. In later centuries, the Mishna details the annual Yom Kippur course of preparation scheduled for the priests. For seven days they reviewed the rituals and practices performed on Yom Kippur. Such a refresher course reminded the Priests of their solemn responsibility to lead the people accurately and faithfully. In the course of their ritual, the priests made atonement on behalf of themselves, their families and the entire community of Israel.

Today, we recall the Yom Kippur ritual through our Avodah service; the early afternoon Yom Kippur ceremony in which we re-enact the ceremony of the High Priest entering the Holy of Holies. In recalling the ancient ceremony, we maintain continuity with our past even though our Judaism of the present takes on a new form. As part of the ritual, the priest sends a goat – known as Azazel – into the wilderness. This goat represents the collective “sin” of the people, yet its value is symbolic only. As a visual ritual, having a goat disappear while “bearing” the mistakes of Bnai Yisrael must have further motivated the people to examine their actions and to ask personal forgiveness from anyone they had offended during the previous year.

The section about Yom Kippur concludes with reference to the date when Yom Kippur was established as an annual observance: The tenth day of the seventh month, Tishre. In biblical times, Tishre was the seventh month and not the first month of the year. The first month was Nisan, the month of Passover, when B’nai Yisrael unified as the official nation. Tishre represents the birthday of the world, and, therefore, over time was considered as the first month of the new Hebrew calendar. We read the entire chapter sixteen of Aharay Mot during the Yom Kippur morning Torah service.

* Commandment not to eat blood: Blood was considered a major symbol of life as the dietary rules of Kashrut forbid eating blood. For meat to be considered Kosher it must be soaked and salted to remove any blood whatsoever. The Torah also forbids us to eat animals considered nevelah (an animal which dies of itself) or traifah (an animal torn apart by another animal; traifah has become the standard term for non-Kosher food). Since keeping Kosher is a constant practice which one observes each moment of the day, a Jew would think about blook and life, and hopefullyshow respect not only for animals, but for all human beings as well.

* Rules about forbidden marriages and improper sexual relations: The Torah teaches that we need guidelines to sexual and marital relations for the sake of living moral lives. A number of years ago, the Conservative Rabbinate published a pastoral letter on the subject of sexual relations (information extending beyond the issues raised in Aharay Mot). The letter expressed a hope that even in our more permissive, democratic times, people would regard sexual relations with a sense of sanctity. While many object to any religion placing limitations on personal behavior, Judaism teaches an alternative to the philosophy of “anything goes.”

Haftarah: Amos 9:7-15

Amos was a prophet who spoke to the people of the Northern Kingdom (a kingdom eventually destroyed by Assyria in 720 BCE). He was concerned about social justice and individual/communal quality of life. The Haftorah begins with an important message to Israel: all nations, the Ethiopians, the Philistines and the Armenians are also part of God's creation. Therefore, Bnai Israel has no right to assume they are entitled to live an immoral life. In the future, following a period of exile, Bnai Israel will return to their homeland and will rebuild their cities, plant their vineyards, and remain firmly committed to the land and to the quality of life demanded of them.