Shemini: A High Standard?

I grew up in an intoxicated world known as Los Angeles. More likely than not, my contemporaries used drugs and alcohol. Junior High School was when the abuse originated.

I recall one classmate having a cornucopia of drugs stored a tin which was then housed in her locker. For another, I recall that even his parents were avid users. He would often partake from his parents’ stash. It sat in foil in the refrigerator freezer conveniently next to the pint of Haagen Daz. This was my world.

As a teen, I grew to have a sad fascination with drugs. In Health class, recovering teens would come and discuss all of the drugs and their experiences before they went clean. In a strange way, they made drugs appealing. After all, who wouldn’t want to “break on through to the other side”? It was the 70’s.

Me, the “good” kid, then made some bad moves. There was a period of substance abuse that lasted long enough to seriously impact my life. I attribute some of my severe lapses of judgment due to it. As a result, certain opportunities were lost forever. I learned, however, that sobriety mattered.

Shemini

Sobriety’s role in Torah Portion Shemini plays out after two of Aaron’s sons tragically die. These deaths occur during an improperly performed ritual. The two were consumed by fire. Leviticus 10:1-2. In essence, severe consequences can happen with improperly performed cultic rituals.

The incident was followed by a directive.

“And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, “You shall not drink wine and beer and your sons with you, when you come to the Tent of Meeting, so you won’t die. It is an eternal law through your generations, and to distinguish between the holy and the secular, and between the impure and the pure, and to instruct the children of Israel all the laws that the Lord has spoken to them by the hand of Moses. Leviticus 10:8-11.

In antiquity, there appears to an appreciation that intoxication impaired both mental and physical acuity. In Shemini, it is notable that the Israelite God speaks directly to Aaron as opposed to Moses, The passage’s takeaway is that those dealing of the most sacred of Israelite Deity affairs must be of sound mind and body.

Conclusion

While Shemini does not forbid alcohol, it does connect purity to sobriety. It implies that sobriety is in fact a higher state of living. Purity- in a biblical manner- demands sobriety. Thus, it is not unreasonable to expand upon this notion. Sobriety may represent a higher state of being. As we all can see, substance abuse is a large source of many society’s moral decay.

Be well!!

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