Chevre, this week’s parsha is Shemini (שְׁמִינִי) and parshat HaChodesh (החֹדש). This week we have the start of the priestly service followed directly by the death of Nadav and Avihu. Have you ever learned about a new service or function, you dig in, start playing with it and then realize it either messed up something else, the bill for that usage was super high, or some other nefarious thing happend? This is the same. Nadav and Avihu wanted to do the right thing, they were excited to perform the service, but in their zest, they did something wrong. Midrashim say they may have been intoxicated or they just brought an offering that wasn’t commanded. Whatever the issue, they were punished. In the cloud, punishment is an outage or a large fee. In the Temple Service, punishment can be divine, as in this case. We actually learn a lot of our mourning rituals and practices from Aharon and what he does after the death of his boys. In the tech world we talk about post-mortems, but in this case, it was literal. So next time, you are dealing with a large bill or an outage, it may seem bleak, but remember, it could always be worse.
This week is also Parshat HaChodesh, we enter the month of Nissan next week as we steadily march toward Pesach (Passover). I know I have time on my calendar already to take off from work and clean the house. Shabbat Shalom
Note: next week I’ll be in the US, so I’ll be sending out my message later than normal. And I greatly appreciate everyone who is helping make my trip as easy and successful as possible.