Chevre, this week’s parsha is Shemini (שמיני). We have come out of Pesach, I hope everyone has restored their kitchens and are happily back to eating chametz. And, in Israel, we have a ceasefire with Iran so we are, mostly, out and about again. Schools have re-opened. All this as we keep an eye on Iran and an eye toward Lebanon.

In the parsha, the priestly service begins and anyone that has ever spun up a new service knows, you can expect some “hiccups”. In a computer world, things will fail and you explore the logs for the details and fix them. Here, 2 sons of Aharon brought an unrequested offering to the altar. The offering was accepted, but the sons (Nadav and Avihu) both died from it. With risks so high, now-a-days I would think (hope) folks would use automated testing to ensure the safety of the system/product before testing on people.

There is then a commandment against the Cohanim being intoxicated while performing their duties (implying that Nadav and Avihu may have not been sober). And we learn a lot of our laws around mourning from this episode.

This is then followed by the laws of Kashrut (Kosher). I wonder why this is brought right after this story. My only explanation is that we learn life goes on after a death and we need to keep going.

I continue to pray for quiet in the north especially and for all of Israel, and the safety for all our soldiers. Shabbat Shalom