First, Clear the Channel - Parshat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim 5786

Parshat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim opens in the aftermath of catastrophe. Aaron has just buried his sons, who had been consumed by fire before the altar, struck down in the very sanctuary they were consecrated to serve. The Torah offers no eulogy, no cathartic outpouring of paternal grief. Aaron, we are told simply, was silent. And then the Torah pivots to Yom Kippur — the holiest day in the Jewish calendar — for which Aaron is the sole officiant. The man who just lost everything is being handed the weight of an entire nation's spiritual reckoning.