Rosh Chodesh Menachem Av begins this Sunday night, July 11, at sunset.  It is also the Yahrzeit of Aaron, older brother of Moses and the first High Priest.  Please read the following thoughts for this time from Reb Zalman.  Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor

The Yahrzeit of Ahron The High Priest

I am a kohen, a descendent Ahron.  (This, I was also able to verify through genetic testing.)

Descendents of Ahron have a particular genetic marker regardless of whether they are Ashkenazi or Yemenites.

I’ve given myself over to contemplating the life of my ancestor, the high priest.

Once, when I was at the Kotel, the sacred wall of the Temple, there were five rows across the plaza of Kohanim offering the priestly blessing to the people of Jerusalem and to the whole world, urbi et orbi / to the city and to the world.  It was very impressive.

Ahron, the high priest, is always faulted for having built The Golden Calf.

In my imagination I see my ancestor beleaguered by people who are missing Moses, their leader and their contact with the living God, therefore asking Ahron to make them “a God that shall lead them” (cf., Exodus 32:1, ff).  We read that he made them a Golden calf and that they worshiped it. 

I see, in my mind’s eye, an image in which the statue that he made was draped in a cloth and that the people are standing in front of it in great anticipation.

Now imagine along with me:

We are in the present, and I, Zalman, am as my ancestor, in his role, and people are asking me to make them a God. 

And here it is:  I have produced a statue for them which I’m about to unveil.

Wanting to show them how ridiculous their request is, I’ve chosen Mickey Mouse for the statue. 

I covered it with a cloth and I’m about to unveil it.

With a flourish, I pull down the cloth and say “this is your God O Israel!”

And I expect the people to get the point and then slink away in shame for having made such a foolish request. 

This, too, is the way I see what happened when Ahron unveiled the golden calf.

The trouble is, however, that when it comes to religion, people don’t have a sense of humor or irony and they take it literally. 

Oy! Oy! What a pity!  What problems this attitude creates.

Today, we are not, I believe, any much better when we take a look and consider the idols that we worship in our own day.

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The following comes from Reb Zalman on this week’s Torah portion, Mattot-Massei. [NOTES by Gabbai Seth Fishman]

In Mattot / tribes, the Torah speaks about people who make vows,  (Numbers 30:2, ff):

Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, saying: This is the thing the Lord has commanded:  If a man makes a vow, etc.

The way in which the Torah has Moses addressing this to the heads of the tribes is unusual, and it makes us wonder why this law alone was to be addressed to the heads rather than directly to the children of Israel. 

Speech is something to be taken seriously and vows are a form of speech. 

(Psalms 33:6) “By the words of God heavens were made.” 

Words are powerful when they are not made hollow. If they are made hollow, there is a sense of desecration. As the Torah says, (Numbers 30:3),

When a person makes a vow let hir not desecrate it: According to all that comes forth from hir lips, s/he shall activate.

Then, the text goes on to say something of the circumstances in which a vow cannot be kept, as when an underage woman is still in the house of her father and her father disagrees and nullifies; or a  married woman with a husband or father who disagrees and nullifies.

So a possible explanation for this law having been addressed to the heads of the tribes is the following: 

In order to release a person who makes a vow from the vow, the head of the tribe helps the person find a “gate of regret.”

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