Leviticus 16:1-20:27
Two Sanctuaries
The very beginning of the reading for this Shabbat ought to appear somewhat surprising. Following the death of Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu, in the wilderness sanctuary (mishkan), God says to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron not to enter the Holy of Holies at any time… lest he die.”
This of course doesn’t mean that Aaron is never to enter the Holy of Holies: in fact, the passage goes on to describe how Aaron himself, and all the High Priests who will follow him in history, are required to enter the Holy of Holies—but only once a year, on the Day of Atonement. The words “not to enter at any time” thus really mean “not to enter at any time that he might choose.”
But understood in this fashion, the statement is hardly less surprising. After all, the High Priest (kohen gadol) was considered, by dint of his high office, the one human being who was closest to God. Yet what this verse is saying is that he really wasn’t all that close. He couldn’t decide on his own to walk into the most sacred part of the sanctuary, where God was deemed in some sense to be present—not even in times of crisis. In fact, this verse’s mention of the death of Nadab and Abihu might be understood as a subtle hint to Aaron and all future High Priests: “Don’t forget what happened to these two when they overstepped their limits in the sanctuary.”
But where did this leave the rest of the people? If the High Priest himself was allowed to stand directly before God only once a year, and all the other kohanim (priests) in the sanctuary were not allowed even that, while ordinary Israelites were kept at a still greater distance and could not even come close to where the priests and Levites stood… then what sort of access to God did ordinary Israelites have? They were, at best, spectators, three jumps away from God’s real presence. Was the mishkan (and later, the Jerusalem temple) thus basically the province of the priesthood alone?
It seems that, from the very beginning, the Torah had presented an alternate sort of proximity to God—one might even say, an alternate sanctuary. When, following the exodus from Egypt, God first approached the people of Israel at Mount Sinai (in Exodus chapter 19), He offered them an extraordinary privilege: If you obey Me and keep the conditions of My covenant—that is, the laws that I am about to give you—then you will be My treasured possession, My ‘am segullah, from among all peoples. The text then adds: “And you will be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:5-6).
Scholars have wrestled with the meaning of this last sentence. Is a “kingdom of priests” a kingdom in which only priests can be chosen to be king? This seems unlikely on the face of it. There is no trace of such an idea in the Torah, nor, when Israel did become a kingdom, did anyone suggest turning to the priesthood to find a suitable monarch. In fact, even the words “you will be to Me a kingdom of priests” seem to undercut such a notion. God is saying that ordinary Israelites won’t actually be priests—there will still be real priests to offer sacrifices on the altar—but to Me they will be like priests, that is, as close to Me as priests. Israel as a whole will become “a holy nation,” as the verse goes on to say, “if you obey Me and keep the conditions of My covenant.”
If so, this passage in Exodus describes a very different sort of sanctuary from the one envisaged in Leviticus in this week’s reading. In Leviticus, even the High Priest is permitted to enter the Holy of Holies only once a year. By contrast, Exodus 19:5-6 describes a kind of alternate sanctuary, in which all Israelites will be able to come as close to Me as priests, in a sanctuary made up of mitzvot. And this went on to become one of the most basic tenets of Judaism. The blessings that people recite before performing a mitzvah always start off, “Blessed are You…who have made us holy through Your commandments”—as holy as priests in a sanctuary.
The big difference between the sanctuary of the High Priest and the sanctuary of all Israel, that is, the sanctuary of mitzvot, has to do with accessibility. Not even the High Priest can stand in God’s presence anytime he chooses; he gets to do that only once a year. But the ordinary Israelite can enter the sanctuary of mitzvot anytime he or she likes: it is right there, “in your mouth and in your heart to do it” (Deut 30:14).