Parshas Shemini is packed with tons of information. Firstly, Aaron and his sons begin their priestly requirements following their inauguration. Aaron’s two sons sadly offer “a strange fire before g-d, which he commanded them not,” and they died. Aaron and Moshe then argue about a point of law regarding the offerings, and strangely enough the great Moshe Rabbeinu concedes to his brother that Aaron is correct. But enough with the details, I want to focus on the two main laws this Parsha discusses – Eating Kosher and a Mikvah.

The laws of kosher are pretty intricate; we have the basics of: don’t mix milk and meat, slaughter the animal correctly, animals must chew their cud and have split hooves while fish must have both fins and scales. But of course there are the smaller laws of: All milk must be watched by a jew, a jew must be the one to check for bugs and light the fires in kitchens etc… I could go on for hours (If any of my information is incorrect by the way, I apologize greatly, after all I’m not a Rabbi. Or an English professor so don’t judge my writing.) But I digress…

I do not know all that much about the laws of a Mikvah but the concept is simple and interesting. Anytime one is spiritually unclean, you immerse your entire body in the water (I think it’s 7 times but not sure), and you are good as new. The water though has to be natural, rain water.

I could not tell you the exact reasons for these two laws, but I can give you some insight into the mind of Dovi Herman:

Well it’s not all me, my friend Zac Feld, former Rebo member, once told me that he thought a big reason that Kosher is a thing is to teach humans the importance of resistance. As living creatures we all want food; food is sustenance, which is life – and I think life is pretty good. If we as humans can resist the temptation to eat a cheeseburger, something that has been instilled in our minds through advertisement since we were children that it’s really good, then we can have the power to resist other temptations, like stealing or women.

My interpretation for a practical reason for a Mikvah is that g-d wants us to succeed, he really does. He wants to show us that just because we have become spiritually dirty, it’s not the end of the world; he’s giving us a do-over. So my message to you all this weekend is try to resist immoral temptations, and remember that just because you screw up once, life isn’t over, you will have another chance, but you need to put the time and effort into cleansing yourself.

Shabbat Shalom,

Duvi Herman