Three lines in this beautiful piece resonate with the idea that G'd's attributes of justice and mercy coexist in us, and that by signing up for the commandments while necessarily making room for the possibility of atonement, we are also signing up for the need to remain silent when mercy results in an irreversible triumph of apparent evil over good:
1) "Aaron’s task, and the task of the priesthood, is to facilitate atonement. Moses seeks justice, which makes it hard for him to talk."
2) "Moses offers words of comfort to his brother, while Aaron remains silent. On a meta-level each brother experiences in that moment what it’s like to be the other."
3) "I hear in Aaron’s silence a doubled valence: the anguish of a human being suffering shock and grief and the stoicism of a Jewish leader who understands that personal sacrifice is what he signed up for. "
One possible additional explanation for Aaron's silence might then be his recognition that he may have been too "merciful" in rearing Nadav and Avihu in the rituals they were to perform, and were not to perform.
Three lines in this beautiful piece resonate with the idea that G'd's attributes of justice and mercy coexist in us, and that by signing up for the commandments while necessarily making room for the possibility of atonement, we are also signing up for the need to remain silent when mercy results in an irreversible triumph of apparent evil over good:
1) "Aaron’s task, and the task of the priesthood, is to facilitate atonement. Moses seeks justice, which makes it hard for him to talk."
2) "Moses offers words of comfort to his brother, while Aaron remains silent. On a meta-level each brother experiences in that moment what it’s like to be the other."
3) "I hear in Aaron’s silence a doubled valence: the anguish of a human being suffering shock and grief and the stoicism of a Jewish leader who understands that personal sacrifice is what he signed up for. "
One possible additional explanation for Aaron's silence might then be his recognition that he may have been too "merciful" in rearing Nadav and Avihu in the rituals they were to perform, and were not to perform.