Excelsior! – Tzav 5782

In this week's Torah portion, Aaron is invested as high priest, as are his sons, in a lavish ceremony before the entire Israelite community. It's a high moment for Aaron, a week before his world will fall apart. I don't know why the rabbis segmented the Torah portions this way, but perhaps its a reminder to keep everything in balance, and to focus on the good at times, even—or perhaps because—you know rough waters are coming up ahead.

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Have you ever had one of those weeks, when just nothing seemed to go right? We’ve all been there. The project you’re working on doesn’t pan out, you seem to fumble every ball that comes your way, everything you touch just seems to crumble or explode?

Last week I went from feeling like everything was falling apart to feeling on top of the world again, in the span of a few hours. It started when a client decided to consolidate all of their podcasting work, which in this case probably means hiring a full time employee, and so after wrapping a successful first season of their new podcast, with loose plans to start production on a second season soon, those plans evaporated in the time it took me to read a thoughtful and well-intentioned email, parting ways.

My business is still in a fragile spot, and if you know anyone who wants to make a podcast, send them my way, because at the time it felt like everything I had worked so hard to build, the reason I took yet another break from this podcast, was starting to slip away, and quickly.

This week, Aaron is on top of the world, as he’s anointed with incense, oil, and power as High Priest of Israel. His sons, too, are invested as priests, and G-d promises his descendants will serve as priests for the people for all time. It’s a magnificent moment that takes up most of this week’s parsha, together with the description of what Aaron’s actually supposed to do, mostly treat with G-d on behalf of the people, and absolve their sins, both through ritual sacrifice.

There’s pageantry, costumes, speeches, it’s a fancy affair, and listening to the words you can almost imagine the Israelite people standing their, encircling the Tabernacle, as they watched this spectacle.

Leviticus 8:1

(1) G-d spoke to Moses, saying

(2) Take Aaron along with his sons, and the vestments, the anointing oil, the bull of sin offering, the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread;

(3) and assemble the community leadership* at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.

(4) Moses did as יהוה commanded him. And when the leadership* was assembled at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting,

(5) Moses said to the leadership,* “This is what יהוה has commanded to be done.”

(6) Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water.

(7) He put the tunic on him, girded him with the sash, clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod on him, girding him with the decorated band with which he tied it to him.

(8) He put the breastpiece on him, and put into the breastpiece the Urim and Thummim.*

(9) And he set the headdress on his head; and on the headdress, in front, he put the gold frontlet, the holy diadem—as יהוה had commanded Moses.

(10) Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the Tabernacle and all that was in it, thus consecrating them.

(11) He sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, anointing the altar, all its utensils, and the laver with its stand, to consecrate them.

(12) He poured some of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head and anointed him, to consecrate him.

(13) Moses then brought Aaron’s sons forward, clothed them in tunics, girded them with sashes, and wound turbans upon them, as יהוה had commanded Moses.

(14) He led forward the bull of sin offering. Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bull of sin offering,

(15) and it was slaughtered. Moses took the blood and with his finger put some on each of the horns of the altar, purifying the altar; then he poured out the blood at the base of the altar. Thus he consecrated it in order to make expiation upon it.

(16) Moses then took all the fat that was about the entrails, and the protuberance of the liver, and the two kidneys and their fat, and turned them into smoke on the altar.

(17) The rest of the bull, its hide, its flesh, and its dung, he put to the fire outside the camp—as יהוה had commanded Moses.

Of course, next week, Aaron’s world will come crashing down. He’ll witness the death of his sons, Nadav and Avihu, who approach the altar of G-d inappropriately, in some fashion, and are consumed by fire as punishment, and as a message to the Israelites about the seriousness of G-d’s decrees.

I was scrolling through old South Park episodes this week, and watched one I haven’t seen in a while—Season 10, Episode 6 titled ManBearPig. ManBearPig, if you’re not familiar, is half man, half bear, half pig. Or is that half man & half bear-pig, or half bear-man & half pig?

In reality, ManBearPig is an allegory for climate change, a monstrous demon out to conquer us all. In the show, ManBearPig is the creation of Vice President Al Gore, who’s on an eternal quest to alert the world about the dangers of ManBearPig. It’s a little unfair to the Vice President, who’s spent years of his life on a crusade to awaken the world to the dangers of human-caused climate change, which unlike ManBearPig is actually an existential threat that’s out to kill us all. Beware of climate change, and ManBearPig. It never hurts to be cautious.

The reason I bring this up, is that in the ManBearPig episode, and in many of his appearances elsewhere in the series, Vice President Gore has a catch-phrase, or catch-word, that he seems to say all the time—excelsior.

Beyond being the name of an ill-fated Federation starship, with a trans warp drive that just never quite broke the threshold, I had no idea what the word excelsior actually meant.

So I looked it up. It Latin for higher, or more accurately it means always upward. And besides Star Trek, which definitely dominated the search algorithms, it’s had some interesting literary uses. For the New York Jews out there, like my wife, I should acknowledge that it’s part of the New York State motto. Sorry not sorry I didn’t know that. I’m not from New York. I am, however, writing and recording and publishing this episode before the Kentucky Wildcats begin their 2022 tournament run. Go Cats.

Back to excelsior, and its literary uses. Probably the most famous is a poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow was a 19th century poet, and if you know the name it’s probably because of his most famous work, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” you know, “the British are coming, the British are coming.”

Excelsior, the poem by Longfellow, is about not aiming too high, the danger of ambition, and the value of staying grounded in the world around us, as it actually exists.

Next week I’ll get to the death of Aaron’s sons. But like the rabbis intended when the segmented the Torah portions, I’ll choose this week to focus on the positive, all that pageantry, incense, and costuming that I mentioned earlier. The danger of ambition is always out there, it’s why in South Park, Vice President Gore shouts excelsior after offering his allegory on climate change—the dangers of ManBearPig. Climate change is a problem of our own making, a result of our own ambition to rise higher and higher. Have you heard about Elon Musk’s plan to populate Mars? It may be a response to climate change, but it’s the same type of rising ambition that Wadsworth warns us about. And let’s be honest, cobalt mines in the Congo are rapidly adding to the climate crisis, all to get a metal that powers the batteries which run Elon Musk’s environmentally friendly, world-changing cars.

So beware of rising ambition, and even if you’re invested as high priest of Israel, try to keep everything in balance. Because the world could come crashing down at any moment.

As Jewish tradition teaches us, at all times hold these truths equally, that the world was created solely for you, and that you are nothing but dust and ash.

Excelsior by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The shades of night were falling fast,

As through an Alpine village passed

A youth, who bore, ‘mid snow and ice,

A banner with the strange device,

Excelsior!

His brow was sad; his eye beneath,

Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,

And like a silver clarion rung

The accents of that unknown tongue,

Excelsior!

In happy homes he saw the light

Of household fires gleam warm and bright;

Above, the spectral glaciers shone,

And from his lips escaped a groan,

Excelsior!

“Try not the Pass!” the old man said;

“Dark lowers the tempest overhead,

The roaring torrent is deep and wide!”

And loud that clarion voice replied,

Excelsior!

“Oh stay,” the maiden said, “and rest

Thy weary head upon this breast! “

A tear stood in his bright blue eye,

But still he answered, with a sigh,

Excelsior!

“Beware the pine-tree’s withered branch!

Beware the awful avalanche!”

This was the peasant’s last Good-night,

A voice replied, far up the height,

Excelsior!

At break of day, as heavenward

The pious monks of Saint Bernard

Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,

A voice cried through the startled air,

Excelsior!

A traveller, by the faithful hound,

Half-buried in the snow was found,

Still grasping in his hand of ice

That banner with the strange device,

Excelsior!

There in the twilight cold and gray,

Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,

And from the sky, serene and far,

A voice fell like a falling star,

Excelsior!

Shabbat Shalom.