This week, the Annor Family Discount Store opened in Lubbock, Texas, and an article from a local podcaster about the grand opening illustrated a deep lesson from this week’s Parsha Shemini.
When the Israelites constructed a golden calf and served it as a deity, G-d’s presence, which had permeated the camp since the revelation at Sinai with the Giving of the Torah, disappeared. After Moshe succeeded in securing their forgiveness from G-d they were instructed to build the Mishkan (holy tabernacle) to serve as a conduit for G-d’s presence to return to the camp. After months of preparations, Moshe constructed the Mishkan and officiated the daily services for seven days, but G-d’s divine presence did not dwell in the edifice. Only on the eighth day, after Aharon, his brother, was initiated into the priesthood and offered a calf as a sacrifice, did G-d’s presence return.
Why was Moshe’s service not sufficient to trigger the revelation of G-d in the Mishkan?
While idolatry in its crassest iteration and ritual relevance means serving a physical image or object as a deity, its origins and core philosophies are more nuanced than that. The first humans interacted with G-d and did not doubt His existence, power and relevance, but later generations started viewing the forces of nature as independent and powerful conduits for G-d’s blessings. They reasoned that these forces are like waiters in a restaurant. Just as it is appropriate to respect, appreciate, and tip the waiter to get good service, even though the meal is provided by the restaurant owner, the same is true for the sun, moon, stars, clouds, and rain. From there, it was a slippery slope to bowing down to molten images of the sun and all the other nonsense they came up with.
Their mistake was comparing nature to human waiters instead of correctly comparing them to tools and computers. Just as one would never genuinely credit a hammer for banging a nail into place or a computer software for producing accurate data, crediting nature for providing for our needs, or a business venture as the source of income, is similarly misguided. While we must engage in agriculture, commerce, and research on nature's terms, it must be done primarily on G-d’s terms, because every component of nature, and every man-made mechanism, is G-d’s tool to provide us nourishment, health, wealth, and peace. Thinking differently sets everything up to be a potential idol.
That’s why Aharon and the sacrificial calf, both associated with the scandalous golden calf, were necessary for G-d to once again dwell among the people. To illustrate that our G-d consciousness must be all immersive. We must feel G-d’s presence and act accordingly not only when we study Torah, do a mitzvah, or pray at the synagogue, but even in the “potential idols” of our mundane daily lives of eating, sleeping, exercising, working, and relaxing.
Which brings me back to the new discount store in Lubbock. Yesterday, the Jewish owners invited Chabad Rabbi Zalman Braun to help them mount a Mezuzah to the door at their grand opening, and Richard Jenkins wrote this in his article on Focus LBK after explaining what a Mezuzah is: We sensed the strength of the Ezer family’s faith in G-d and family the whole time we browsed and mingled with them at Annor Family Discount Store.
When could you feel most Jewish? Whatever you do, whenever and wherever, can and should be your most Jewish experience, provided it is done following G-d’s will and wisdom as articulated in the Code of Jewish Law.