06 May AHAREH-MOT: YOU COME FIRST!

Parashat Ahareh-Mot
begins with the description
of the special Yom Kippur
service in the Bet
Ha’mikdash. The service
was performed by the kohen
gadol, who offered a series
of special sacrifices in order to earn
atonement for the Jewish People.
Surprisingly, though, before the kohen
gadol brought the sacrifices to atone for
the nation’s sins, he first had to bring his
own korban, to atone for his own sins.
We must ask – the fate of the entire
Jewish Nation is at stake; all Am Yisrael
is riding on the kohen gadol’s back, and
he first offers his own sacrifice?! With so
much at stake, shouldn’t the kohen gadol
rush to bring the nation’s sacrifices?
The answer is simple, but very powerful
and very relevant to all of us: you come
first! It all starts with you.
Yes, we should feel responsible for
everyone around us – our spouse, our
children, our extended family, our
community, the entire Jewish Nation, and

the entire world. But if we don’t care for
ourselves, we can’t care for anybody
else. Physically, emotionally and
spiritually – our wellbeing comes first. If
we are not strong physically, emotionally
and spiritually, then we will not be able to
help and contribute.
The Gemara in Masechet Yoma (35b)
tells of three righteous individuals whose
examples refute the excuses that some
people give for why they don’t
learn. Hillel learned Torah and became a
great scholar despite being very poor –
and so people who struggle financially
cannot use their struggles as an excuse
for not learning. Yosef remained
righteous even though he faced great
temptation to sin – and so people who
struggle with temptation cannot excuse
themselves from living a devoted
religious life. Finally, Rabbi Elazar ben
Harsom was a fabulously wealthy man,
having inherited one thousand cities from
his father – and yet, despite his pressures
from business, he learned Torah. Thus, a
wealthy person cannot excuse himself
from learning because of his wealth.

One commentary asked,
why would we have thought
that a wealthy person can
excuse himself from
learning because he has to
tend to his businesses and
his assets? Do we need the
example of Rabbi Elazar
ben Harsom to teach us
that? Isn’t this obvious, that
being wealthy isn’t a reason
not to learn Torah?
The answer is that the
wealthy man might think,
“I’m a businessman, not a scholar. If I
spend an hour learning, how much is that
learning worth? How much am I really
going to understand and remember? And
in that hour, I could be making more
money, which could be used to donate to
the needy and to important
institutions. Isn’t my time better spent
doing more work than learning Torah?”
The Gemara teaches that this is
wrong. We all need to care for ourselves
first. No matter how many people depend
on us, we need to make time for ourselves,

for our own needs, for our own growth,
for our own development. We cannot
possibly expect to give to others unless
we are taking care of ourselves.
On the most important day of the year –
Yom Kippur – the one who is the most
important person in the world on that day
– the kohen gadol – first deals with his
own spirituality, before tending to the
rest of the nation. This is an instructive
model for each of us, each day of our
lives. We need to take care of ourselves
so that we will then be able to take care of
all those who depend on us.