Beyond Orthodox Conversion to Judaism

"And G-d said to Moshe, Speak to Aharon your brother that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil before the covering, which is upon the ark, that he does not die" (Leviticus 16:2)

There are a number of things we learn from this verse. One thing is that G-d tells Aharon that he cannot come to the holy of holies whenever he wants. Rav Moshe Sternbuch in Ta'am V'Da'as explains that the reason is because if Aharon would come there whenever he wanted, he possibly could take for granted that auspicious moment.

This means that there would be a greater demand from Aharon if he did not take advantage of that awesome moment of G-d's revealing of Himself to him. This is a tremendous lesson that we need to implement in our lives.

If we have a moment of a great spiritual epiphany, we should not lose it and grab it with both our hands. We want to use this moment as much as possible to give us a "boost" so to speak in our spiritual quest for perfection.

This also teaches us that we should not do things by rote. If that is the case, we don't grow spiritually and it is detrimental to that growth. We are not robots just going about our actions without thinkin  or delving into what we are doing. We have to analyze our actions and take each thing we do and determine whether it is a good thing for me or not!

Another important thing we learn here is that although we have freewill to do what we want we must do what G-d wants at all times. This means that the Torah is eternal for all generations and does not give us the right to change it when we feel like it.

There is an obligation though to determine if modern day inventions coincide with Torah. For example, when electricity was first used, there was a discussion by the rabbinical authorities of that time whether electricity is considered fire and whether it would be permissible to turn on and off on Shabbos.

This is not changing the Torah but rather analyzing what the Torah means and applying it to that time. In any case, when we tamper with the Torah to make it fit "our" times, we disgrace and demean it!

The idea is that it is not how much we involve ourselves in Torah but rather how much Torah we put into us! If we start to change the Torah and make up it's laws, then we subject the Torah to the whims of man which is very dangerous.

We have seen over the last few generations what this can do and the havoc that it creates. The main point is that even if we would say that changing the Torah and making it fit within the times would make more people observe it, it would still be forbidden to do so. This certainly has not been the case and has been a dismal failure!

May we always live up to the high standards the Torah wants for us and continue to pass it down to all future generations!

Shabbat Shalom