Kol Ramah

Rabbis Eliot Malomet, Jeremy Kalmanofsky and Barrry Chesler. Parashat Acharai Mot [Leviticus 16-18] is familiar to many of us from Yom Kippur, when we reach chapter 16 in the morning and, traditionally, chapter 18, though in modern times congregations have chosen to read chapter 19 or parashat nitzavim for Deuteronomy. Chapter 16 describes the Yom Kippur ritual in the mishkan [tabernacle], and is prefaced by a note about the deaths of Nadav and Avihu, narrated in chapter 10. We spend the first part of our conversation discussing these deaths and what they might have meant in the life of the nation and in the lives of Moses and Aaron, national leaders but also brothers who suffered an enormous tragedy. The second part of the conversation took its cue from the calendar, the observance of Yom HaShoah [Holocaust Memorial Day] this past Wednesday evening and Thursday, and of Yom Ha-Zikkaron [Israel’s Memorial Day] and Yom Ha-Atzma’ut [Israel’s Independence Day]. Jeremy, who must returned from a trip to Israel