It is even commanded, so Torah tells us, by God. The rules make possible a life which is good enough, meaningful enough, beautiful enough, profound enough, heavy enough with the meaning of God s presence but not so heavy with that presence that we cannot bear up under the weight of it to contain the terror of this life and of what follows it. When Aaron hears the lesson drawn by Moses from the event of his sons deaths, Aaron was silent. He got that one right. Theology fails at points of contact with the ultimate.
All sense fails.
And then, a moment later, sacred order returns. We eat permitted foods, come near to God bearing prescribed offerings, and carefully, gratefully, at times joyfully, we go on. Arnold Eisen is Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University.