This past week, I went on a lobbying trip to Nashville with Haddasah to argue for stiffer penalties for violent crimes. The impetus for the trip was the tragic death last year of Ethan Jacobs, the son of our members, cathy and Alan Jacobs, whose life was taken by a senseless shooting. About forty of us, Hadassah members, members of the Jacobs and malkin family, and some families of victims of Memphis murders, joined the group bus to lobby our legislators about tougher crime penalties.

When I arrived at the offices of some of the legislators, I began to encounter some resistance; some, though a minority of state legislators felt that our approach was not balanced. One representative from Shelby county thought that while stiffer penalties for violent crimes have their place, what was more important was to catch the criminals early in juvenile court and get them help. Another representative from eastern tn rejected the notion of stiffer penalties. He felt that there were already too many in jail and that what was needed was community involvement, people taking back their neighborhoods, denouncing the drug dealers among them. The governor, whom I did not speak with, is apparently focused on sprucing up schools and education.

Our own representative said that he felt that the prime responsibility of the government is to keep people safe and that legistlation designed to keep hardened criminals off the streets before they commit their next act was responsible and important. Actually our pirkei avot also state that the reason we pray each week for the government is that without the government each person would swallow the other alive. Our tradition asserts that the prime purpose of government is to protect.

This Nashville debate is paralleled by a discussion in our parasha this week. Here too, we meet two juvenile offenders, nadav and avihu. While they may have had various holy motives for their sin, clearly they violated something so wrong that they were smitten in the midst of what was arguably the high point in all of biblical history, the inauguration of a permanent temple or tabernacle in our midst. As they came forward with some kind of firepan offering, which was not called for, a fire struck them down from heaven.

While we don’t know precisely why they were struck down, we are given several hints as to what may be the antidote to such behavior. Following their sin, we are told of two legal passages. The first teaching given to Moshe after the death of his nephews was that wine and strong drink cannot be consumed prior to entry to or service in the holy sanctuary. From this Rabbi shimon in the midrash derives that the sin of the sons of Aharon must have been a sin of drunkenness in worship. The warning not to be drunk in the holy service is, says the midrash, a way of warning the next potential violator that this irreverence would not be tolerated. There are stiff penalties for a drunk cohen who performs the service in the sanctuary.

The next legal section is the section which discusses the prohibitions against non kosher food. Although less prevalent in the commentaries, this too could be a way of dealing with the wayward ways of the sons of Aharon. Rashi in Shemot suggests that the real sin of the sons of Aharon was that they peered at G-d perhaps in a state of gluttony and drinking at mount Sinai and they were punished at this later date. Now the torah comes and says, if you want to prevent this type of commission of gluttony, you must start with what you eat. Nadav and Avihu were struck down for their irreverent eating. You be sure to eat only these kosher items, eat in reverence, eat with care, eat in a way which will prepare you for the holy life.

Two views then on dealing with the sin of Nadav and Avihu; one is to prepare all who come after to learn to eat in holiness and purity. The other is to warn all potential offenders of the stiff penalties.

The truth is, both are necessary. We cannot tackle the decline of inner cities and their ills unless we address all the issues, community leadership, spiritual guidance, nutrition at a young age, early intervention, stimulating early childhood day care, better schools, giving hope, and more. But we cannot tackle the immediate problems of repeat offenders unless we take them off the streets. We cannot deter crime unless we punish crime and do so consistently and firmly. Which aspect is the role of the community, which the role of the state, which the role of religion, family? These are tough questions which must be addressed.

We need to increase our awareness of these issues and we need to do our small share to do something about the greatest ills which surround us right here in Memphis and around the country. I hope I helped a little bit this week to highlight some of these issues of crime and crime prevention by going to Nashville. I too became more aware of some of the pain of the victims of these rampant crimes.

There were a number of mothers on the bus who had lost their children to crime. Each participant got up and introduced themselves. One woman got up and introduced herself to us and explained how her son was murdered three years ago. She said she hadn’t slept a full night in three years. She described her son and how hard he worked and how he was looking forward to turning 21 and how he never made it to that birthday. She came with us in hopes of preventing the next murder.

I don’t know how much difference we are capable of making regarding these intractable problems. I have no illusions that we will solve them tomorrow. What our parasha tells us is to eat right, to do right, to stay clean and pure as much as we can and to help others to do the same. This is Shabbat parah. It speaks of the need to regain our purity, to remain pure as much as we can. We need to stay clean, keep our kids clean, and hope that we can have a positive impact on those around us. Step by step, one act of goodness and activism at a time, we can continue to fight for a more pure and more perfect world. Good shabbos.