Right or left – Tzav
The final sentence of the sidra (Lev. 8:36) tells us that Aaron and his sons carried out what God had commanded, turning (as Rashi informs us) neither to the right or the left.
These days “right” and “left” have a political connotation. Not just in global or national politics but religious politics too. Whoever and wherever you are on the spectrum you tend to think that it is the others who are going too far to the right or too far to the left, becoming too extreme in their orthodoxy or too extreme in their unorthodoxy.
Actually what is going on is an attempt to assess which position is right in your own situation. That does not necessarily mean that either you or others must be wrong, only that you or they are a thinking person whose opinions are in process of formation.
