shimini

After the inauguration of the Tabernacle , the divine presence still hadn't appeared to the Jewish people. Then the posuk says ויבא משה ואהרן אל אהל מועד ויצאו ויברכו את העם, Moshe and Aaron came into the tent of meeting and they went out and blessed the people, וירא כבוד ה אל כל העם, and the glory of 'ה appeared to the whole nation. Rashi explains why it says that Moshe and Aaron entered, when it was Aaron who was being inaugurated & doing the עבודה. It's because once Aaron saw that he had done all the services & brought all the offerings & still the shechina hadn't come down, he was upset & said, I know that it's because 'ה is angry at me that the shechina didn't come down. Moshe, my brother, look what you did to me. I only agreed to this because you asked me to & now I'm embarrassed that the shechina didn't come down, so immediately Moshe went in with him & they davened, & the shechina came down. How does that help? Wouldn't Aaron still be embarrassed that he needed Moshe to help him bring the shechina & he couldn't do it on his own? The posuk says ויאמר משה אל אהרן קרב אל המזבח Moshe said to Aaron come close to the מזבח. Rashi says that Aaron was embarrassed & scared to come close to the מזבח. Moshe said to him, why are you embarrassed? This is what you were selected for. Explains הגרי"צ מוולוז"ין, what Moshe meant was that the reason you were chosen to be kohen gadol is because you're embarrassed; humility is the reason you were chosen. This humility is what made him take the blame upon himself. ר' ירוחם לוביביץ says when the shechina didn't come down , unlike most people who try to blame others when things go wrong, Aaron blamed himself even though there were others who had much greater sins than he did. The אוצר התורה brings an amusing parable. There was once a very poor shul & the members decided that they wanted to have a festive purim, so they decided that every week someone else would pour his shot of vodka into a barrel, & at the end of the year when purim came along there would be a barrel full of vodka. Once a week the people would come & pour their cups into the barrel. When purim came & the festivities began, the poor men gathered around the barrel, filled their glasses & were ready to drink. The first man took a sip & spit it out crying, hey it's water not vodka!! The people looked at each other speechless, realizing that they could only blame themselves, for each one of them thought to himself everyone else would bring vodka so I could get away with water, but what they ended up with was a barrel of water! That's what happens when people try to shirk their responsibilities figuring other people will do it, & they end up with nothing. Over here Aaron was showing us that we have to take responsibility for our actions, so he blamed himself. More than that, he went back in & prayed with Moshe to show that it's teamwork & togetherness that will make the shechina rest on us. We have to realize that in order to get the divine blessings we can't think let someone else do it but each one of us has to go out & do our part!