In the fifth aliyah of Parshat Chukat, Aharon dies and the people weep over him. Rashi explains that at first the people did not believe Aharon really died. Hadn’t Aharon staved off the malach hamavet, the angel of death, during the plague? The malach hamavet could not have conquered him! מיד בקש משה רחמים והראוהו מלאכי השרת להם מוטל במטה, ראו והאמינו, “Immediately Moshe asked for mercy, and the ministering angels showed Aharon to them, lying in the bed. They saw him and they believed [he had died]” (Rashi on Bamidbar 20:29). B’nai Yisrael’s reaction here speaks to the shock that many of us feel when we lose a loved one. The death immediately feels like it cannot be real. We feel this shock and denial because the loss of a loved one throws off the balance of our world. In a world that makes sense to us, Aharon, who once conquered the angel of death, would continue to prevail for as long as we need him. But that is not the world in which we live. Death takes all of us, and loss destroys reason and sense. This poignant and painful moment in our sidra places on a pedestal the shock and complete tailspin of death. And yet within it, the image of Aharon lying on his bed remains as an offering of mercy and closure. It is haunting and comforting all at once.
