|Table Talk: Shemini| Before or After: “Just as God sat for the
seven days of mourning, during the seven days of Creation, for
the world that would be destroyed in the Flood, so too, Aaron
and his sons sat Shiva during the first seven days of the
dedication of the Mishkan for Nadav and Avihu who would die on
the eighth day.” (Yerushalmi, Moed Katan 3:5, as explained by
the Korban Ha’eidah: God knows the future and therefore mourns
before the tragedy.) Why would God “mourn” the tragedy before it
happens? Is there a parallel in the pre-death mourning many
people experience? “As long as the Mishkan and Beit Hamikdash
stood, Michael, the Ministering Angel, would offer Korbanot in
the Heavenly Beit Hamikdash to parallel the Korbanot offered by
Israel in their Beit Hamikdash. This was to teach us that
whenever we perform any service of God, we should do it in a
manner that will lead others to emulate our actions.” (Kedushat
Levi, Likkutim; Avot: “If you have learned much Torah”) We find
a similar concept in the Tal