Is Death Always a Punishment?

Parshat Shmini

by Rabbi Avi Billet

One of the more fascinating, albeit tragic, tales in the Torah surrounds the deaths of Aharon’s two oldest sons, Nadav and Avihu. The Torah records the incidence of their death four times (Vayikra 10:1, 16:1, Bamidbar 3:4, 26:61) and it is also mentioned in Divrei Hayamim I 24:2. In all of the Torah’s mentions of the incident it ties their deaths to their coming close or bringing close to God (בקרבתם לפני ה') while some of these also mention the “strange fire” that they used. The Divrei HaYamim verse and the first Bamidbar verse also connects the depiction of their being dead to their not having children. 

 What the Torah does not do is elaborate much more on the episode, leaving much unsaid, focusing more on the reality (that they are deceased) and the narrative which follows their deaths, which includes the need to continue to get the Mishkan running in this Eighth Day, the day of the Inauguration of the Tent of Meeting. 

 Did they sin? 

On a very simple level, the Torah says they did something they were not commanded to do. Moshe’s immediate response to their deaths is “this is what God said would happen – ‘With those closes t to Me I will be sanctified’” – which is a way of suggesting that this was God’s way of bringing a special sanctification to this moment. In fact, the Torah Shleimah records a passage suggesting that a reason Nadav and Avihu brought the strange fire was because they saw all the Korbanot bringing brought and they didn’t see God’s fire coming down as promised. This would suggest that they were already putting their scheme in place to “help” at the time the last verse in Chapter 9 took place, and they may have missed the fire coming down to consume the offering. 

Further, Rav Kasher writes, “Nadav turned to Avihu and said, ‘Does a person ever cook without a fire?’ and so they brought fire into the innermost area. God said to them, ‘I will honor you more than you honored Me. You brought in an impure fire. I will consume you with a pure fire.” 

This “honoring” Nadav and Avihu is a unique perspective (though shared by Moshe Rabbenu!) because it is anathema to the way we are trained to think. Of course we are sad when someone we know or someone we love passes away. We will miss the person terribly! 

But can we ever presume to know the ways of God? 

 The Rabbis scoured the text of the Torah and suggested a number of reasons Nadav and Avihu died – including that they died because they saw God in chapter 24, as punishment to Aharon for his role in the Golden Calf, for their disrespect towards Moshe and Aharon, wondering aloud when the two old men would die so they could take over (as if!), and that they were either drunk, wearing the wrong clothes, deciding laws for themselves, not seeking advice from Moshe and Aharon, because they did not have children, or because they entered the Holy of Holies. 

To the last one – did they? Seforno and other are of the belief that לפני ה' does not mean specifically entering the Holy of Holies, and that while they were inside the Mishkan, they did not enter the forbidden inner sanctum. 

 Most of those suggestions are based in other Pesukim that give warnings to the Kohanim as to what their Mishkan-conduct is supposed to look like. However, never does it say in the text that they did any of these things, nor is the word Sin (חטא) ever associated with them in the Torah. So while the suggestions may be compelling, in the end all we really have is that God took them as they brought the strange fire. Which leads to a follow up question. 

 Is that a terrible crime that is deserving of death in the realm of punishment? 

 There is no way to answer that question as that is in the realm of what God may decide and is beyond our comprehension. However, we may wonder if they had been warned yet that doing any of these behaviors would bring about a negative repercussion. It is unfair to punish someone for a crime that had never been declared a crime. 

While there is much to focus on if indeed they were guilty of all or some of those errors, the fact that the Torah doesn’t make the connection speaks volumes about what they DID versus what they did NOT. 

 Which brings us back to where we started. Did they sin? Was their death a punishment? To whom? To them? To their father and mother? To their siblings? 

Death isn’t always a punishment. Look at the end of the mortal life of Hanokh in Parshat Bereshit, and Eliyahu as he ascends to the heavens in a chariot of fire. Look at Lemech’s and Methselach’s deaths before the Flood. Look at Avraham’s death 5 years “early” as a mercy so he shouldn’t see Eisav go off on a bad path. [See the comments for a comment of Seforno on B'haaloskha]

 Imagine people we know who were suffering and their suffering ended with their deaths. Imagine an innocent soul being taken by God through illness or accident. Or a baby who dies around the time it is born or shortly afterwards. 

We don’t have answers – we just have a life we aim to make sense of, and to do our best to find meaning in it. 

 We never want to think a person died as a punishment for their deeds, so why should we ascribe such a thought to Nadav and Avihu. 

If Moshe Rabbenu said they died because God was sanctifying the Mishkan it means God viewed them as the purest people, and God desired their souls for Himself because their lives had achieved their purpose in life and it was time for their souls to go on to the next stage of its journey.

Moshe Rabbenu – Always Growing and Modeling Improving Oneself

Parshat Tzav 

 by Rabbi Avi Billet 

 Reading carefully through Vayikra Chapter 8, one discovers that basically all of the service that is done is accomplished through the capable hands of… Moshe. Not Aharon, not Aharon’s sons (the Kohanim). 

Of course, this is certainly understandable as the whole series of procedures is meant to inaugurate Aharon and sons into their new status and their positions as Kohanim. Nothing is more clear about that than verse 8:33 in which Aharon and sons are instructed not to leave the Mishkan for a 7-day period. This is the time of their full-blown-consecration, so there they must be. (Ibn Ezra and Chizkuni note that they must have been able to step out to take care of bodily functions and that their presence there was not a full-blown confinement or quarantine – it was simply meant to help them keep focus on where they were and what they were supposed to be achieving in that space.)

Moshe’s role, however, seems out of character. Meaning, if Moshe were to be the Kohen Gadol, or A Kohen Gadol (sharing the position with Aharon) it would almost make sense, perhaps in a manner similar to how the Parah Adumah ashes would work – those who would handle it, bringing purity to others, would end up becoming tamei until the evening – that Moshe should be able to fill this role, but once the inaugural period is over, he’d return to his regular status.

Since prior to this inauguration time there was no Kohen, how could Aharon and sons become Kohanim through the agency of a Kohen? Clearly that would be impossible! Comes Moshe Rabbenu… and the rest is history…

How does that work?

In general, the role of the Kohen is one of higher sanctification. Subsequent to the consecration of Aharon and Sons to the positions of Kohen, their future generations would not need the consecration as it would become genetic. But the sanctification component of simply being a Kohen would become a calling for every Kohen in every generation. How does a Kohen fill a role he is born into, with dignity, class, and of course, with the proper spiritual mettle? 

This is where Moshe Rabbenu comes in, serving as a model for all time. The Midrash tells us (Vayikra Raba 11:6) that Moshe served as Kohen Gadol not only these 7 days, but also for all 40 years in the wilderness. This, of course, doesn’t follow what the Torah tells us, but it is based in the verse we say on Friday nights in Kabbalas Shabbos – משה ואהרן בכהנו – which indicate an equality between the brothers in Kehunah. At the same time, the Talmud (Taanis 11b) has students of Mar Ukva posing him a question as to what clothing Moshe wore during this time? The Talmud’s conclusion is that he wore a white tunic that had no hems or seams – not his regular clothing, and not clothing on par or in equivalence with that of his brother. 

No matter how we look at Moshe’s role, we can take a valuable lesson from how Moshe went about his business in this parsha.

 If someone is going to play this particular role of being the anointer of the Kohanim, presumably this person will have to be on a level that is worthy of casting such holiness upon them. There is none more worthy than Moshe Rabbenu, of course, but we can certainly ask how we can know that unequivocally. What would have been the criteria to be the anointer and appointer of the Kohanim? 

 In particular through the aftermath of the Golden Calf we see Moshe Rabbenu rise in stature in the way people did not see and could not discern prior to those events. Certainly Moshe had achieved powerful moments of respect and awe in Egypt (Shmos 11:3) and after the splitting of the sea (14:31) but when he was on top of the mountain, people referred to him as זה מה האיש – this man Moshe, seemingly not such a respectful tone – we don’t know what became of him! 

 In retrospect, between Moshe’s time on the mountain AND the events which followed the Golden Calf there was a switch in how people perceived him, between his tent becoming the makeshift Ohel Moed, his face shining, his breaking the Tablets and getting a “Yasher Koach” from God, he is miles ahead of where any other person can possibly be, and therefore ready to be the one consecrating the Kohanim. 

The question we are tasked with is, how could we possibly achieve a similar status?

 Of course the circumstances are quite different. None of us will have a 40 days (or 120 day) chavrusa with God. None of us will preside over a makeshift Mishkan, or bring Tablets down from Mt. Sinai. 

 But we can dedicate ourselves wholly to the Almighty. We can aim to learn from Moshe’s teachings, which all emanate from the Torah he gave to us through God’s hand. We can challenge ourselves to live lives of holiness. And who knows? Is it farfetched to think that these efforts would pay off in our own development were we to grasp the challenge and run with it? 

 הרצים יצאו דחופים בדבר המלך – we just read in the Megillah that the runners ran out hurriedly on the king’s instruction. There is a tradition that when the word המלך appears in the Megillah, we are to imagine that it refers to the King of Kings. We have our challenges before us, our job in life to always be aiming higher in our service of the Almighty, to take the challenge and run with it.

 According to the Talmud, Moshe was able to serve as an erstwhile Kohen Gadol because he had achieved greatness in his life. At the same time, he wasn’t a complete Kohen Gadol with the proper vestments, because not even Moshe Rabbenu can get to such a position. But Moshe was uniquely suited for the task at hand of inaugurating and anointing his brother and nephews because of the things he had personally achieved in his own life. 

We too can achieve greatness. We know what our job is in our service of God. Some of us work at it more, and some perhaps less than we are capable of. May we learn from and emulate Moshe Rabbenu, who even after all he had achieved, always saw that he was incomplete and always aimed a little higher and to do a little more, constantly improving on himself so that, to use our Parsha’s example, he could anoint the Kohanim, even if he would or could never fully be a Kohen himself, complete in the manner that his brother Aharon was destined to become.

How Korbanos Can Very Much Be Part of Our Lives

Parshat Vayikra 

by Rabbi Avi Billet

 This week we are introduced to Vayikra and the sacrificial order. 

 In chapter 4, the instruction comes from God that Moshe is to tell the people “If a נפש (literally ‘a soul,’ though sometimes it simply means ‘a person’) sins accidentally, [doing] one of the [negative] mitzvoth of God that one should not do…” that there is a procedure to follow to achieve atonement. 

 Alshikh explains that the intent of the Torah through this statement is to tell someone of the proper thought process to be experienced. “Don’t think, ‘what have I done? How will my sin be counted? I never intended to sin or to rebel against God.’ The person needs to understand that when this accidental sin happens, there is a flaw in the person’s soul on account of some other sin the person has committed, or even from an errant thought a person has had. The person who is sinless doesn’t come to commit sins by accident, for ‘even the animals of the righteous don’t come to do anything wrong’ (Hullin7a), so certainly the righteous themselves don’t sin accidentally. It is thus because a person sinned through doing a mitzvah one isn’t supposed to do (ie violate a negative commandment) that one becomes prone to committing a sin by accident.” 

In the Rav Peninim Chumash, the editors go on to ask what the purpose of Korbanos was. Quoting Abravanel, the suggestion is made that one reason for Korbanos was to put in check the accidental sinner who is simply not careful, or is actually careless! Being, for most people, a serious financial commitment, the korban aims to hit the person in the pocket to remind the person to be more careful in the future, and to thus avoid the kinds of circumstance that cause the individual to sin. 

 An individual who becomes טמא, in many cases is a person who isn’t careful about the rules of Tumah and Tahara. But someone who takes upon himself to be careful about that – such as a נזיר – and nevertheless becomes טמא is a person who falls into the category of נפש כי תחטא, a soul who has veered from a proper parth. 

 To turn one’s activities in the opposite direction, the Rabbis taught זריזות מביא לידי זהירות, זהירות מביא לידי טהרה, טהרה מביא לידי קדושה, or “Alacrity leads to being careful, being careful leads one to purity, and purity brings one to holiness.” 

 This approach suggests that, at least from one perspective, the sacrificial order is one that is meant to give a person pause to think about what it means to create this kind of connection with God. Certainly not all Korbanos (offerings, sacrifices) come from a place of sin – there were Korbanos for holidays and special occasions, as well as daily offerings in Temple times, which indicate it’s not only about sin offerings and guilt offerings. 

 For us, Korbanos still play a central role in our synagogue service, between the many Torah readings (including many holiday readings and Maftirs) that remind us of Korbanos, as well as the first part of davening that is actually referred to as “Korbanos,” we certainly have regular (think of Shabbos and Yom Tov Mussaf services), even daily reminders of what we are missing. Of course, our daily reminder is a fulfillment of the phrase from Hoshea 14:3 ונשלמה פרים שפתינו, that we “pay” for the bull (offerings) through the words that come out of our lips. 

 This teaches us a few important lessons. 

1. Korbanos as part of our davening is quite significant. They should not be rushed through or skipped. The Talmud even says that when we read all of Korbanos God considers it is as if we have brought them all and to those who recite them He grants forgiveness for their sins. (Taanis 27b) There is a perspective in Halakha that if one only has time for one – either reading Korbanos or Pesukei D’Zimrah – that Korbanos should take precedence. 

2. We have to imagine that we have penalties built into the lives we live when we make errors. Some people may make a public apology or admission and suffer embarrassment in this world. Others will take a self-imposed financial hit through giving a penalty to tzedakah for violating a sin. 

3. The idea of using Korbanos as a tool to get close to God (קרבן and קרוב are quite related) is something we should not dis-count or push aside. 

There are many mitzvos associated with Korbanos, as noted by the Sefer HaChinukh every time a new Korban is mentioned in the Torah, and while we don’t bring the Korban physically in the absence of the Beis HaMikdash, the thought processes and devotions attached to the bringing of these Korbanos can certainly be part of our experience should we choose to make it such. 

In short, Korbanos as an experience is meant to inject an awareness of finding meaning in life. Whether we look at it from the perspective of devotion to God, financial penalty for wayward behavior, or even a concept of how the bringing of the animal itself brings about atonement, we can tap into such concepts in our own lives and experience. 

When thinking of the positive things in our lives that would warrant a Korban, we can donate to Tzedakah in lieu of bringing a Korban. When thinking of incidents we regret in our behaviors and activities, we can think of donating to a different Tzedakah, based on a self-imposed penalty that will remind us that the donations in that direction are on account of vices that we can’t seem to overcome. When we simply want to demonstrate our general devotion to God, as many of us do daily, we can pay special attention to the Korbanos in our davening, and make a commitment to say every word, not rushing through them, as this is our way of essentially visiting or participating in the activities of the Beis Hamikdash with regularity. 

May our lips indeed replace the bulls and other animals as our offerings to God, and may we merit to serve Him in the most ideal way when the Beis HaMikdash is once again rebuilt.

Doing Our Part So God Does the Rest of Our Part

Parshat (Eileh) Fekudei 

by Rabbi Avi Billet

 As news emerges from the Ukraine region and as we see our brothers and sisters fleeing for safety, it is hard to imagine that this is real. It is certainly a familiar playbook we have seen before, but we just don’t imagine it taking place in our “modern” and “civilized” and “post-war” world. 

It certainly is a different world for the Jewish people than in other times in our history. It doesn’t seem that Jews are specifically being targeted, and, of course, there is a Jewish state which can absorb Jews who need to find a home to replace their own, certainly temporarily or even if permanently. All that is encouraging, and yet the reality many people there are facing gives us 3 options. 

1. Donate to a cause that will help with the evacuation expenses, procuring food and water, and helping our fellow Jews get to a safe place 

2. Pray for their safety and for the end to the unrest 

3. Lobby and be politically active to push the right people to do the right things 

For most of us, the first two items are certainly much easier. Thankfully there are many people on all sides who are on board with our shared goals of ending fighting, bombing, bloodshed, which can mean that we can focus on the first two items – trusting that larger umbrella organizations such as OU, Agudah, Aish, etc. will utilize the funds and donations in a manner which is most productive. 

May Hashem save and protect the innocent, punish the guilty, and see all through to a conclusion that brings a peaceful and safe existence for all – soldiers and civilians alike. לא ישא גוי אל גוי חרב ולא ילמדו עוד מלחמה. 

 Rashi tells us at the end of chapter 39 that when all the work for the Mishkan was completed and everything had been brought before Moshe for the final assembly, when Moshe blessed the people (39:43) he said, “May it be [His] will that the divine presence (Shechinah) should rest in that which your hands have made.” This was followed by the verse at the end of Tehillim 90 (the one which begins with the words תפילה למשה) 

17And may the pleasantness of the Lord our God be upon us, and the work of our hands establish for us, and the work of our hands establish it. יזוִיהִ֚י נֹ֨עַם | אֲ-דֹנָ֥י אֱ-לֹק֗ינוּ עָ֫לֵ֥ינוּ וּמַֽעֲשֵׂ֣ה יָ֖דֵינוּ כּֽוֹנְנָ֣ה עָלֵ֑ינוּ וּמַֽ֘עֲשֵׂ֥ה יָ֜דֵ֗ינוּ כּֽוֹנְנֵֽהוּ: 

Of course, this sentiment is one which God had established at the very beginning of the instructions for the Mishkan when He declared ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם – and you/they shall make for Me a Sanctuary and I will dwell in them. 

 Which leads to a question of semantics in the text. Earlier in chapter 39, we see the following statement at the end of 39:32: “וַֽיַּעֲשׂוּ֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל כְּ֠כֹל אֲשֶׁ֨ר צִוָּ֧ה יְקֹוָ֛ק אֶת־מֹשֶׁ֖ה כֵּ֥ן עָשֽׂוּ” – the children of Israel did all that God commanded Moshe, so they did. &&&&&&& Why does the Torah tell us twice – in the same verse! – that they did this work? 

Rabbi Shternbuch explained that there are two kinds of instructions that Moshe received. The first was the technical information, the blueprint for how each item was to be made, the dimensions, the necessary craftsmanship needed for the different tasks, the kinds of accounting needed, etc. The second consisted of all the proper kavvanot, intentions and thought processes required to bring about the desired result, which was to cause the Divine Presence, in the form of the Shechina, to enter the Mishkan. 

 The first instruction was readily shared and relatively easy to follow in the sense that anyone who understands craftsmanship or building can follow technical instructions. But Moshe wasn’t so easily giving over the proper intentions people should have, partly because it isn’t as easy to give over, and partly because intentions are very personal and can not easily be conveyed or made uniform across all those working on a project. 

 And so the verse is telling us that through their following the technical side of construction, their kavvanah ended up being what God had instructed to Moshe. Or, as Rav Shternbuch put it, “Through their combining the proper kavvanot with those of Moshe’s, the work was completed, and they were thus ready for the divine presence to fill the space.” 

We don’t always know how things will work out. In whatever efforts we make we hope for Divine assistance to carry us the rest of the way. 

 There are people who put much investment in a simcha, and when it’s over wonder where the time went and if the cost was worth it. Others focus on making it a meaningful, spiritual and educational experience, and walk away so elated by what was achieved that they can only point to God carrying them to places they never could have imagined.

 The same is true for all efforts. Davening can be rote and often (sadly) meaningless, or a person can make the effort to bring God in only to find God standing next to the person throughout the experience. Some rely on doctors for all medical advice and care. Others know that doctors are merely tools of the Almighty, and they include Tefillah and Tz’akah as part of the regimen of the healing. When we give tzedakah, we know our money is going to a destination. We trust that our efforts will be taken up by God so they be directed in the manner most appropriate. 

And the same holds true for outcomes in war and the uncertainty that accompanies it. We can do whatever we think is in our power to do, but what makes for the outcomes that are most fulfilling are when we include the thought that God is in charge and it is His will which will decide what will eventually happen, so we communicate Him to do the right thing for all. 

For the Bnei Yisrael, they did what Moshe told them, and they also did what Moshe neglected to tell them, intuiting that they needed Divine assistance beyond the gifts of craftsmanship they had been given by God. And it worked out in the end, because the blessing Moshe gave them came true, as demonstrated at the end of the parsha when the Divine Presence descended and filled the Mishkan. 

May we merit to see the Divine Presence guiding the world in the right direction, as we continue to do our part to get us in the most deserving space we can be in, for ourselves and for all of Acheinu Kol Beis Yisrael.