by Rabbi Avi Billet
(Raising many more question than are answered...)
The job of the Bnei K’hat (the Levite family descended from Kehat) was to carry the vessels of the Mishkan when it was time to pack up and travel to the next destination in wilderness travels. The Kohen branch of the family – Aharon and his sons - would cover the vessels in order to protect their cousins, the Kehat-family Levites. “Do not cause the Kehothites to become extinct among the Levites. This is what you must do so that they survive, and not die when they come into the Holy of Holies. Aaron and his sons shall first come and arrange each thing so that every [Kehothite] can perform his service, carrying his load. They will not come and see the sacred [furniture] being packed and they will not die.” (4:18-20)
Targum Yonatan translates verse 19 “This is a decree which is made for them so they should live their lives of righteousness and not die in the fire of destruction. They should turn their eyes from the Holy of Holies at the time they come close to there; Aharon and his sons will come, they’ll be appointed, each man for his particular job.”
It is clear from this statement about Aharon’s two sons that the tragic outcome that befell their brothers, Nadav and Avihu, hangs very heavily over their existence. In the beginning of chapter 3 of our parsha, Nadav and Avihu are remembered as Aharon’s sons, who died bringing a strange fire before God, and who also did not have sons. Recalling them in that way seems rather redundant as their deaths – having taken place around a month before the events of our parsha – would seem to be rather etched in the memory of the people!
And what does Targum Yonatan mean when he says “they should live their lives of righteousness?” Is he implying that Nadav and Avihu did not live lives of righteousness? Or is he perhaps implying that Nadav and Avihu did live lives of righteousness, but they also died in a fire of destruction for other reasons? It seems that an ingredient for the survival of Elazar and Itamar is to avert eyes from the Holy of Holies, something Nadav and Avihu presumably did not do when they brought their strange fire into the Holy of Holies.
Oddly, Or HaChaim’s comment on the words “and they shall live and not die” (verse 19) is that “when they engage with the Ark, which contains the Torah which is the source of life, they will have lengthened days (usually referred to as “long life”), and yet over the concern for the damage which can come from touching and looking at [the Ark], He said ‘and they shall not die.’”
Which is it? Is it the source of life or is it dangerous? For King David, for example, מה אהבתי תורתך כל היום היא שיחתי – “how much do I love Your Torah. It is my conversation all day long.” (Tehillim 119:97) For Uzzah, “and Uzzah put forth [his hand] to the ark of God, and grasped hold of it, for the oxen swayed it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him down there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God.” (Shmuel II 6:6-7) We say in davening regarding the Torah and Mitzvos כי הם חיינו וארך ימינו – they are our lives and [the source of] our lengthened days.
That’s how so many things in life are. The swimming pool is great for exercise or for rehab, but it can be a dangerous place for the person (or child רחמנא לצלן) who falls in not knowing how to swim. A food which is healthy for one person can be a source of anaphylaxis to someone with an allergy. A medication that works for one person can be dangerous to another. Many thousands of people are killed in motor vehicle accidents each year, while many are never in a car accident in their entire lives!
As we watch what is going on in Israel, and as we pray for the soldiers, the people and for the country, we can also note that some soldiers see much combat and are never injured, while some get injured, and some lose their lives in the battlefield.
The trauma of losing Nadav and Avihu was so great, added to the trauma that Elazar and Itamar were also supposed to die had it not been for Moshe’s prayers (see Rashi on Vayikra 10:12), that the Torah goes to great lengths and great pains to make us be sure that whatever errors took place would not be repeated, and that life could be preserved in the best way possible.
But what were the errors? We are learning here from Targum Yonatan that Elazar and Itamar were righteous! There are plenty of discussions surrounding Nadav and Avihu which indicate they too were righteous, and that perhaps their death was not as much a punishment as much as a fait accompli, part of God’s Master Plan. Abrabanel says about Uzzah that he was a tzaddik (very righteous!) and that his death is associated “with the Ark of God” because he was elevated through his death, since his action in preventing the Ark from falling was an “accidental” affront. [That story needs much more attention than this space allows]
This is not to suggest that death is something that we like. When a loved one or a friend passes away we miss the person terribly. Had we had the opportunity, knowing what we know, every one of us would have tried to stop Nadav and Avihu from bringing that strange fire. Would they have died anyway? We don’t know. Certainly we would have told the Bnei Kehat that their patience in waiting for Aharon’s family to cover the Mishkan vessels was worth every minute – because we understand that we certainly want to do what we can to assure their doing their job properly without incident. If we had been present, we’d have told Uzzah to stay back. The concern of the Ark falling is a role designated only for the Levites and Kohanim.
Which all leads us to the question of the hour – how are we to understand that the Torah, known as the עץ חיים היא למחזיקים בה (It is a tree of life for those who grasp it) (Mishlei 3:18), a source of life, can even have such a contradictory notion that it can be a source of death?
Like everything, it depends on how it is used. It depends on how people take its instruction! Do people create a life of extremes or a life of moderation? Do people view themselves as holier than thou and become judgmental and intolerant or do they take the lessons from Torah and live lives of humility? Do people coast with the knowledge they have or are they growing in Torah?
There are several interpretations of what that tree in that verse is, and how we are to understand that it is a tree of life for those who grasp hold, which implies that it is not so for those who let go.
This is not to suggest what causes people to live or die. In many ways that is in God’s hands, though humans can certainly (and tragically) be the source of much suffering and death in the world.
Suffice it to say, the life of the עץ חיים is a spiritual life, held onto most strongly, and filled with the most meaning by those who cling to the Torah. As we read through the last chapter of Avos this Shabbos, and as we embark on the holiday of Shavuos, let us be reminded that the life of Torah that we live has its rewards, in some ways, in our lives in this world, but are even moreso invested in what the life of the next world has in store for us. This is a theme that comes up throughout Pirkei Avos, and is one of the more reasonable explanations for what suffering in this world is about. We are on a path to cleansing ourselves, readying ourselves for the world to come. Some of us are gifted a much longer journey through this world, and for some people the time here is far too short.
In some way, for everyone, it fits into God’s Master Plan. May we be blessed to navigate the trauma of our losses with the clarity that those who are gone are in the next stage of their soul’s journey. Our job is to keep their legacy here alive. But our job is also to understand that when their job on this world is over, their souls have finally been given the chance to reach the place they were aiming for throughout their lifetimes. And that should be a tremendous source of comfort.
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