Bruce Familian
SUMMARY OF Leviticus 9:1-11:47
Aaron and his sons follow Moses' instructions and offer sacrifices so that God will forgive the people. Two of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, offer "alien fire" to God. God punishes these two priests by killing them immediately. God forbids Moses, Aaron, and his surviving sons from mourning but commands the rest of the people to do so. Then the Priests are told not to drink alcohol before entering the sacred Tabernacle and are further instructed about making sacrifices. Finally, many laws of Kashrut are given which distinguish between pure and impure animals, birds, fish, and insects.
Lesson : Aaron’s two sons were put to death as a result of bringing “alien fire” as an offering into the sanctuary. The text of our Torah portion is very unclear. Commentators over the generations have attempted to better understand and explain what Nadab and Abihu did wrong.
Some commentators write that the two brothers were not punished for the act of bringing the wrong kind of fire into the sanctuary. Instead, they were condemned for the evil intent that motivated them. According to our rabbis the two brothers had outsized ambition and planned to usurp Moses and Aaron’s power. They appeared in the sanctuary with their own offerings hoping that the people would be impressed thus leading to a demand from the people for new leadership. Rather than coming to the sanctuary with pure and holy intent, they came with envy and impatience and in the end were punished for their arrogance, their lust for position and power. The sin for which they were punished was the fire of ambition that burned within them.
Rashbam, a French commentator from the 12th century, writes about another possible reason for the punishment and finds the brothers’ error in plain sight within the text of the Torah. “Each took his firepan, put fire in it…and offered before God alien fire, which God had not commanded them.” The sin of the brothers is that they brought fire that went beyond what was commanded them. Instead of following the law, they took the law into their own hands. They were clearly deeply moved by the ritual that Moses and Aaron performed. Quite possibly in their enthusiasm and joy, they entered the Holy of Holies to burn incense, something they had not been commanded to do.
The Torah isn’t clear what “alien fire” truly means, and thus we don’t know exactly why the two brothers must die. Was it their ruthless ambition and arrogance that led to their being punished, or was it youthful zeal and enthusiasm? In either case what we do know is the pain that Aaron must have felt to watch his two sons die. We sense the depth of his despair in the text itself when we read: And Aaron was silent.