Which Way Up?

By Rabbi Joshua (directionlessly known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

Dedicated for the refuah shelimah, the complete recovery, of Rav Chaim Yisroel ben Chana Tzirel, Rav Yosef Shalom ben Chaya Musha, Rav Yosef Chaim ben Margolit, and Rav Shmaryahu Yosef Chaim ben Pesha Miriam, besoch shear cholei Yisrael.

The beginning of this week’s parasha describes the service performed by Aharon and his sons on the eight day of the inauguration of the mishkan. One of the sacrifices brought as part of this service was a calf, which, as the rabbis tell us, was offered in order to atone for the sin of the eigel, the golden calf. The difficulty here is that Aharon was already in the Ohel Moed, the tent of meeting, so why did Moshe need to tell him to come close to the altar? The Ramban says that the simple answer is that Moshe needed to tell him which part of the altar he should approach. There is, however, a midrash , brought in part by Rashi and at length by the Ramban, which says that Aharon was embarrased and did not feel himself worthy to come forward and bring the sacrifice. Moshe reassured him and told him, come forward, you were chosen for this. The Ramban, citing the entire text of the midrash, explains this opinion of the midrash to mean that Aharon was chosen to bring the divine presence to the mishkan, and, therefore, he should embolden himself and do what he was chosen to do. Rav Chaim of Volozhin, in his Ruach Chaim to Avos, explains, homiletically, that Moshe told Aharon that precisely because of his embarrassment and feeling of being unworthy, he was chosen.

The Ramban then brings another opinion in the midrash, which says that the altar appeared to Aharon as an ox, reminding him of the sin of the eigel, and that is why Moshe had to encourage him to approach it, despite his past sin. The Ramban, with his keen psychological insight, explains that Aharon was a very holy person, dedicated to God, and the only thing he ever did wrong, up to that point in time, was the eigel, and, because of this, his sin was constantly fixed before his eyes, and that is why the altar, with its horns, reminded him of his mistake. Moshe told him that nevertheless, he must approach the altar and bring the eigel. This element of atonement for the sin of the eigel in the inaugural service can help us understanding the deaths of Nadav and Avihu, as recorded further in the parsha.

The Torah tells us that Nadav and Avihu, overwhelmed by the experience of the shechinah, brought a strange fire to the altar, following which a fire came from heaven and burned them up. Why was there such a harsh divine response to their seemingly well-motivated action? The Torah tells us that the strange fire they brought was not commanded by God. According to Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi, in his Kuzari, the mistake of the eigel was exactly the fact that what the people did was not what God said, even though it was done out of good motivations. With the absence of Moshe from the scene, the people felt that they needed some kind of physical symbol through which they would be able to direct their worship of God, and, in fact, the Torah recognized the fact that human beings need a physical reference point in their worship. That is why there is a mitzvoh to build a mishkan. However, the Torah forbids us to make ’gods of silver and of gold,’ which is what the people did in having the eigel made. The fundamental idea here, according to Rav Yehudah HaLevi, is that Torah is a matter of God telling man the proper way of worshiping Him, rather than man figuring out how to reach God. This is, in fact, the core idea of the entire Book of Kuzari, as taught by Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook, zt"l. Since the place of the calf in the inauguration service was to teach this fundamental principle at the time of the initiation of the service in the mishkan, the actions of Nadav and Avihu were in total contradiction to the message that needed to be taught in regard to the nature of the mishkan, and that is why they were so severely punished.