Sweet Sorrow

By Rabbi Joshua (appreciatively known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

On the final day of the inauguration of the mishkan, two sons of Aharon, Nadav and Avihu, bring, as a sacrifice, a fire that they were not commanded to bring. In retribution, a heavenly fire descends and causes their death. Aharon’s response is described in the Torah with the words, “Vayidom Aharon,” usually translated as “Aharon was silent,” indicating Aharon’s quiet acceptance of the divine decree. A number of sources, however, as brought by Rabbi Aharon Dovid Goldberg in his Shiras Dovid, offer a different translation. For example, the Meiri to Gittin, 7b, cites a Targum which translates it to mean “Aharon praised”. Rabbi Goldberg explains this on the basis of Rabbeinu Yonah in his Sha’arei Teshuvah (2:4) who says that when a person receives discipline from God and improves his ways as a result, it is proper for him to rejoice in his suffering and praise God. Such praise is in the spirit of the verse in Tehillim, “I will find distress and anguish and call in the name of God”. Here, too, Aharon accepted his suffering and praised God.

Based on this Targum, Rabbi Goldberg says, we can understand the midrash which says that the section in parashas Shemini which follows the incident of Nadav and Avihu, prohibiting the kohanim from entering the mishkan for service after having drunk wine, was given directly to Aharon, rather than being given through Moshe to Aharon. Prophecy does not come to a person who is in a state of sadness, and yet Aharon, who had just lost two sons, did receive prophecy. This is because, rather than being sad over the loss of his sons, Aharon elevated himself through that event and praised God, and, thus, was in a proper state to receive prophecy.

Aharon’s response to the death of his sons as an opportunity to praise God is reflective of the proper response to difficulties in life. On Pesach, we are told to take marror, bitter herbs, as a reminder of our slavery in Egypt, together with matzah, a symbol of our freedom. Some authorities, in fact, say that one should not eat bitter herbs on erev Pesach, so that he can eat marror at the seder with an appetite, just as we shouldn’t eat matzah on Pesach eve, so that he can eat matzah at the seder with an appetite. How is it possible to eat marror with an appetite? Rav Yisroel Mantel, rabbi of K'hal Adas Yeshurun of Washington Heights, explained that it is possible, when one views adversity as a means of spiritual elevation. In a similar way, the Aderes, Rav Eliyohu Dovid Rabinowitz Teumim, explains the opinion of the Ramban, who is of the opinion that, when dipping the korech sandwich onto charoses, one dips not only the marror, but the matzah as well. Although matzah symbolizes freedom, and charoses the mortar used in the making of the bricks as part of the slavery in Egypt, it is not inappropriate to dip one into the other, because the harshness of the slavery led to a shortening of the amount of years served and thus contributing to the ultimate redemption. Dipping the matzah into the charoses, then, indicates an appreciation of how the harshness of the slavery contributed to the redemption, and how, in general, on a wide scale, adversity in life can serve as a means of elevation. This is the message that Aharon absorbed through the death of his sons.