Shabbat Shalom--March 25-26, 2011

Holiness in Humility
Rabbi Joshua Hoffman
Parshat Shemini 5771

Why does the troubling episode of Nadav and Avihu, Aaron’s sons, enter into the narrative of Leviticus? Are we to find in the tragic consumption of these two souls a sobering adjuration against improper offerings? Shall we read this as some sort of perversion of holiness?

The entire affair is brief – a total of three verses (with a couple more explaining how the community deals with the bodies in the aftermath). Two of Aaron’s sons come forward before God in the Mishkan and offer fire, “which He had not enjoined upon them.” (v.1) Nadav and Avihu are consumed and God then pronounces, “Through those near to Me I show Myself holy/ And gain glory before all the people.” (v.3)

We can’t assume that Nadav and Avihu anticipated or expected that God would engulf them in flames as a consequence for their disobedience. Even if their motivations for bringing the offerings were suspicious, as many rabbinic commentaries would suggest, there is no precedent or forewarning that their behavior was worthy of a death sentence, a gruesome and harrowing one at that. It appears at the very least that their actions are the cause of unintended consequences.

Look up “unintended consequences” and you’ll find an entire school of thought on the subject. According to one source, consequences of this sort can be classified as positive, negative, or oddly denoted - perverse. How wonderful are those moments when a new discovery emerges from a serendipitous mistake, like the discovery of Penicillin in healing the sick, or the discovery of aspirin to help prevent heart attacks. So many lives have been saved from blunders and mishaps; there is holiness in this type of discovery as well.

And then there are those actions which are unintentional and innocent, yet cause far greater harm than one could have possibly imagined such as irrigating a land plot and causing irreparable erosion or the proliferation of cattle raising for food and the impact it has on the depletion of the ozone layer. The perverse nature of such consequences is even seen in our social sphere where, for example, there was a dramatic rise in ‘hit-and-run’ accidents as a direct result of tougher laws prohibiting drinking and driving. This too, has a dimension of holiness, according to our Torah.

We must learn holiness can not only be ascribed to positive outcomes, not only because we do not find this to be true in our own life experience, but also because the path toward holy living is filled with twists and turns that can never fully anticipate the consequences of our actions.

Herein lies our truth. We may posit that Nadav and Avihu were lacking a certain humility and did not adhere to God’s warnings for proper entrance into the Tent and bringing sanctified offerings. The rabbis of the Talmud suggest that Nadav and Avihu’s punishment was a spiritual death. The fire that was intended to consume their offerings consumed their souls instead, leaving their bodies intact. (Sanhedrin 52a) They may have walked away from the experience but their souls were scorched in the process.

Entering into God’s presence is never unintended. Our gratitude for unintentional consequences may rest both in the pleasant surprises in discovering new truths and improvements to the human condition, and in the staggering realization that our efforts can sometimes cause great harm to ourselves, to others, and to the world. But kedushah – holiness itself is neither positive nor negative. It is the unmitigated, completely dedicated encounter with Divine Truth. We can sense this from the lesson, “Through those near to Me I show Myself holy/ And gain glory before all the people.” Only the God of Israel shows holiness and glory before all the people. From this we learn to proudly be the humble, dedicated, and intentional servants of this holy truth.

Shabbat Shalom.