The story of Nadav and Abihu's near the beginning of Shmini is one that has fascinated and perplexed me for many years; this year I struggled to find an adequate explanation for the strange events reported in the Torah. I thought of three possible theories. I will offer up two which I encountered in the sources, and one original explanation, as far I can tell. I apologize in advance if this depth of this analysis falls short of what has become the accepted level of scholarship as presented by the luminaries of this congregation.
The Text 10:1-3
Now Aaron's sons Nadav and Abihu each took his fire pan, put fire in it, and laid incense on it; and they offered before Adonai strange or alien fire, which He had not commanded them. And fire came forth from the before Adonai and consumed them; thus they died in the presence of Adonai. Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the Lord meant when He said: "Through those near to Me I show Myself holy, And gain glory before all the people."
This passage raises three questions for me:
I. Korach-Crushing a Challenge to God's Authority One way we can try to understand a passage in Torah is to find a similar set of circumstances and see what you can learn from them. One passage that is strikingly similar to the story of Nadav and Abihu comes in the book of Bamidbar in parashat Korach. Korach, together with 250 big machers, present a challenge to Moses' authority. The gang complains "Why do you and Aaron raise yourselves above the rest of the Jewish people?" Moses responds with a passage much like the quote in this week's parasha. He says, "Come morning, the Lord will make known who is His and who is Holy, and will grant him access to Himself." He then tells Korach and his followers to put fire in their firepans and bring them to the Adonai's tabernacle. After they perform this request, the Presence of Adonai appears and speaks to Moses and Aaron saying, "Stand back from this community that I may annihilate them in an instant." Moses pleads with God not to kill them all. God then tells everyone to move away from the wicked men who have challenged God's authority, and the earth opens up and swallows all the men with Korach; a fire then consumes the 250 men who offered up the incense in the tabernacle.
Based on what we learn in Korach, one possible explanation for the events in our parasha is that Nadav and Abihu may have been offering a challenge to Moses and Aaron's authority by bringing strange or alien fire, and God destroyed them to keep the line of authority clear within the Israelite camp. While this explanation is possible, it is improbable, since these sons of Aaron were being groomed for the priesthood leadership; there is no evidence in the text that they were posing a serious challenge to Moses' authority the way Korach and his band were.
II. Midrash-Punishment for Disrespect for a Rebbe The Midrash offers another interpretation of what transpired. On the eighth day of the inauguration of the Tent of meeting, the heavenly fire descended and consumed the sacrifices. Nadav and Abihu decided that they should place their own fire on the mizbayach based on a verse from Torah which they interpreted, despite the presence of Adonai's own heavenly fire. I think it is in this sense that what the two brought into the tent was an alien or strange fire. It was alien in the sense that God's glory was already present, what they offered was unnecessary, and superfluous. It was strange in the sense that it was odd. In a way it was like "bringing ice to the eskimos", or "coals to Newcastle." Why would you need to bring a fire into a place where a heavenly fire was consuming sacrifices.
According to Midrash, the problem wasn't so much the strange fire, but the fact that they were making law. They formulated this halacha that you should bring fire into the tent without consulting Moses, who was the chief authority on halacha at that moment. They did it right in his presence. This affront constituted an embarrassment to Moses and therefore earned them a heavenly death sentence. The crime they committed was that they violated the prohibition against pronouncing a halachic decision in front of one's teacher. It is taught that a student who puts his rebbe to shame, acting in his presence as if the latter were incapable of a decision, deserves death since his conduct was similar to that of a murderer. This view is predicated on the belief within Jewish tradition that the previous generations should be venerated because they possess more knowledge than we have today; that we are spiritual dwarfs compared to our Torah fathers. This view is extremely conservative in the sense that all ideas must come from the elders.
This authentically Jewish view is out of synch with our current view of knowledge as being progressive, or cumulative over time; one way to put a positive spin on the midrashic view of knowledge is to say that we do know less than our preceding generation, and they new less than the one that proceed them, but even if we know little, we benefit from the knowledge gain by the past generations. That is, we are standing on the shoulders of the giant scholars of the past, so we dummies get a head start. One problem with this approach is that it assumes that knowledge grows in continuous progression. But Kuhn has taught us in his nature of scientific revolutions, that knowledge does not always grow in a straight upward path. Sometimes we are confronted with mounting situations in which our current knowledge can't explain events, there is a paradigm shift and everything we knew before as truth (like the world being flat) all of a sudden is proven to be explained by a completely different way. It is unlikely that these insights or paradigm shifts would always come from the elders. It often takes someone looking at a problem a new way to think of a different approach.
All of this is to say that I don't accept explanation in the Midrash of the justice in Nadav and Abihu being killed because they disgraced Moses by having their own views on how halacha should be interpreted. There is a legitimate counterveiling Jewish view that holds that the young possess the ability to see more clearly than the old and corrupt. I will quote a Jewish canon proof text by Rav Zimmerman of Duluth to present an example of this view: "Come mothers and fathers throughout the land, and don't criticize what you can't understand, your sons and your daughters are beyond your command, the old road is rapidly aging, please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand, for the times they are a changing."
III. Pardes-Price for Unpreparedness The story of Nadav and Abihu also reminds me of another enigmatic story; the story of the Pardes, found in the Babylonian Talmud Tractate Hagigah 14b. "Four entered an orchard: Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher, and Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva said to them: "When you reach the stones of pure marble, do not say: 'water water!' For it is said: 'He that speak falsehood shall not be established before mine eyes'". Ben Azzai gazed and died. Of him Scripture says: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the saints." Ben Zoma gazed and was stricken. Of him Scripture says: "Has thou found honey? Eat as much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled, and vomit it." Acher cut down the shoots. Rabbi Akiva departed in peace.
The Jewish mystics say that the Pardes or orchard refers to the merkavah, the heavenly chariot, and the halls of the angels on high. One must be spiritually grounded, prepared and follow exact procedures to have a personal experience with the divine and come away, like Rabbi Akiva, safe and sound. The four who enter the Pardes were at different levels of preparedness and therefore suffered different fates. Ben Azzai wasn't prepared died immediately upon seeing the vision. Ben Zoma wasn't prepared saw the vision and was driven mad by it. Acher was ready, but was not sufficiently grounded and misinterpreted what he saw and became an apostate. Only Rabbi Akiva was grounded, was prepared for what he saw, and knew the right procedure for seeing visions, without either killing him outright, frightening him out of his mind, or causing him to adopt heretical ideas. What is the preparation required to experience a divine vision? What are the proper procedures to adopt for a direct encounter with the divine?
The Hai Gaon from the 10th century said that when a man is worthy and is blessed with certain qualities and he wishes to gaze at the heavenly chariot and the halls of the angels on high, he must follow certain exercises. He must fast for a specified number of days, he must place his head between his knees whispering softly to himself praises to God with his face towards the ground. As a result he will gaze in the innermost recesses of his own heart and it will seem as if he saw the seven halls with his own eyes, moving from hall to hall to observe that which is therein to be found.
We are told that the prerequisites to the study of Kabbalah is the attainment 40 years, being male, being a father to a son, and being knowledgeable in all of Torah. Now that I have satisfied the first three of the four conditions, and can understand exactly why there are these prescriptions. When a guy is over 40 and has a son to worry about, who has the mental energy to study mystical texts? Only a very small and well grounded percentage of the population; one that is unlikely to flip out when exposed to the mystical secrets, and unlikely to turn apostate.
To conclude, for me, the story of the Pardes provides the most plausible explanation to what happened to Nadav and Abihu. Entering the holy of holies in the tent of meeting where God's glory is present is a mystical experience, equivalent to entering the Pardes. It seems to me that the young sons of Aaron, no matter how learned they were at that young age, were insufficiently grounded and unprepared for the awesome experience of a direct meeting with the divine. They most likely directly looked upon the glory of God. As God says to Moses on Sinai "No man can see Me and live." It is likely that the two had not yet consulted with Moses on how to approach the inner chamber, and were unaware of the Hai Gaon's method of approaching a vision of the divine, and suffered the same fate as Ben Azzai in the Pardes. Tragic, yes, but what a way to go...with a vision of God in ones eyes.
Finally, remember the quote from Moses in the text, "Through those near to Me I show Myself holy, And gain glory before all the people"? If we adopt the view of events through the lens of the Pardes, then the quote might mean that the nearness of Nadav and Abihu caused them to see God and lose their lives through the vision, which in turn heightened the awe of God of those who witnessed or heard of the events that transpired that day. Which may be why we continue to tell the story of Nadav and Abihu even today.