4 min read
Greetings from the holy city of Jerusalem!
This week's Torah portion contains the dramatic story of Nadav and Avihu, two of Aaron's sons, who bring a strange offering to God. This is so unacceptable that a fire consumes them on the spot and they die. The Midrash (Yalkut Shimoni 524) suggests seven reasons why Aaron's sons might have deserved death:
Although these reasons seem entirely unrelated, we could suggest that all seven of them stem from one fundamental fault. Nadav and Avihu were great people, and they were aware of their high spiritual level. Yet they felt they had already reached the pinnacle of their achievement, and therefore had no need to strive for further growth and self-improvement. This misjudgment was the root of all seven possible reasons for their death:
THE MEASURE OF A MAN
Now that we see the common source of the seven reasons, let us examine another detail of the story. The Torah tells us (Leviticus 10:2) that a fire consumed Nadav and Avihu after they brought their strange offering. According to the Yalkut Shimoni (524), this fire came from the Holy of Holies. Why is it relevant to know the source of the fire?
The Holy of Holies contained only one vessel: the Holy Ark. Unlike the other Temple vessels, the dimensions of the Ark were all fractions - 2.5 by 1.5 by 1.5 cubits (Exodus 25:10). According to the commentator Kli Yakar, the fractional measurements of the Ark teach us that we should always feel lacking in regards to the wisdom we have acquired. Each of the Ark's dimensions teaches us a different dimension of this lesson. The height of the Ark shows us that we lack depth of knowledge; the length shows us that we lack breadth of knowledge; and the width shows us that we lack the ability to grasp concepts.
In Hebrew, the same word midot means both "measurements" and "character traits." This is why the fire that consumed Nadav and Avihu came from the Holy of Holies: the resting place of the Ark. The Ark, with its fractional measurements (midot) teaches us that we, too, are fractional - lacking in Torah knowledge and imperfect in our refinement of character (midot). Nadav and Avihu thought that they had reached completion. The origin of the fire that consumed them showed that they still had work to do.
If this lesson was relevant to such great people as Nadav and Avihu, it is all the more relevant to us. Although we should take pleasure in our positive achievements, we should never take pride. We should not feel so satisfied with our accomplishments that we lose our yearning to stretch and grow further.
May we continually desire to push beyond our current level, and in the merit of this attitude, may we soon deserve to see the return of our centerpiece, the Ark, with the building of the Third Temple.