Scholar-in-Residence, Ruach Israel Messianic Synagogue
Scholar-in-Residence, Congregation Avodat Yisrael

"The sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, each took his fire pan, put fire in it, and set incense in it.  They offered before the LORD alien fire which God had not commanded them."  Leviticus 10:1

Our parashah begins with a chronicle of the events which happened after the new tabernacle was consecrated and Aaron and his sons are ordained as priests.  It is now the eighth day and Aaron and his sons fully assume the daily responsibilities of their priestly vocation.  The day begins with Aaron officiating over a series of offerings: a sin offering and a burnt offering on behalf of Aaron (9:8-14) and the people's sin offering, burnt offering, and meal offering (9:15-21).  This series of offerings ends well.  Moses and Aaron's bless the people, and the kevod of God appears in the Tent of Meeting (9:23).

The next chapter of our parashah begins with a note of tragedy as Aaron's sons, Nadav and Avihu, his designated successors bring in an offering of ketoret - incense which is met with God's all-consuming fire and their deaths.  Certainly, Nadav and Avihu were not incorrect in understanding that incense is an appropriate offering to bring before God.  Moses, himself, had done so when the tabernacle was being erected (Exodus 40:28).  Yet, the offering of these two seemingly pious, consecrated priests was not accepted.  What is that they offered and why was it not accepted?

Within the verse itself, Nadav and Avihu's offering is described as 'esh zarah 'asher lo' tzivvah 'otam "an alien fire which God had not commanded them."  The fire refers to the incense offering itself.  It is zarah "alien, foreign."  In simplest terms it means that it does not belong in the sanctuary.  Baruch Levine (Leviticus, 59) suggests that the usage here is related to the prohibition against offering a ketoret zarah "alien incense offering" in Exodus 30:9.  There the prohibition is against offering anything else beyond the daily incense offering (Exodus 30:7-8).  Such an offering is ketoret zarah.  Levine goes on to suggest that "entering the Tent for an improper purpose, they met with death."  In this respect their offering was well-intentioned but was done in an improper way, an offering not prescribed by God.

Why would Nadav and Avihu make such a cardinal mistake?  They had been schooled in the way sacrifices should be carried out.  They had been trained along with their father in the appropriate actions throughout the seven day period of ordination.  Why make an offering which was not prescribed and in fact proscribed in Exodus 30?  This is a question which has puzzled commentators for millennia.

One suggestion is perhaps offered by the text of Leviticus itself.  Immediately following the immolation of Nadav and Avihu and the removal of their bodies from the sanctuary by Mishael and Elzaphan, God enjoins Aaron and his sons against drinking when they are performing their sacred duties in the Tent of Meeting (10:8ff).  Perhaps, Nadav and Avihu partook of some wine in celebration of the consecration of the tabernacle and their ordination.  This wine then led to make foolish judgments about what and when to offer before God.

In Vayikra Rabbah 20, the great homiletical midrash collection on Levitius, the midrashist suggest that in bringing the offering, Nadav and Avihu had failed to consult one another.  Thus they offered a sacrifice which they had not been commanded, and they failed to be of one accord in how they would bring their offering before God.

Sifra, the halakhic midrash on Leviticus, suggests the foolhardy act of the two young priests proceeded from unrestrained exuberance.  "They too in their joy, as soon as they saw the new fire stood forth to heap love unto their love" (Parashat Shemini Mekhilta Demiluim 32).  They were zealous to offer their worship before God, seeking to express their heartfelt devotion to the God of Israel.  But in zeal they over-stepped the bounds of acceptable worship before God.  In a sense they brought an offering, incense or otherwise, before God out of their own volition rather than at the direction of God.  As our text say, "God had not commanded them" yet they brought the offering anyway.

Nadav and Avihu's offering jars us as we read this text.  As we have waded through the detailed sacrificial requirements of the first few chapters of Leviticus, we began to experience a sense of excitement as Aaron and his sons were consecrated as priests.  Here we are confronted with a tragic rupture in the narrative.  Two priests who zealously sought to bring offerings of their joy before God are consumed in God's fire.  As we have seen, the text leaves us with many puzzling questions and few answers: What was offered?  Why was it unacceptable?  Why did they offer it in the first place?

The hints the texts leave of us with tell us some things about why Nadav and Avihu's offering was problematic.  It was not a prescribed offering.  God did not command it.  Though it is difficult to pin down their motivation, the comments of the midrashists teach us that offerings, though brought out of love and devotion to God (Deuteronomy 6:4), should only be brought in the way in which God truly calls us to offer them.  Intimacy with God can only be attained through a disciplined approach to God, not through our own exuberance.

Though we lack a Temple or a Tabernacle, we still approach God through prayer and our communal worship.  The Torah challenges us even today to engage God in regular prayer which is respectful of God's transcendence, God's irreducible otherness.  Exuberance is good but it must be tempered by discipline lest we ourselves offer our own 'esh zarah.

Shabbat Shalom.