Rabbi David Etengoff
 
Dedicated to the sacred memories of my mother, Miriam Tovah bat Aharon Hakohen, father-in-law, Levi ben Yitzhak, sister, Shulamit bat Menachem, sister-in-law, Ruchama Rivka Sondra bat Yechiel, Chana bat Shmuel, Yehonatan Binyamin ben Mordechai Meir Halevi, Shoshana Elka bat Avraham, Tikvah bat Rivka Perel, Peretz ben Chaim, Chaya Sarah bat Reb Yechezkel Shraga, Shmuel Yosef ben Reuven, Shayndel bat Mordechai Yehudah, the Kedoshim of Har Nof, Pittsburgh, and Jersey City, and the refuah shlaimah of Mordechai HaLevi ben Miriam Tovah, and the health and safety of our brothers and sisters in Israel and around the world.
 
This week’s parasha begins with the pasuk: “And Hashem spoke to Moshe after the death of Aaron’s two sons, when they drew near before Hashem, and they died.” (Sefer Vayikra 16:1, this and all Bible translations, The Judaic Press Complete Tanach)  This is a brief reference to one of the Torah’s most enigmatic pasukim: “And Aharon’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, each took his pan, put fire in them, and placed incense (ketoret) upon it, and they brought before the L-rd foreign fire (aish zarah), which He had not commanded them (asher lo tzivah otam).” (Sefer Vayikra, Parashat Shemini 10:1, this and all Bible translations, The Judaic Press Complete Tanach)

The behavior of Nadav and Avihu is very difficult to understand, since earlier in the Torah we find a passage that contains Hashem’s charge to offer ketoret each morning and afternoon, along with the explicit lo ta’aseh (prohibition) against offering ketoret when one has not been commanded to do so:

Aharon shall make incense of spices go up in smoke upon it; every morning when he sets the lamps in order, he shall make it go up in smoke. And when Aaron kindles the lights in the afternoon, he shall make it go up in smoke, continual incense before the L-rd for your generations. You shall offer up on it (lo ta’alu aluv) no foreign incense (ketoret zarah), burnt offering, or meal offering, and you shall pour no libation upon it. (Sefer Shemot 30:7-9)
 
For our purposes, ketoret zarah in this passage, and aish zarah in the Parashat Shemini citation, are functionally the same. In addition, the phrases, “lo ta’alu aluv,” herein, and “asher lo tzivah otam” in the Parashat Shemini pasuk, convey the same message: “It is forbidden to offer any incense upon the altar unless Hashem has commanded you to do so.” Surely, Nadav and Avihu, as students of both Moshe and Aharon, were privy to this information. As such, how and why did they so radically deviate from normative halachic practice?
 
In addressing this question, my rebbe and mentor, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zatzal (1903-1993), known as “the Rav” by his students and followers, begins by emphasizing the phrase, “asher lo tzivah otam:”

However, the Torah states, asher lo tzivah otam: On the day of their [Nadav and Avihu] installation, wearing their priestly vestments, they were overcome by ecstasy and by the need to express their emotions. The incense that they burned was identical to that which their father, Aharon, had offered. But there is one significant difference. Aharon was obeying God’s will, while Nadav and Avihu performed an action that God had not commanded. (This and the following Rav Soloveitchik quotes, Darosh Darash Yosef: Discourses of Rav Yosef Dov Halevi Soloveitchik on the Weekly Parashah, Rabbi Avishai C. David, editor, pages 223-226, brackets and underlining my own.)
 
This passage alerts us to the Rav’s insight that “they [Nadav and Avihu] were overcome by ecstasy and by the need to express their emotions.” He notes that the Jewish way to achieving this kind of ecstasy: “… requires us to fashion our lives according to God’s discipline, as illustrated by the word ve-tzivanu. The reason that we perform the mitzvah is our absolute surrender to God’s will. However, we must progress from that surrender to a profound spiritual experience that encompasses our entire being… In brief, the road consists of two steps: obedience to God’s command and discovering the spiritual treasures inherent in it.”
 
In contrast, the pagan orientation, “… the antithesis of the Torah approach, begins with excitement and culminates in sin and disillusionment. It very much parallels the approach of the modern world, where one uses drugs or alcohol in order to create an artificial feeling of euphoria...” Therefore, according to the Rav’s understanding, the ecstasy that is the driving force of these pagan acts is as false as the acts themselves. Tragically, while Nadav and Avihu embraced the correct form of a meaningful religious gesture, namely, the burning of ketoret upon the proper incense censers, it was nothing other than a humanly contrived act whose substance violated Hashem’s Torah. As such, the Rav concludes:

Therefore, the transgression of Nadav and Avihu, whom the Torah describes as sanctified [Sefer Vayikra 10:3], was that “they offered a strange fire concerning which they had not been commanded.” The divine command and our discipline in obeying that command are the only healthy routes to religious inspiration. Any deviation, especially by tzaddikim, is unacceptable and ultimately doomed to failure.
 
With Hashem’s help, and our fervent desire, may the path of authentic Torah observance enable us to draw near to Him and achieve the religious inspiration we desire. V’chane yihi ratzon.
 
Shabbat Shalom
 
Past drashot may be found at my blog-website: http://reparashathashavuah.org.
 
Please contact me at [email protected] to be added to my weekly email list.
 
*** My audio shiurim on the topics of Tefilah and Tanach may be found at: http://tinyurl.com/8hsdpyd
 
*** I have posted 164 of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s English language audio shiurim (MP3 format) spanning the years 1958-1984. Please click on the highlighted link: The Rav

 




Rabbi David Etengoff
 
Dedicated to the sacred memories of my mother, Miriam Tovah bat Aharon Hakohen, father-in-law, Levi ben Yitzhak, sister, Shulamit bat Menachem, sister-in-law, Ruchama Rivka Sondra bat Yechiel, Chana bat Shmuel, Yehonatan Binyamin ben Mordechai Meir Halevi, Shoshana Elka bat Avraham, Tikvah bat Rivka Perel, Peretz ben Chaim, Chaya Sarah bat Reb Yechezkel Shraga, Shmuel Yosef ben Reuven, Shayndel bat Mordechai Yehudah, the Kedoshim of Har Nof, Pittsburgh, and Jersey City, and the refuah shlaimah of Mordechai HaLevi ben Miriam Tovah, and the health and safety of our brothers and sisters in Israel and around the world.
 
I have always found “metichilah ovdei avodah zarah hiyu avotainu, v’achshav karvanu HaMakom l’avodato (in the beginning, our ancestors were idol worshippers, and now, the Omnipresent One has brought us close to worship Him),” to be one of the many fascinating sentences in the Haggadah. It is based on the mishnaic statement: “One begins the telling of the Pesach story with that which is embarrassing (genut) and concludes with that which is praiseworthy (shevach),” (Pesachim 10:4) and is elaborated upon in Talmud Bavli, Pesachim 116a: “What is genut? Rav said: ‘in the beginning, our ancestors were idol worshippers,’ [and Shmuel] said: ‘We were slaves.’”
 
My rebbe and mentor, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik zatzal (1903-1993), known as “the Rav” by his students and followers, suggests the following explanation of this machloket (dispute):

It appears that they [Rav and Shmuel] are disagreeing as to the essence of the nature of the Egyptian servitude. Rav maintains that the fundamental characteristic of this bondage was the subjugation of the soul (hashibude hanafshi), that is, the Egyptians enslaved the souls of the Jewish people until they were forced down to the level of the 49th gate of impurity... In contrast, Shmuel asserts that the fundamental quality of this slavery was the subjugation of the physical (hashibude hageshami), in that the Egyptians enslaved the Jewish people and forced them to perform back-breaking labor. (This, and the following citations, Haggadah shel Pesach: Siach HaGrid, Rabbi Yitzchak Abba Lichtenstein, editor, pages 45-46, translation and brackets my own)
 
In sum, Rabbi Soloveitchik asserts that Rav maintained spiritual subjugation (hashibude hanafshi) was the essence of our ancestors’ slavery experience in Egypt; whereas Shmuel held that it was fundamentally physical in nature (hashibude hageshami). These differing positions lead to contrasting opinions as to how to understand geulat mitzrayim (the Redemption from Egypt). For Rav, Rabbi Soloveitchik suggests:

… the essence of the geulah, wherein the Holy One blessed be He redeemed us, is also expressed through His drawing us near to Him to His service and giving us the Torah, for, in truth, this was the ultimate purpose of the Exodus… As such, Rav holds that when we tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt, we must begin with genut and speak of our spiritual enslavement and conclude with praise [to the Almighty] regarding the Redemption; namely, the Holy One blessed be He redeemed us, and brought us near to Him to His service.
 
According to the Rav, Shmuel, however, argued that the Redemption should be viewed as the miraculous act wherein:

… the Holy One blessed be He redeemed us from actual physical slavery (m’liyot avadim b’guf), and this is the case even though the purpose of yetziat mitzrayim was the receiving of the Torah. Nonetheless, the geulah from mitzrayim was [to cast off the shackles of slavery], m’hashibude hageshami. Therefore, when we tell the story of yetziat mitzrayim we begin with avadim hi’yinu.
 
The second half of the Haggadah’s statement, “v’achshav karvanu HaMakom l’avodato (and now, the Omnipresent One has brought us close to worship Him),” has received far less attention in the works of the standard Haggadah commentators than the first. This is striking, since the word, “v’achshav,” appears entirely out of place. As the Chasidic rebbe, Rav Avraham Dov Baer of Ovruch, Ukraine (d. 1840) notes:

One must be very exact and ask, what is the meaning of the expression “v’achshav,” when the Haggadah should have written, “v’achar kach karvanu (and afterwards He brought us),” since [everything that is mentioned in the subsequent proof text from Sefer Yehoshua] is prior to our forebears and their Departure from Egypt? (Sefer Bat Ayin, Sefer Vayikra, Drush l’Shabbat HaGadol, this and the following translation and brackets my own)
 
Rav Avraham Dov Baer’s response to his question is an interpretive tour de force:
The explanation of, “v’achshav,” is as follows: Since we now know [the true extent of] our [spiritual] defect, namely, that we were idol worshippers, and we are now exceedingly embarrassed because of the evil of our actions, we are [are now in the position] to beseech Hashem in great humility and embarrassment. As a result of our approaching Him in this manner, He will have mercy upon us, bring us near, and provide an opening for us to do teshuvah. [Moreover,] He will transform the letter “chet” [in the word chametz, chet-mem-tzaddi] into a “heh,” and thereby [metaphorically] change chametz [that represents the yetzer hara] into matzah [mem-tzaddi-heh] that signifies, [in this instance, that which is free of sin] …
 
May it be Hashem’s will and our fervent desire, that on this Pesach, we will be zocheh (merit) to transform all the chametz in our hearts and minds into matzah, so that we may serve Him in holiness and devotion. V’chane yihi ratzon.
 
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach
 
Past drashot may be found at my blog-website: http://reparashathashavuah.org.
 
Please contact me at [email protected] to be added to my weekly email list.
 
*** My audio shiurim on the topics of Tefilah and Tanach may be found at: http://tinyurl.com/8hsdpyd
 
*** I have posted 164 of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s English language audio shiurim (MP3 format) spanning the years 1958-1984. Please click on the highlighted link: The Rav