Visions of the Eternal: Parshat Acharei Mot

This week, a soldier who lives in Omer was killed in action. Our whole community mourned. Maps were sent out to the whole community detailing the route from the deceased’s home to the local cemetery. His home happens to be around the corner from where I live and also across the street from the synagogue. It is always a tragedy when someone is killed in action, but when it happens to someone who is almost a neighbor, it feels different. And so, it seems fitting that parshat acharei mot, which we read this week and also on Yom Kippur, begins with the reference to the death of Aaron’s two oldest sons, Nadav and Avihu. Like Aaron and Elisheva, this family in Omer had four sons, but here the 20-year-old soldier was the youngest. If you recall, Nadav and Avihu’s untimely deaths were reported in parshat shemini, a few weeks ago. Many attribute their inexplicable deaths to overzealousness and I would like to explore this.

In Exodus 24, there is an incident which casts light on their death. Earlier in the chapter, God said to Moses:

“Come up to YHWH, with Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy elders of Israel, and bow low from afar. Moses alone shall come near YHWH; but the others shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him” (Exodus 24: 1-2).

But a few verses later, after Moses has read aloud the covenant to the people and they have agreed to do faithfully all that God spoke to them, the narrator relates as follows:

Then Moses and Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy elders of Israel ascended; and they saw the God of Israel—under whose feet was the likeness of a pavement of sapphire, like the very sky for purity. Yet [God] did not raise a hand against the leaders of the Israelites; they beheld God, and they ate and drank (Exodus 24: 9-11).

After this God tells Moses to come up to Him on the mountain where He will give him the stone tablets and where he will stay for forty days and forty nights. Ominously, perhaps hinting at the future of Nadav and Avihu:

During this time “the Presence of YHWH appeared in the sight of the Israelites as a consuming fire כְּאֵ֥שׁ אֹכֶ֖לֶת on the top of the mountain” (Exodus 24: 17).

I’m ignoring the glaring contradiction between the very clear orders that only Moses should come near to God, and the fact that not only Moses, Aaron, Nadav, Avihu and the seventy elders went up and saw God and were not punished. What interested me was a) the fact that they were not punished; b) the description of God; c) the fact that others beside Moses “saw” God; d) that God seemed to have feet; and e) that his image was very pure like sapphire.

Rashi has an interesting take on the first point:

ויראו את אלהי ישראל NOW THEY SAW THE GOD OF ISRAEL — They gazed intently and failing in this they peeped in their attempt to catch a glimpse of the Supreme Being, and thereby made themselves liable to death. But it was only because God did not wish to disturb the joy caused by the Giving of the Torah, that He did not punish them instantly, but waited (postponed the punishment) for Nadab and Abihu until the day when the Tabernacle was dedicated, when they were stricken with death, and for the elders until the event of which the text relates, (Numbers 11:16) “And when the people complained …. and the fire of the Lord burned among them and destroyed בקצה המחנה” — those who were the קצינים “nobles” of the camp (Midrash Tanchuma, Beha’alotcha 16).

As to the other points, Ibn Ezra writes:

AND THEY SAW THE GOD OF ISRAEL. In a prophetic vision. It is similar to I saw the Lord sitting on His throne (I Kings 22:19; II Chron. 18:18).

To him it is very important that they did not actually see God, but that it was a prophetic vision. And further on, he debunks the description of what they saw when he writes:

Now the paved work of sapphire stone (livnat ha-sappir) was similar to the vision of the sapphire stone which had the form of a throne seen by Ezekiel in his prophetic vision (Ezek. 1:26; 10:1).

Once again, they did not actually see God, just as the prophets did not literally see God. Nachmanides (Ramban) too is upset with this seeing of God, and after referring to Ibn Ezra points out that one of the earliest translators of the Bible opted out of saying they SAW the God of Israel:

Onkelos hinted at this, for he translated here, “and they saw the Glory of the G-d of Israel ….”

In other words, we have a form of censorship in translation, because it was unthinkable to Ramban that anyone besides Moses could see God.

Speaking of changing the meaning of the text, Sforno goes perhaps the furthest, for he translated “Yet [God] did not raise a hand against the leaders of the Israelites”, as “God did not extend His helping hand”, which while a plausible translation, reeks of an apologetic interpretation, to avoid what is clearly stated above. Here is what Sforno writes:

ואל אצילי בני ישראל לא שלח ידו, God, did not extend His helping hand to enable these nobles and elders to grant them the level of prophetic status while they were oblivious to their five senses with which they perceived while merely human beings. We encounter such a concept in Ezekiel 8,1 when the prophet describes an inspiration received with the words: ותפול עלי יד ה’, “and the “hand” of God “fell” upon me there.” The use of this phraseology describes the separation of the “normal” senses used for perception employed by the prophet, and his transformation into a super terrestrial dimension. [It is probably impossible to really “translate” this line into the vernacular in any language. The main point our author makes, as opposed to other commentators, is that this “hand of God” is not perceived by him as one that is retributive in character, but, on the contrary, as one that elevates the human being to a spiritually higher dimension.” In our context the Torah says that the “visions” achieved by these אצילי בני ישראל, were not further helped along by God. Ed.] Examples of people who divest themselves of human senses, or human garb, (a simile for their senses?) are King Saul in Samuel I 19,24 “then he too stripped off his clothes and he too spoke in ecstasy before Samuel, and he lay naked all day and night. This is why people say: “Is Saul too among the prophets?”

Having explored what these four commentators have to say, I would like to expound on this a bit. First of all, despite Rashi’s commentary, Nadav and Avihu (and the rest of them) got away with seeing God, and it must have been a very ecstatic experience. There was no reason for them not to conclude that in the future, they could “get high” again and not be punished. It may have even seemed that they were rewarded with a celebratory meal. So, in the future when, on the eighth day of celebrating they brought a “strange” fire into the holy of holies, the two brothers probably assumed that they had God’s approval.  Otherwise, why would they do this? Moses even explains to Aaron that God takes to Himself those who are closest to Him. From their vantage point, they would not think that God was waiting a long time (as Rashi suggests) to punish them for having experienced ecstasy when they saw God. True, God is described as one who is slow to anger, and when He is angry goes after those who sin zealously, with all His might (Exodus 34:6-7). But Nadav and Avihu have experienced ecstasy and want to experience more. Like the drugs of today, ecstasy is addictive and the search for more is never-ending.

Finally, while on the subject of addiction, I am compelled to point out that having power is also addictive and habit forming. Those who are today in power, cannot imagine a life without it. They do everything to hold on to it. They will sell their country for their “fix”. Holding the fate of a nation in the wrong person’s hands, is the most addictive experience of all—it is like playing God. One thinks one is invincible. Perhaps God, as Rashi wrote, is waiting to get back at those who are destroying our country for the sake of holding on to their power. In the meanwhile, great damage is being done, and it is getting more and more difficult to wait for God’s wrath to pour down on our leaders.

Shabbat shalom!