In this week’s parsha, we learn about the process of purification by means of the red heifer. We also learn about the “Torah of the person who dies in a tent” (Bamidbar 19:14). Who is the person that dies in the tent, if not the sons of Aharon, Nadav and Avihu?
Similarly, when giving the laws of Pesach in the desert, Moshe was asked to account for those who cannot bring the Korban Pesach because they’ve become impure by exposure to a dead body. The Sages ask: How would they have come into contact with a dead body in the desert, as natural death had been miraculously halted at this time? The only dead bodies anyone had been around at this point were the bodies of Nadav and Avihu, and the impure who needed a second Pesach were their cousins who had to remove them from the Mishkan.
The Torah tells us that Nadav and Avihu died because they brought a “strange fire” before Hashem (Vayikra 10:1). But Rashi says in the name of Rabbi Eliezer that they died because they taught Torah in front of their master, Moshe. Then he teaches in the name of Rabbi Shimon that they came into the Mishkan while intoxicated. The Maharal asks in Gur Arye why Rashi is offering explanations for their deaths when an explanation was already given in the p’shat in the Chumash. He says that Nadav and Avihu took it upon themselves to innovate in the offering of ketoret, which until now Moshe had not taught them to do. This was the strange fire, and it was strange because it deviated from the proper method. Similarly, if they came into the Mishkan while intoxicated, then it would be a very strange fire indeed.
But the Maharal ties all of this into Moshe’s cryptic words following the tragedy – his telling Aharon essentially that he knew something like this would happen: “This is what Hashem meant when He said, ‘from those closest to Me will I be sanctified’” (Ibid. 3). The Maharal explains that the strangeness began a year earlier at Matan Torah when the exceptional ones beheld the Divine, then ate and drank (Shemot 24:11). This refers to Nadav and Avihu, who were graced with extraordinary prophetic revelation and immediately returned to their material sensibilities. Maharal says that Nadav and Avihu should have died at that time, but Hashem didn’t want to spoil the giving of the Torah by killing the leaders of Israel. So, He bided His time until they had another opportunity to exhibit the same character flaw, and He struck them down the second time.
The Maharal refers to the statement of Rabbi Akiva, “Everything is anticipated but free will is given” (Avot 3:15). Hashem knows a person’s weaknesses and the traps that are likely to ensnare him. Still, that person has an opportunity to change who he his by doing teshuva. If he makes a mistake, then it comes from his own choices, and if he is to be punished for his mistakes, he should know that he was in control at every step of the process until he brought about his own downfall.
