In Parshas Bamidbar, Nadav and Avihu are mentioned as the children of Ahron who died because they brought an Aish Zara (foreigh offering) before Hashem.
The Zohar, however, states that the reason for why they died was due to the fact that they never got married and they never had children.
How is this possible? How can the Zohar argue on the Torah? Is this an argument.
We know that Hashem is ??? ??? ???? ??-???? ???-??? ????, ??-????? ???-?????. Punishment for sins of fathers will be given to them, their children … down 4 generations.
I once saw the following peirush (sorry, forgot whom). It was a compound effort of the Aish Zara and not having children. When someone needs to be punished, some their punishment will be given to later generations instead of to the sinner. If one does not have decedents, then they will receive full punishment for their action. One in such a position will have a lower threshold.
As such Nadav and Avihu, having chosen to not get married and to not have children, put themselves in a major danger zone, with this lower threshold. They then go and bring this Aish Zara and they die from it.
The Torah chooses to make the point that the action of the Aish Zara caused the death of Nadav and Avihu. The Zohar chooses to make the point that the Aish Zara was an action which resulted in death solely because they did not have children. Had they had children, some of the punishment would go to them and therefore they would have had a significant threshold.
In reality, there is no dispute between the Zohar and the Torah. They are just choosing to focus on different angles. The Torah focuses on the action, while the Zohar focuses on the power of the punishment.