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Acharei Mos וַיִּקְחוּ בְנֵי אַהֲרֹן נָדָב וַאֲבִיהוּא אִישׁ מַחְתָּתוֹ וַיִּתְּנוּ בָהֵן אֵשׁ וַיָּשִׂימוּ עָלֶיהָ קְטֹרֶת וַיַּקְרִיבוּ לִפְנֵי ה’ אֵשׁ זָרָה אֲשֶׁר לֹא צִוָּה אֹתָם: ב וַתֵּצֵא אֵשׁ מִלִּפְנֵי ה’ וַתֹּאכַל אוֹתָם וַיָּמֻתוּ לִפְנֵי ה’
“The sons of Aharon, Nadav and Avihu, each took his fire-pan, they put fire in them and placed incense upon it; and they brought before Hashem an alien fire that He had not commanded them. A fire came forth from before Hashem and consumed them, and they died before Hashem” (10; 1-2).Rashi (10:2) states that Nadav and Avihu were punished with death because they rendered a halachik decision in the presence of their teacher, Moshe. (They did not consult Moshe before lighting the fire)
The Gemara (Yevamos, 64a) however states that they died because they didn’t have children. As the Medresh (Vayikra 20:9) adds “and in connection with this, death is mentioned, as it says, And Nadav and Avihu died… and they had no children (Bamidbar 3:4)
The Medresh Rabbah (Vayikra 20:9) cites an additional reason. “Because they had drunk wine, and in connection with this, death is mentioned, as it says, Drink no wine nor strong drink… that you die not (Leviticus 10:9)
How do we reconcile this? Which sin was the cause of their death? Are perhaps these seemingly disparate aveiros related?
II
The Chasam Sofer in his Toras Moshe (Parshas Acharei Mos, first piece) writes that they are in fact related, and one is the cause of the other.We all understand the basis for the Mitzvah of Kibbu Av V
em -honoring ones parents. But to fully appreciate the level of honor owed is not possible, until one marries and has children of their own.
Only after experiencing the pain of a child`s defiance or disrespect can one begin to realize where they themselves were lacking in respect towards their parents.
When one feels the exquisitely painful perfidy of a childs misbehavior, thoughts like ““How can they do this to me? Dont they know what I went through for them?” come to the fore.
It is precisely then that a thinking person can be struck with the impact of their own misdeeds and disrespect towards the parents who raised them. Only then in retrospect, can one see where they were lacking in Kavod to their parents. Look at the pain my child causes me; just imagine what I put my parents through!This painful but valuable lesson –of a child’s disrespect, is lost to the one who never had their own children.
III
Nadav and Avihu never married, they never had children- they never experienced what it feels like to be disrespected. They in turn never internalized the extent of respect that they owe others.
That is how they were able to render a decision in Moshe`s presence. It was disrespectful, yet they never learned the lesson from their own children of how painful disrespect can be. They could therefore come to dishonor Moshe in that way.
This then carried over on an even worse level when they entered the Mishkan after having drunk wine. This was not mere dishonor of a person; this is dishonor and disrespect of Hashem!Yet it all stems, writes the Chasam Sofer, from the “crime” of not having children from whom to learn the lesson of Kavod.
The import of this is that the depth of honor towards our parents is something that should grow with time.
Even after we have grown up and perhaps seen that our own parents are not perfect, we still need to mature in the understanding of the debt of gratitude owed to those who raised us. Ruminating over all that we do for our children -and the onus we believe it places on them – should provide us with a direct view, of what our parents must have done for us and what respect we therefore owe them.
Very nice.
The Ksav Sofer in Parashas Shmini explains the expression מתי ימותו זקנים הללו ואני ואתה ננהיג הצבור when will these elders die and we will be leaders. It sounds very strange that they hoped that the elders will die and they will become leaders. They took a lesson from Moshe Rabbenu that his children did not behave properly because he did not have time to spend with them to raise them as he was busy with leadership. They said if they will die, we become leaders and we won’t be able to bring up our children properly. Therefore, they decided not to get married to have children. This was a strange fire figuratively in their mind as Chezkiya did not want to get married to have Menasheh.
I wil try to put their drinking in a good light. They wanted to do the avodah with simcha, so they drank wine which also brought them to make mistakes. There error was that simcha should come from the avodah itself.
The Kol Aryeh, a talmid of the Chasam Sofer, explains the idea that the neshama wants constantly to return to its source. There are two things which hold it back, one fear and two the yetzer hara. Over here, there was no mitzva involved, so no yetzer hara. They performed their sacrifice completely from love. This is the meaning that their closeness to Hashem made them die. He expains another reason why the kohen gadol needed bells on his shirt. To wake him up from getting into a trance because of love.
Maybe because of lack of time, Moshe Rabbenu overestimated his children and expected more from them.
From your vort above something was missing. It did not explain why they did not want to have children.
I am explaining the Ksav Sofer that Moshe Rabbenu figured that his children will put more effort in their learning.
As we are talking about fascinating peshatim, there is a fascinating Ramban this parasha on וחי בהם. He says that the rewards are provided according to the purpose for doing mitzvos. If someone does mitzvos to gain olam hazeh, he will be rewarded accordingly. If he does mitzvos for olam habo, his rewards will be set aside for olam habo. If he does mitzvos for itself, he will gain both worlds.
There is also a fascinating Sefer Hachinuch mitzva 187, who explains that we don’t cover the blood of a behama because it went on the mizbeach as an atonement whereas most birds were not sacrificed with wild animals, so there blood did not go on the mizbeach being considered life which was put out, must be covered like being burried to show our dismay for death.
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