Chasidut sur Les Nombres 25:6
וְהִנֵּ֡ה אִישׁ֩ מִבְּנֵ֨י יִשְׂרָאֵ֜ל בָּ֗א וַיַּקְרֵ֤ב אֶל־אֶחָיו֙ אֶת־הַמִּדְיָנִ֔ית לְעֵינֵ֣י מֹשֶׁ֔ה וּלְעֵינֵ֖י כָּל־עֲדַ֣ת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וְהֵ֣מָּה בֹכִ֔ים פֶּ֖תַח אֹ֥הֶל מוֹעֵֽד׃
Cependant, quelqu’un des Israélites s’avança, amenant parmi ses frères la Madianite, à la vue de Moïse, à la vue de toute la communauté des enfants d’Israël, qui pleuraient au seuil de la tente d’assignation.
Kedushat Levi
Exodus 16,1 “after the death of two of Aaron’s son when they came (too) near to the Presence of Hashem and died (as a result).”
There is a disagreement between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua concerning the precise meaning of our verse. Rabbi Eliezer holds that these two sons of Aaron were guilty of giving halachic rulings in the presence of their teachers, i.e. pre-empting them. Rabbi Joshua holds that their sin consisted in entering sacred precincts in a state of drunkenness. (Compare Vayikra Rabbah 20,7 and 9 respectively) We need to understand how Rabbi Eliezer deduced that the sons of Aaron issued a halachic ruling without consulting their teachers from the words: בקרבתם לפני ה' וימותו. If the reason they died was that they had not asked permission from Moses or Aaron to enter the sacred grounds, why did the Torah omit mentioning the most important reason for their death? Rabbi Joshua’s claim that they were drunk is also apparently unsupported by the text.
In order to better understand the opinion that these sons of Aaron were guilty of bypassing their teachers in not asking permission to enter the holy precincts of the Tabernacle, we must first understand why a sin described as failing to ask permission from their teachers should carry the death penalty at the hands of G’d. After all, they had not given an erroneous ruling, so that their sin would seem to have been only “bad manners.”
We must understand that when G’d created the world He also created boundaries between different domains both on earth and in the celestial regions. Any angel that enters a domain that is not his without express permission to do so, is immediately burned up. The chain of the domains in the universe begins (top) with the domain of the angels known as Seraphim, the domain containing G’d’s throne. The next lower domain is the domain of the angels known as chayot. The next lower level in the celestial domains is that known as ophanim. Starting with the next “lower” domain we enter the world of tzimtzum, described in the Kabbalistic texts as the 10 emanations, ספירות. If any angel enters a domain above the level he has been assigned, he simply disappears into nothingness.
There is a similar system of varying domains among the Jewish people. G’d had first condensed His brilliance so that Moses could bear it. Moses in turn had to condense it further for the protection of his brother Aaron when he spoke to him. This process continued with Aaron’s sons followed by the elders, followed again by the prophets, and thence eventually comprised all the Israelites. We know this on the authority of the Talmud in Eyruvin 54 in the paragraph commencing with the words: כיצד סדר משנה?, “what was the order in which the Torah was taught to the Israelite people originally?” The problem with Aaron’s sons was that they wanted to skip a rank to a higher level than that which had been assigned to them. They had not bothered to ask either Moses or Aaron who belonged to a higher domain permission to do so. They simply “presented themselves” before G’d without having obtained the credentials that would have made them welcome. As a result they were removed from earth. What happened to them could equally have happened to any other Israelite on a lower level who had presumed to “promote” himself without the blessing of his spiritual mentors. The principle known in the Talmud as המורה הלכה בפני רבו, “teaching halachic rulings in the presence of one’s teachers” i.e. trying to jumpstart closer relations to Hashem without their mentors’ approval is a severe enough sin to warrant the death penalty at the hands of G’d.
[When Pinchas, almost 40 years later did something, which on the face of it appeared as similar, this was not only not punishable but deserved reward as he was fully aware that he risked his life by doing so, but he did not do so from a feeling of superiority to his mentors but to save the lives of many thousands of Israelites who were already becoming victims of a plague that raged in the camp. (Numbers 25,6-8) Ed.]
After this tragic occurrence, the Torah, in order to make this point clear once and for all, legislates that even the High Priest Aaron, an intimate of G’d, allowed to pronounce the holy name of G’d, should know that even he could not arbitrarily choose when to invoke this intimacy and that he could enter the holy of Holies in the Tabernacle only when invited to do so, or when the ritual prescribed by the Torah for certain days in the calendar made this an annual event. (Compare 15,2)
There is a disagreement between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua concerning the precise meaning of our verse. Rabbi Eliezer holds that these two sons of Aaron were guilty of giving halachic rulings in the presence of their teachers, i.e. pre-empting them. Rabbi Joshua holds that their sin consisted in entering sacred precincts in a state of drunkenness. (Compare Vayikra Rabbah 20,7 and 9 respectively) We need to understand how Rabbi Eliezer deduced that the sons of Aaron issued a halachic ruling without consulting their teachers from the words: בקרבתם לפני ה' וימותו. If the reason they died was that they had not asked permission from Moses or Aaron to enter the sacred grounds, why did the Torah omit mentioning the most important reason for their death? Rabbi Joshua’s claim that they were drunk is also apparently unsupported by the text.
In order to better understand the opinion that these sons of Aaron were guilty of bypassing their teachers in not asking permission to enter the holy precincts of the Tabernacle, we must first understand why a sin described as failing to ask permission from their teachers should carry the death penalty at the hands of G’d. After all, they had not given an erroneous ruling, so that their sin would seem to have been only “bad manners.”
We must understand that when G’d created the world He also created boundaries between different domains both on earth and in the celestial regions. Any angel that enters a domain that is not his without express permission to do so, is immediately burned up. The chain of the domains in the universe begins (top) with the domain of the angels known as Seraphim, the domain containing G’d’s throne. The next lower domain is the domain of the angels known as chayot. The next lower level in the celestial domains is that known as ophanim. Starting with the next “lower” domain we enter the world of tzimtzum, described in the Kabbalistic texts as the 10 emanations, ספירות. If any angel enters a domain above the level he has been assigned, he simply disappears into nothingness.
There is a similar system of varying domains among the Jewish people. G’d had first condensed His brilliance so that Moses could bear it. Moses in turn had to condense it further for the protection of his brother Aaron when he spoke to him. This process continued with Aaron’s sons followed by the elders, followed again by the prophets, and thence eventually comprised all the Israelites. We know this on the authority of the Talmud in Eyruvin 54 in the paragraph commencing with the words: כיצד סדר משנה?, “what was the order in which the Torah was taught to the Israelite people originally?” The problem with Aaron’s sons was that they wanted to skip a rank to a higher level than that which had been assigned to them. They had not bothered to ask either Moses or Aaron who belonged to a higher domain permission to do so. They simply “presented themselves” before G’d without having obtained the credentials that would have made them welcome. As a result they were removed from earth. What happened to them could equally have happened to any other Israelite on a lower level who had presumed to “promote” himself without the blessing of his spiritual mentors. The principle known in the Talmud as המורה הלכה בפני רבו, “teaching halachic rulings in the presence of one’s teachers” i.e. trying to jumpstart closer relations to Hashem without their mentors’ approval is a severe enough sin to warrant the death penalty at the hands of G’d.
[When Pinchas, almost 40 years later did something, which on the face of it appeared as similar, this was not only not punishable but deserved reward as he was fully aware that he risked his life by doing so, but he did not do so from a feeling of superiority to his mentors but to save the lives of many thousands of Israelites who were already becoming victims of a plague that raged in the camp. (Numbers 25,6-8) Ed.]
After this tragic occurrence, the Torah, in order to make this point clear once and for all, legislates that even the High Priest Aaron, an intimate of G’d, allowed to pronounce the holy name of G’d, should know that even he could not arbitrarily choose when to invoke this intimacy and that he could enter the holy of Holies in the Tabernacle only when invited to do so, or when the ritual prescribed by the Torah for certain days in the calendar made this an annual event. (Compare 15,2)
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