Shabbos Acharei Mos-Kedoshim - 5780

Shabbos Acharei Mos-Kedoshim - 5780

Rabbi Hal Miller

God spoke to Moshe after the death of Aharon's two sons when they

approached before God and they died. [Vayikra 16:1]

Why does the Torah tell us at this point that God spoke to Moshe after the

deaths of Nadav and Avihu? After that incident, before now, there are six

other occasions when God spoke to Moshe, and none of them mentioned

this phrase, "after the death of Aharon's two sons".

Rashi thinks it is to tell Aharon not to act as did his sons in this new issue,

approaching God, so that he not die too. Ramban says that this phrase is

used here to make it an exception to the general rule he holds of that the

entire Torah is chronological, unless it specifies otherwise. Here, the Torah

is specifying that this command actually occurred combined with the one

earlier about not serving when having drunk any wine, which is one of the

potential reasons for the deaths of Nadav and Avihu. R'Yonasan Eybeshutz

also disagrees with Rashi, noting that although the verse mentions the tie

to the deaths of Aharon's sons, Moshe did not actually say so to Aharon.

Kol Dodi ties the deaths to our present verse, in that Moshe must warn

Aharon to follow precisely what it is that he is commanded.

His father, Rav Moshe Feinstein, looks at the verses differently. He

separates our verse from the one immediately following, "And God said to

Moshe, speak to Aharon your brother that he shall not come at all times

into the Holy of Holies...so that he should not die." Rav Moshe says that

our verse could have occurred at any time, but does not note what it was

that God said. The following verse does not necessarily connect directly

to ours, and in fact may be a different subject, one on the wine, and one

on the approaching, in other words along the lines of Ramban, the Torah

is here telling us when this occurred, and is only now filling us in on what

was said at the time.

It would seem that the argument in favor of information about chronology

is the strongest, and that R'Eybeshutz makes a solid point about Moshe

not here reminding Aharon of his loss.