Shabbat Parashat Shemini - 5785

Shabbat Parashat Shemini - 5785

Rabbi Hal Miller

  A fire went forth from before God and consumed upon the Altar the olah offering and the fats, the people saw

and they praised and fell upon their faces [Vayikra 9:24]

  A fire went forth from before God and consumed them and they died before God [Vayikra 10:2]

These two verses begin with identical phrasing. There must be lessons to draw from this commonality. Rashbam takes this thought a step further and on verse 10:2 writes, "This is a reference to the fire mentioned in 9:24. The two verses refer to the same fire." The two verses seem to be discussing unrelated events, the burning on the Altar of sacrifices and the deaths of Aharon's two elder sons. Thus Rashbam must hold with those who describe the events as the fire came down from heaven, ran to the inner Altar, then continued on to Nadav and Avihu on its way to the outer Altar, although the plain meaning of the Torah does not indicate this. It would seem that they were merely unfortunately in a bad location at the time according to this.

Further, the sacrifices were burned physically as we think of in a fire, but the brothers' bodies were not. Their souls were consumed, but presumably not those of the animal offerings, thus if it was a single heavenly fire, it was able to produce very different results, so that also is not a commonality although together it demonstrates the power of God.

The Gemora [Sanhedrin 52a] notes that in some places, e.g., Vayikra 4:12 where the bulls are burned, that the Torah uses the term sereifim, burning, but here it uses vatochal, consumed, in both of our verses. The same word 'consumed' is used in Bamidbar [16:35] referring to the fire that killed Korach's rebels. 

What were the purposes of the consuming of the fire? For the sacrifices on the Altar, both in 9:24 and with the bulls in 4:12, it was physical burning. For Nadav and Avihu, and for Korach's company it was, as R'Eliezer says in Sanhedrin, "for matters of the souls". On the surface these are not related. We can understand the connection between Aharon's sons and Korach's company in this, but how would the olah offering in our verse fit? It seems that what our verse is really talking about is the person who brought the offering, that the consuming should have been for his sins but he is being given a chance to substitute the animal and go on living. This would differentiate the purpose of the sacrifice here from that of the bulls brought in 4:12, in that the bulls come for atonement over a sin but here it is for purification of the soul. However, since we understand that Korach's company are not granted a share in the World to Come, they presumably did not achieve atonement with their deaths.

Perhaps the commonality has to do with the type of action involved. As to Nadav and Avihu, Rashi cites R'Eliezer who says their death was because "they rendered a psak in the presence of their teacher Moshe." R'Yishmael in the Gemora says it was that they were "intoxicated by wine they entered the Sanctuary". Most commentators say it was because they brought a "strange fire", human-made instead of heavenly, that showed a lack of faith in God's ability to burn the offering. In all these options, rather than sinning as such, they were defying God directly, thus the brothers became olah offerings rather than sin offerings. This applies as well for the rebels of Korach. But how does it apply to our verse 9:24? In verse 9:22, Aharon brings a sin offering, an olah offering and a peace offering, but in 9:24 it only speaks of the fire consuming the olah offering and fats, not mentioning the other items. In Vayikra [4:12] the bulls were a sin offering.

Perhaps we can say that sin offerings are burned, sereifim, and olah offerings are consumed, vatochal. Sin offerings have to do with atonement for breaking a law, and olah have to do with faith in God.