Parashat – Smini

Last week, the Torah portion leaves the regular cycle to read a special passage for Passover. This week we’re back to the narrative. We pick up the story with the dedication ceremony for the Mishkan. And then go on to some of the laws of kashrus.

On the eighth (and final) day of the dedication, after Aaron brought the prescribed korbonot, tragedy strikes. Aarons two sons are suddenly killed when they try to bring their own offering. This has caused many Rabbis to ask two questions, “what did they do wrong” and ‘why did that warrant such a harsh penalty?” I’ll offer a few of the traditional explanations, and then I’ll try to add something of my own.

This story happens right after we’re told about the laws against a priest performing a service while drunk. So some commentaries suggest that Aaron’s sons brought their offering while drunk. Others suggest that the problem was their offering wasn’t asked for. But what’s wrong with that? Here’s my understanding.

This issue is related to one I discussed a few weeks ago, when I asked why making the golden calf was so terrible, while building the golden cherubs (as part of the cover for the arc) was good. The answer is based on the concept of “avodah zarah” – strange worship. Bringing an offering that G-d did not ask for is worshiping him in ways G-d didn’t set out. In today’s thinking, this is often viewed as a good thing, we hear statements like “we should all relate to G-d in a way that is meaningful to us.” But that notion is not in line with traditional jewish thinking (although we do hear it from Jewish sources).

Man deciding how he’s going to worship G-d, puts man at the centre of the G-d / Man relationship. Jewish thinking says that G-d should be at the centre. G-d took the time to specify how we are to worship him. G-d knows the human condition far better than we do. It’s presumptuous of us to think we can improve on G-d instructions. That’s what Aaron’s sons did wrong. They thought to improve on G-d’s laws.

But then there’s the other side of the question, why was this a capital offence? The answer is one that we need to keep in mind when we look at the mistakes of any Biblical leader. “According to your level of knowledge is your level of responsibility. According to your level of responsibility is your level of accountability.” Aaron’s sons were priests, they should have known better. The greater you are, the bigger the impact of your decisions, therefore you must be held to an extremely high standard. As we see time and time again in the Bible, the mistakes of people in positions of power have huge consequences. Indeed, we read Moses explaining this very idea to Aaron a few verses later. The irony is that Moses ends up paying a huge price (arguably higher than the death penalty) for a seemingly minor mistake (as we’ll see in coming weeks).

Shabbat Shalom