Serving Like Angels: Simple Faith Above Understanding

1“Hashem spoke to Moshe after the death of Aharon's two sons, when they drew near before Hashem and died.”¹ Chazal give several reasons why Nadav and Avihu were taken from the world. One view is that they entered the Mishkan after drinking wine; another, that they entered with their hair grown long and unkempt, which is forbidden to a Kohen during the service; and a third, that they did not take counsel with one another.² Chazal also relate that Moshe and Aharon would walk in front, with Nadav and Avihu behind them, followed by all Israel. Nadav and Avihu said to one another, “When will these two old men die, so that we can lead the community?” They were punished for this.³ The holy sefarim have asked how we can understand that these two great tzaddikim did such things, Heaven forbid, and my holy great-grandfather of Biala discusses the question at length in his sefer Divrei Binah.

2aWe can understand this through what my holy father and teacher, zt"l, taught on the verse “This is the chok of the Torah which Hashem commanded, saying,”⁴ a chok being a decree given without a reason. He built on the way the Be'er Mayim Chaim explains Chazal's saying “A verse does not depart from its plain meaning.”⁵ The Be'er Mayim Chaim writes: “A person may say the plain words of Torah and prayer with no thought for his own sake, intending only to do the will of his Creator, Who commanded him to say them, and to draw down lights of healing, blessing and the like to the whole world because Hashem desires it, for He greatly desires kindness and takes great pleasure in bestowing every kind of blessing on His world. When he does, all the kavanos, the mystical intentions, are included in this. So a person who knows the hints of kavanah in a verse should not tear down its plain meaning in his heart, for all the kavanos are clothed in the plain meaning. That is why Chazal stated so clearly, ‘A verse does not depart from its plain meaning’: the plain meaning, carried out for His sake, holds a hint of the entire kavanah.” That is the gist of his words. In other words, even when we fulfill a mitzvah simply, for the sake of Heaven and without kavanos, the Holy One, blessed be He, completes the kavanos that are needed.

2bWith this my holy father explained a teaching of Chazal: “When Dovid entered the bathhouse and saw himself naked, he said, ‘Woe is me, that I stand naked without a mitzvah!’ But once he remembered the circumcision in his flesh, his mind was set at ease.”⁶ Dovid HaMelech had reflected with his own understanding, and it seemed to him that he had done the mitzvos without the kavanos a person must have while doing them. Then he remembered the circumcision, which is done on a baby eight days old. A baby of eight days cannot possibly have in mind the kavanos and secrets of the mitzvah of circumcision. So we must conclude that Hashem accepts the deeds of the mitzvos and counts them as if they had been done with all the proper kavanos. This set Dovid's mind at ease, for the same is true of all the other mitzvos. My holy father explained the verse “This is the chok of the Torah” the same way: a person must do all the mitzvos as chukim, without reasons. “Which Hashem commanded, saying” means that when doing a mitzvah, or saying its words, a person should say that he does it because Hashem commanded it. Then Hashem accepts every word of Torah and prayer that Israel offers, and counts it for the good. That is the gist of his holy words.

3Dovid HaMelech said, “Teach me good reasoning and knowledge, for I have believed in Your commandments.”⁷ This is what he meant. The Torah, as we know, contains rational mitzvos, which the mind can understand, and mitzvos that are chukim. Dovid HaMelech was saying that when a person is learning Torah and wants to understand its words and study them in depth, that is permitted and good. For this Dovid asked, “Teach me good reasoning and knowledge.” But when a person does the mitzvah itself, he must fulfill it with simple, wholehearted faith alone, without probing the root of the mitzvos' reasons. That is “for I have believed in Your commandments.”

4On this basis we may say that Aharon's sons were faulted for wanting to bring reasoning and knowledge into the doing of the mitzvos, since they held that this was the desired goal of avodas Hashem, the service of Hashem. But the holy sefarim explain, especially in the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, zt"l, that the choicest way is the opposite. The Baal Shem Tov grasped the very roots of the Torah and the mitzvos on high and found great delight in them. Yet after all this he said that he set aside everything he had grasped and held fast to simple faith: “Ich bin a nar un ich gleib,” “I am a simpleton, and I believe.”⁸

5aThis lets us explain the different views in the Midrash about the sin of Nadav and Avihu. Each of them points to a blemish in da'as, knowledge, the very fault we have described. Take the view that they entered after drinking wine. A Kohen may not serve after drinking wine because wine takes away da'as. The Ramban explains that the reason for the command “Do not drink wine or strong drink” is that drunkenness might lead the Kohen astray into an improper thought, and he would die because of it, as Aharon's sons did.⁹ So far his words. The view that they entered with unkempt hair also hints at da'as, which resides in the head. And the view that they did not take counsel with one another means that they did not set their own opinion aside before the community of Israel: each of them acted by his own understanding and grasp.

5bMoshe Rabbeinu, by contrast, held that the way to reach avodas Hashem is “Moshe assembled the entire congregation of Bnei Yisrael”:¹⁰ through unity and hearts drawn close together, by which the people would draw near before Hashem. That is the meaning of what Nadav and Avihu said: “When will these two old men die …” They wanted to lead the generation by their own approach and path, serving Hashem out of grasp and understanding, and to form kavanos by their own intellect. (See the Arizal's Likkutei Torah, which explains at length how they wished to bring about a yichud, a mystical union on high. In his account, they erred in how they went about it because they did not take counsel with Moshe Rabbeinu: they did not first draw the light of chochmah, wisdom, from him.) That is why the verse says, “when they drew near before Hashem and died.” Their whole sin lay in the ways of avodas Hashem.

6aThat is why, “after the death of Aharon's two sons,” Israel was commanded about the service of Yom Kippur. We know from Pirkei deRabbi Eliezer that on Yom Kippur Israel rises so high that it resembles the ministering angels.¹¹ The angels stand in dread and awe before their Maker, and each, according to its level, sets itself completely aside before Him. They can do so because they lack human da'as, which is a mixture of good and evil, coming from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. In the same way, on Yom Kippur Bnei Yisrael set themselves completely aside before Hashem. This is the tikkun, the repair, for the death of Aharon's two sons: it shows that we must serve Hashem like angels and set our da'as entirely aside before Him.

6bThis is what Chazal meant on the verse “Hashem is my light and my salvation”: “‘And my salvation’: on Yom Kippur. The heavenly princes of the nations of the world come and accuse Israel before the Holy One, blessed be He, saying that in Israel too there are transgressors. Why, then, do the nations go down to Gehinnom and Israel does not? ‘My heart shall not fear,’ for You promised me, ‘With this shall Aharon come into the holy place.’”¹² In other words, on that day Bnei Yisrael are privileged to reach this level of complete self-nullification, like the angels, and so they are saved from every accusation against them.

7Admittedly, it is very hard to stand on such a level. But at the very least, when we are busy with mitzvos and Torah study, we must take care not to mix in ulterior motives. They are a kind of “foreign fire, which Hashem had not commanded,”¹³ like the fire Aharon's sons brought. In this way we will bring the redemption near. Amen, may it be His will.