This sheet on Leviticus 10 was written by Tamar Kamionkowski for 929 and can also be found here
The beginning of Leviticus 10 has always struck me as quite odd because it describes a dramatic and deeply disturbing event without any narrative drama! Usually in the Bible when people die as a result of God’s will the text is vivid and filled with emotions of rage, disappointment or fear. But in Leviticus 10 God is not angry. God consumes Nadav and Avihu as God would consume a sacrificial offering. The deaths of Nadav and Avihu are not the result of divine punishment, despite a myriad of classical rabbinic texts that try to find fault with Nadav and Avihu.
The Second Temple period scholar Philo suggests that Nadav and Avihu were not sinning but were intentionally throwing themselves at God. When God consumed them, God was simply accepting Nadav and Avihu’s self-offering.
In their youth and inexperience, they were caught up in the frenzy of emotions. Let’s keep the context of this chapter in mind. Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aaron, die on the first day on the job! Just a week earlier in the narrative, Aaron and his sons were ordained as priests. As part of the installation ceremony, they had just spent a week in the Sanctuary in close proximity to God’s holy presence. These were not seasoned priests; they did not benefit from years of apprenticing since they were the very first to take on the mantle of the priesthood. This experience was completely new to them.
Amidst the generally dry and orderly material of Leviticus, we receive a glimpse of the passion that Nadav and Avihu must have felt in God’s presence. The deaths of these men put a damper on the festivities of ordination and reminded the other priests that their service was to the Israelite people, not to themselves. But the placement of this story in the Book of Leviticus is an acknowledgment that to be human is to be passionate. Human passion may be tempered by societal rules and laws, but that yearning for an all consuming experience is a part of the human condition.
Dr. Tamar Kamionkowski is professor of biblical studies at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College where she has trained rabbis for over 20 years.
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