The Tzaddik is Situated in the Heavens

HOW COULD NADAV AND AVIHU HAVE SAID: WHEN WILL MOSHE AND AHARON DIE?

THE DAILY CHIZZUK BY MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A – FRIDAY, 20 TAMMUZ 5784

IF IT IS HARD TO LEARN GEMARA, THEN LEARN THE PARASHAH.

To learn the parashah is to know that Hagar was the granddaughter of Pharaoh, and Avraham married her.  He did not invalidate the match.  He said it was a good match.  And to know that Esav married Machalat bat Yishmael, the granddaughter of Avraham Avinu, and that Yishmael died.

We need to give the students some key points and to test them on this, to take all the bachurim (young men).  There are now a hundred bachurim here; they must know the entire parashah.

The parashah is the most interesting thing, how it is constructed and how everything is ordered, everything that we love to read.  It is more interesting than anything.  How could Nadav and Avihu had said, “When will Moshe and Aharon die?  Get a move on it, that they should die already.”

Fine, it’s still possible to understand that Esav says that his father [Yitzchak] should die already.  He was wicked, “it is possible to find merit for him.”  But that Nadav and Avihu should say, “When will Moshe and Aharon die?”

The Asarah Ma’arot says that regarding this, it is written in Shemot, parashat Mishpatim, “He said to Moshe, ‘Ascend to Hashem, you and Aharon, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel.’”  All the elders went with Moshe and Aharon, and everyone thought that they were going to ascend to Mount Sinai.  They did not know that they would be stopped, until a Heavenly voice emerged which said, “Stop, stop, stand in place, stand in place.”

Everyone was stopped.  All seventy elders were stopped, but Nadav and Avihu continued to advance, and they saw that Moshe and Aharon were advancing.  They were certain that they were going to ascend to heaven.  They said, “If these [Moshe and Aharon] ascend to heaven, then let’s lead the generation.  They already won’t return.”  You need to know that the Tzaddik is situated in the heavens.  He’s not on earth at all.

By Friday, we finish the parashah.  We finish also Achrei Mot [about] Nadav and Avihu.  All the opinions: Why they were burned, why they wanted for Moshe and Aharon to die, what they did to them?

All of this is written in the commentaries.  We made a test about this.  In fifteen things, Nadav and Avihu erred: 1. Not consulting with one another (Midrash Rabba Vayikra, Parashat 20); 2. They brought a strange fire; 3. They waited for fire to descend from heaven…, then they became imbued with the spirit of Eliyahu HaNavi.

Eliyahu HaNavi is Nadav and Avihu.  Eliyahu HaNavi, who brought fire down from heaven, [did so] through being imbued with the spirit of Nadav and Avihu.  Then they brought down the fire, the fire that Nadav and Avihu were supposed to bring down in the Mishkan.  They brought it down with Eliyahu HaNavi on [Mount] Carmel, they brought down the fire from heaven.

Now everyone needs to bring down fire from heaven.

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