The Daily Chizzuk of Moreinu HaRav Eliezer Berland shlit”a – Why couldn’t Eliyahu HaNavi be like Moshe Rabbeinu?
So now we are discussing Nadav and Avihu. What is the meaning of this that the sons of Aharon said, “When will these two elders die?” (Sanhedrin 52a).
They said, “We’re tired already of these elders. We don’t have any strength – every day they’re just talking words of Torah. We don’t have any strength for these elders. When will they die?”
How is it possible to explain this?
Elazar and Aharon, Nadav and Avihu ascend, ascend, ascend to Mount Sinai, ascend to heaven.
Moshe waits for six days on the mountain until a Heavenly voice emerges and tells him, “Ascend to God.” On the seventh day, Hashem calls to him. That is to say that for six days he waited, and on the seventh day, the Heavenly voice emerged.
“And Moshe ascended the mountain and the cloud covered the mountain” (Shemot 24:15). “The cloud covered it for six days” (ibid. 16) – six days Moshe waits on the mountain. Moshe doesn’t reach the peak; he doesn’t reach the top of the mountain. He still hasn’t entered the cleft of the rock, to the seventh firmament. He was on the seventh firmament.
Moshe stands on the mountain for six days, in the midst of the fog without eating, without drinking, without sleeping. Eliyahu HaNavi says, “I also did not eat; I also did not sleep.”
Hashem answers Eliyahu: “You could have not eaten for a billion days, but you cannot be Moshe. You may not eat, not sleep, but I’m not impressed by your fasts. Moshe is something else. Moshe turned into nothingness.”
Moshe became nothingness.
