It gets me every time. After all the sacrifices – one after another, week after week – lies three verses that will literally tear your heart out. Here, in Parashat Shmini, almost halfway through Leviticus, a tragedy of unspeakable dimensions occurs in a space so fast you could blink and miss it. Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s two eldest sons, next in line for the High Priesthood, are consumed in fire in front of the entirety of the Israelites. Moses and Aaron, and the rest of the community are left reeling.
This is life at its most raw – the normal day to day forever changed instantaneously. And, while Nadab and Abihu are barely footnotes in the list of Biblical characters, they are stand-ins for human suffering and loss. They are ultimate reminders not to take our existence for granted. The day they die is the day of 9/11, the crash of flight 3407, or, most recently, the Parkland shooting. The day they die is that unexpected fall, the horrific accident, cataclysmic event.
This is the fear I have every time I pick up the phone or turn on the news – What message is going to be on the other end? What has happened that will ever change the way I see the world? For, as challenging as normal life can be, there are times when we would do anything to have a day without a significant event, when boring is beautiful.
This past Monday morning, an employee asked what I had in store for the rest of the day. I replied, “Errands.” To which she offered her sympathy, but I told her I like errands. To the souls of Nadab and Abihu, wherever you are, thank you for the wakeup call. No you definitely cannot snooze on Leviticus, nor on life for that matter.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex