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Vayikra

and creation, Jewish tradition relates to the Hebrew letters as
shemini יִני ִמ ְׁש prototypes of spiritual energy, the building blocks through which the
world is constructed and maintained. As we learned in the portion
of Bereishit, God’s speaking the world into existence teaches us the
connection between Divine speech and the creative process.

The first letter in the Torah, a beit, is written especially large in our
£The Enigmatic Deaths The Enigmatic Deaths The Enigmatic Deaths Torah scrolls, and has the numerical value of two. This is a remez, a
££
of Nadav and A
of Nadav and Avihu
of Nadav and Avihuvihu hint, to the dualistic nature of the world: infinite and finite, spiritual
and physical, soul and body, life and death, day and night, man and
woman, sun and moon, and so forth. The question naturally arises:
why does the Torah begin with the second letter of the Hebrew
One of the Torah’s deepest stories is the tale of Nadav and Avihu’s alphabet, beit, and not the first letter, alef?
enigmatic deaths, as described in the portion of Shemini. This
story can be understood on many different levels, fueled by equally The Zohar answers with the following parable or derash (Introduction
authoritative, though seemingly contradictory, interpretations to the Zohar, 23). When God decided to create the world, all the
offered by the Sages and later commentators regarding the nature letters came to Him asking for the merit of being the first letter in
of their intentional or unintentional sin and the meaning of their the Torah. Each letter, beginning from the end of the alphabet,
deaths. The Torah tells the story in just three verses: came before God and argued that it should be first since a certain
word with positive connotations started with it. God countered these
The sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, each took his fire arguments one by one by explaining that certain words with negative
pan. They put fire in them and placed incense upon it, connotations also started with these letters. God disqualified all the
and they brought it before God, a strange fire that He had letters until the letter beit successfully argued that the people of the
not commanded them. A fire came forth from before God world would praise their Creator with the word baruch (blessed).
and consumed them, and they died before God. Moses Since the first letter of the alphabet, alef, had still not made its case,
said to Aaron: “Of this did God speak, saying: ‘I will be God now offered it a chance to argue, even though He had already
sanctified before those who are nearest Me; thus, I will be accepted the beit. The alef, instead of complaining that it had not
honored before the entire people.’” And Aaron was silent. been given a proper chance, answered that since the beit was already
(Leviticus 10:1-3) chosen, it would forego making an argument. God replied that since
the alef displayed such humbleness, it would merit becoming the first
While the text seems quite clear about the nature of Nadav and letter of “anochi,” the first word in the Ten Commandments.
Avihu’s sin – offering “a strange fire that He had not commanded
them” – the obscurity of the phrase “strange fire” and the fact that The two tablets containing the Ten Commandments were kept in
this tells us nothing about their motivation, left the field open to the ark in the Tabernacle’s Holy of Holies, and later in the Temple’s
many interpretations. Furthermore, Moses’ remarks to Aaron that Holy of Holies in Jerusalem. Even before Moses inaugurated the
God had told him that He would be sanctified by those closest Tabernacle, God had told him that He would speak to him from
to him and thus be honored among the people also raises many between the two cherubs on top of the ark. The Holy of Holies in
questions. Indeed, the Sages provided many reasons for Nadav and the Temple represents the central point, the spiritual vortex, around
Avihu’s behavior and explanations for what exactly they did wrong. which the entire world revolves. Alluding to the alef’s crucial role,

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