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Hebrew Classes
at MibrAsila
Summer Extension
by popular demand!
OPEN HOVSE
FOR PROSPECTIVE
NEW STUDENTS
TUESDAY, MAY 24 ❖ 6:30 PM
Hebrew Interactive Learning Center
Agency for Jewish Education Building
21550 West 12 Mile Road
Southfield, Michigan 48076
Summer classes are continuations of winter-spring
courses. New students are welcome to join if the level
is right for them. For a complete summer schedule
call the Midrasha Registrar, Sarah Pedell, at 354-1050.
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a beneficiary of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
LEAGUE OF
JEWISH WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS
OF GREATER DETROIT
cordially invites
the community to attend
OUR ANNUAL
INSTALLATION OF OFFICERS
Wednesday, May 18th
12:30 p.m. Dessert Reception
at
TEMPLE BETH EL
Located at 14 Mile Rd. & Telegraph Rd.
Entertainment by Vocalist
NAOMI GURT
Donations: $3.00 Please R.S.V.P.
JOANNE ZUROFF
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EVELYN NOVECK
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4k uL:4
Tragedies In History
Enrich Our Lives
RABBI AARON BERGMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
he Torah this week dis-
cusses the bizarre death of
Nadav and Avihu, two of
the sons of Aaron. Numbers
3:4 says, "Nadav and Avihu died
before God during their bringing
of strange fire before God in the
wilderness of Sinai. They had no
children." This passage raises
more questions than it answers.
What exactly is strange fire?
What was so terrible about Na-
dav and Avihu's actions? Did they
deserve what happened, or is it
even fair to ask the question?
Leviticus 6:1 begins to compli-
cate matters even further. "God
spoke to Moses after the death of
Aaron's two sons, when they
drew near in front of God and
died." There is no mention of their
bringing any fire, strange or not.
The cause and effect between
their drawing near and dying is
not clear.
It is quite possible that their
deaths were a terrible accident
because of a chemical reaction.
I had a student for conversion
who was a former altar boy. He
said that the usual preparation
of the incense for the church ser-
vice was to place the incense in
the pot first, and then add the
flame. One day he was in a hur-
ry and reversed the order. Flames
shot out of the pot and filled the
church sanctuary with smoke.
Keeping this in mind, let's look
at Leviticus 10:1, which explains
the event in more detail. "The
sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu,
each took his fire pot and placed
incense upon it and brought near
before God a strange fire which
God had not commanded. A fire
went out from before God and
consumed them and thy died be-
fore God." Here we see that they
added incense to the flame.
Therefore, it might be possible to
argue that if Nadav and Avihu
had been better chemists this dis-
aster could have been avoided.
Our rabbis of the Talmud,
though, came up with a number
of other possible explanations.
They say that Nadav and Avihu
died because they did not listen
to each other; they defied Moses
and Aaron's authority; they had
no children; they brought an im-
proper offering; they brought an
offering that God never request-
ed; they were drunk; they were
improperly dressed. All these put
the blame for their deaths
squarely on them.
T
Rabbi Bergman is a rabbi at
Beth Abraham Hillel Moses,
and is rabbi-in-residence at
Hillel Day School.
One source takes a complete-
ly different approach. Instead of
saying that Aaron's sons sinned,
it says they died to sanctify God's
name, to atone for the sins of oth-
ers.
What I find so touching is our
rabbis' desperate attempt to
make sense out of a tragedy.
What was unbearable was that
this tragedy had no meaning. Ei-
ther sinners get what they de-
serve, or the righteous die so we
may live.
The same is true for Jews
throughout history. One of our
most basic instincts as Jews is to
make sense of the tragedies in
our lives. When the Holy Tem-
ples in Jerusalem were destroyed
we said it was because of the sins
that we committed against each
other, or against God by aban-
doning the Torah.
When we confront the Holo-
caust, though, all comparable ra-
tionalizations fail. Our beloved
parents and grandparents did not
abandon the Torah, nor did they
betray each other. They were not
all saints, but they could never
Shabbat Bamidbar:
Numbers 4:21-7:89
Judges 13:2-25.
have committed a crime worthy
of such punishment. How can we
make sense of a God who re-
quires the slaughter of the inno-
cent, yet allows their slayers to
flourish?
Some people fine it more tol-
erable to believe in no God at all.
Some blame it all on the people
who did the murdering, and on
those who allowed it. Yet deep in
our hearts none of these answers
satisfies us. To say that the vic-
tims deserved what happened is
an abomination. To say that their
deaths atoned for our sins means
that we did something so horri-
ble that it required 6 million sa-
cred lives to pay for it. I cannot
believe this. When I see the atroc-
ities committed_ by the Arabs, the
Europeans and the Asian, I must
ask when do they pay? When do
the child abusers pay? When to
corrupt politicians pay?
I am forced to conclude that
the deaths of the innocent have
no meaning. Their lives, though,
still have supreme meaning. We
have all heard of the great acts of
heroism and resistance during
the Holocaust, but there are two