APRIL 4 • 2024 | 45

RATIONALE FOR 
THEIR PUNISHMENT
Putting together clues in 
the biblical text, some 
speculated that they were 
guilty of entering the Holy of 
Holies; that they had given 
a ruling of their own accord 
without consulting Moses or 
Aaron; that they had become 
intoxicated; that they were 
not properly robed; that they 
had not purified themselves 
with water from the laver; 
that they were so self-
important that they had not 
married, thinking no woman 
was good enough for them; 
or that they were impatient 
for Moses and Aaron to die 
so they could become the 
leaders of Israel.
Some speculated that the 
sin for which they were 
punished did not happen 
on that day at all. It had 
occurred months earlier at 
Mount Sinai. The text says 
that Nadav and Avihu, along 
with 70 elders, ascended 
the mountain and “saw the 
God of Israel” (Ex. 24:10). 
God “did not raise his hand 
against the leaders of the 
Israelites; they saw God, and 
they ate and drank” (Ex. 
24:11). The implication 
is that they deserved 
punishment then for not 
averting their eyes, or for 
eating and drinking at so 
sacred an encounter. But 
God delayed the punishment 
so as not to cause grief on 
the day He made a covenant 
with the people. 
These are all midrashic 
interpretations: true, valid 
and important but not the 
plain sense of the verse. 
The text is clear. On each of 
the three occasions where 
their death is mentioned, 

the Torah says merely that 
they offered “unauthorized 
fire.” The sin was that they 
did something that had not 
been commanded. They did 
so, surely, for the highest 
motives. Moses said to Aaron 
immediately after they died 
that this is what God had 
meant when he said, “Among 
those who are near me I will 
be sanctified” (Lev. 10:3). A 
Midrash says that Moses was 
comforting his brother by 
saying, “They were closer to 
God than you or me.” 
The history of the word 
“enthusiasm,” though, helps 
us understand the episode. 
Nadav and Avihu were 
“enthusiasts,” not in the 
contemporary sense but in 
the sense in which the word 
was used in the 17th and 
18th centuries. Enthusiasts 
were people who, full of 
religious passion, believed 
that God was inspiring them 
to do deeds in defiance of 
law and convention. They 
were very holy, but they 
were also potentially very 
dangerous. 
David Hume, in particular, 
saw that enthusiasm in 
this sense is diametrically 
opposed to the mindset of 
priesthood. In his words, “all 
enthusiasts have been free 
from the yoke of ecclesiastics 
and have expressed great 
independence of devotion; 
with a contempt of forms, 
ceremonies and traditions.”
Priests understand the 
power, and thus the potential 
danger, of the sacred. That 
is why holy places, times 
and rituals must be guarded 
with rules, the way a nuclear 
power station must be 
protected by the most careful 
insulation. Think of the 

accidents that have occurred 
when this has failed: 
Chernobyl, for example, 
or Fukushima in Japan in 
2011. The results can be 
devastating and lasting.
To bring unauthorized 
fire to the Tabernacle might 
seem a small offense, but 
a single unauthorized act 
in the realm of the holy 
causes a breach in the laws 
around the sacred that can 
grow in time to a gaping 
hole. Enthusiasm, harmless 
though it might be in some 
of its manifestations, can 
quickly become extremism, 
fanaticism and religiously 
motivated violence. That is 
what happened in Europe 
during the wars of religion in 
the 16th and 17th centuries, 
and it is happening in some 
religions today. 
As David Hume observed: 
“Human reason and even 
morality are rejected [by 
enthusiasts] as fallacious 
guides, and the fanatic 
madman delivers himself 
over blindly” to what 
he believes to be Divine 
inspiration, but what may 
in fact be overheated self-
importance or frenzied rage.
We now understand in 
detail that the human brain 
contains two different 
systems, what Daniel 
Kahneman calls “thinking 
fast and slow.” The fast brain, 
the limbic system, gives rise 
to emotions, particularly in 
response to fear. The slow 
brain, the prefrontal cortex, 
is rational, deliberative 
and capable of thinking 
through the long-term 
consequences of alternative 
courses of action. It is no 
accident that we have both 
systems. Without instinctive 

responses triggered by 
danger we would not survive. 
But without the slower, 
deliberative brain we would 
find ourselves time and again 
engaging in destructive and 
self-destructive behavior. 
Individual happiness and 
the survival of civilization 
depend on striking a delicate 
balance between the two.
Precisely because it gives 
rise to such intense passions, 
the religious life needs the 
constraints of law and ritual, 
the entire intricate minuet of 
worship, so the fire of faith is 
contained, giving light and a 
glimpse of the glory of God. 
Otherwise, it can eventually 
become a raging inferno, 
spreading destruction and 
claiming lives. 
After many centuries in 
the West, we have tamed 
enthusiasm to the point 
where we can think of it as 
a positive force. We should 
never forget, however, that it 
was not always so. 
That is why Judaism 
contains so many laws and 
so much attention to detail 
— and the closer we come to 
God, the more we need. 

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks 

was chief rabbi of the United Hebrew 

Congregations of the Commonwealth, 

1991-2013. His teachings can be found 

at rabbisacks.org. 

QUESTIONS 
TO PONDER

Have you ever seen 
enthusiasm taken too far?

How do the laws of Judaism 
contain and regulate religious 
enthusiasm?

Is there room in Judaism, 
beyond Halachah, for religious 
enthusiasm?