Taking Mysticism too far? The deaths of Nadav and Avihu.
As I write, this very night, I begin teaching a series of sessions on Kabbalah, Jewish Mysticism. A Pathway to open up heart space to connect with G8d, and by doing so, to return to your true essence. Further this practice is said to open a flow of loving kindness, and actually change the trajectory of the people around you, and ultimately things on earth. The death of two of Aaron’s children before G8d teaches me that anything beautiful can be taken too far, and anyone.
When the Presence and the Fire of G8d descended upon the newly completed Mishkan, Aaron’s two older sons, Nadav and Avihu grabbed their incense offerings and ran into danger, into the Mishkan. They were consumed by G8d’s fire for offering their own “strange fire” aish zarah in Hebrew. Midrash says they were intoxicated, and death their punishment. Perhaps they were intoxicated with a spiritual fervor that made them rush headlong into danger. Rashi says only their insides were burned. Just maybe they sought death as a union with the Holy One. Suicide not due to mental illness, is a death one is forbidden to mourn. Could that be why Aaron and the two remaining sons were forbidden to mourn?
We are, as a human race playing with fire, with powerful dangerous forces of the universe.
There is a reality beyond human games and machinations, and a Unity that we resonate with. We are stardust, we are light, each moment is eternal, each heartbeat a miracle, and our faith reinforces this with the exhortation to “choose life, vacharta BaChayim, I imagine the Holy One saying to Nadav and Avihu, or to the survivors of tragedy “don’t come in now, it’s too dangerous, just choose life, that you and your children might live, and when you need a lifeline you can become leaders that channel My light down. I will be with you.” LINK to sources.
Torah’s true message of life is the true fire, the one commanded, and death is the strange fire, never commanded. So choose life that you and your children can live.
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