Achrei Mos - What Was the Sin of the Sons of Aharon?

00:00 We see that the great chossid Reb Hillel of Paritch, one of the early chassidim, was among the foremost chassidim of the Mitteler Rebbe. As we know from the stories of those generations, Reb Hillel came to the Alter Rebbe but did not merit to see him face to face. Afterward, he came to the Mitteler Rebbe. When Reb Hillel became close to Chassidus, he was already a great man, a holy man, a spiritual person. So much so that, as chassidim relate, when he was still a small child of two or three, his father, Reb Meir, brought him to Reb Mottele of Chernobyl. Reb Hillel of Paritch’s father, Reb Meir, was a chossid of Reb Mottele of Chernobyl. His father brought him to Reb Mottele, and the child was little, two years old. When he saw the holy tzaddik Reb Mottele, he began to tremble and cried, “Za, za, za, za,” sounding like the word for “fire.” Reb Mottele said that the child saw things an ordinary child could not see. He saw the Shechinah resting upon the tzaddik, who possessed ruach hakodesh. And he said that a large part of Russia would rest upon this Jew. So we see that Reb Hillel, from the time he was born, even as a little child, was an elevated person.

01:32 His shoulder was slightly bent. His father asked for a blessing, and Reb Mottele said that his shoulder was bent a little because he was carrying perhaps half or a third of the burden of Russia, or of Ukraine, on his shoulders. And so it indeed was: throughout the years that followed, Reb Hillel was the emissary who had to travel among the settlements for a year, or half a year, passing through all the towns where the chassidim had settled. There he would teach Chassidus and serve as a mashpia. As is known, the details appear in the stories of those generations. And here we grasp one of the things Reb Hillel wanted to emphasize: What was the great and holy innovation that the Alter Rebbe and the Mitteler Rebbe gave him through their Chassidus? There are two sayings that the Rebbeim relate from Reb Hillel when he began learning Tanya, when he began learning Chassidus, and when he became close to the Alter Rebbe and later to the Mitteler Rebbe. One saying is what Reb Hillel said when he learned Tanya: Until he learned Tanya, he thought he had already attained the level of a tzaddik. Judging by his service of Hashem and his spiritual standing, he believed

02:54 that his service of Hashem—for he was a holy man, a spiritual person—was on the level of a tzaddik. When he learned Tanya, the Book of the Beinoni, he realized and said, “Da lo tzaddik.” “Da lo tzaddik”—“da lo” in Russian means “who knows”; it is out of the question, it is impossible, it is not at all within reach. “Da lo tzaddik”—certainly not a tzaddik; if only he could be a beinoni, if only he could at least be the beinoni the Alter Rebbe means in Tanya: a person whose thought, speech, and action are as they should be, in keeping with “For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it,” and all the explanations set out in the Book of the Beinoni, the holy Tanya. That is one saying. And there is another saying that the Rebbe cites in a sicha: Reb Hillel of Paritch said that before he came to the Alter Rebbe, before he began learning Tanya and Chassidus, he looked at himself, at the fact that he had a body, and saw that the body and the animal soul, with all the bad character traits and unrestrained desires, all came from the animal soul, from the body that conceals and obscures and gets in the way. So he developed within himself, stirred up and built within himself, an intense hatred of the body, of its physical substance, because he saw the body’s physical substance as the source of all the shortcomings and all

04:20 the bad character traits and all the desires and all these things that create everything that interferes with a person’s service of Hashem. Consequently, he tried to break the body, to fast and practice self-denial and do all sorts of things to weaken the body’s physical substance. Once he began learning Chassidus, and particularly when he learned Chabad Chassidus, the Alter Rebbe taught him the principle of “From my flesh I behold G-d”: Chassidus explains that the human body, specifically, is an analogy for G-dliness. Every limb and every detail of the human body is an analogy through which one can understand G-dliness. Yes, one needs to grasp how the soul and body are connected, matter and form, the physical and the spiritual; how the human body, in all its details, is structured as a vessel for the soul. And the limbs of the body are “From my flesh I behold G-d”—the analogy the Alter Rebbe uses to understand the loftiest and deepest matters of G-dliness. In other words, “from my flesh”—a person can contemplate the flesh of his body, his own body and soul, and through them understand matters of G-dliness—and then the body becomes for him [unclear]. As he put it, the body became for him like a magnifying glass, like binoculars, through which one can look at things that, from a distance, one can

05:41 see up close. Yes, that is to say, for him the body became, as it were, a magnifying glass. When a person wants to see something very far away and wants to see it up close, he uses a kind of magnifying glass, binoculars, and can thereby see something distant as large and close. So too, a person’s very being, his body and soul, is an analogy for G-dliness; it brings G-dliness closer to him. This led him to have respect and to adopt an [unclear] perspective on the whole matter of a person’s existence, his body and soul. He began to cherish the body, to want the body to be healthy, rather than afflict it with fasts and self-denial. On the contrary, as in the well-known principle of the Baal Shem Tov, that the body [unclear], the work must be done with the body, and the body must be made into a vessel for G-dliness. And on this subject, [unclear] in Parshas Acharei: “After the death of the two sons of Aharon, when they drew near before Hashem, and they died.” Parshas Acharei Mos opens with the service of the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur, throughout that holy day, and the Torah recounts every detail and fine point. On this holy day, a day of “you shall afflict yourselves,” when the Kohen Gadol enters the innermost chamber, with all the details of the service

07:05 of the incense and the offerings, and the service the Kohen Gadol performed on that holy day—the account begins with the words “After the death of the two sons of Aharon, when they drew near before Hashem, and they died.” The Torah tells us that the instructions, commandments, and guidance from Hakadosh Boruch Hu about how to conduct oneself on Yom Kippur came after “the death of the two sons of Aharon”—two of Aharon the Kohen’s sons had died. “When they drew near before Hashem”—they wanted to draw near before Hashem, to draw close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu—“and they died.” Afterward, Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to Aharon the Kohen, “With this shall Aharon enter the Holy Place,” and “He shall not enter the Holy Place at any time.” From this we learn about the sin of Aharon’s sons: that they [unclear] into the Holy of Holies, entering there [unclear]. “When they drew near before Hashem,” and consequently, “they died.” This was [unclear] a sin; it was something undesirable. And to correct it, the entire order of service is needed: “He shall not enter the Holy Place at any time” and “With this shall Aharon enter,” once a year, and all the details of entering. [unclear] That does not sound, does not sound [unclear]. On the contrary, this is [unclear] an increase of life, [unclear] according to the commentators; I am speaking on the basis of [unclear]. And this is a well-known question: What is the reason [unclear]? Regarding Aharon’s sons, what does it mean?

08:37 [unclear] I want to know what this is. Also regarding the sin of Aharon’s sons [unclear]. And look, [unclear]. First of all, what does it have to do with this at all? After all, we are speaking here about these matters. If so, the Yom Kippur service needs to be presented [unclear]—what is the connection? And this is the Torah reading for Yom Kippur. [unclear] That this is what Yom Kippur is all about. On the holy day, we read [unclear] Aharon’s sons. What is the connection between that and knowing the story of what happened to Aharon’s two sons, which was undesirable? [unclear]. What does it have to do with us? Second, these were people [unclear]. What do we learn from these matters for each person’s service of Hashem? And third, what is the connection between the interpretations: What was the sin, what did they do? There are many explanations of what the sin of Aharon’s sons was. One is that they issued a halachic ruling in the presence of their teacher; Rashi cites [unclear] that they stated a halachic ruling in the presence of their teacher—that is one sin. Second, they entered the Beis Hamikdash after drinking wine, as the verses in Parshas Shemini imply. They also lacked the required garments; they did not have the priestly garments they were supposed to wear. They had not married or had children. There are all sorts of reasons, explanations, and Midrashim, but [unclear].

10:12 In Parshas Shemini it says that they offered a strange fire. What does that mean? What happened here? On the plain level, they offered a strange fire. There are Midrashim about it, but what is the plain meaning? In Parshas Acharei Mos it says, “When they drew near before Hashem, they died.” On the contrary, they drew near to Hashem. What was wrong with that? Closeness to Hashem is a good thing. The Ohr Hachaim raises this question. What does “when they drew near before Hashem” mean? What was the flaw in it? At first glance, it was a good thing. What was the sin, and what is the answer? This is a lesson, a clear teaching, for every one of us. First, let us bring the well-known sacred teachings. The Ohr Hachaim discusses this whole matter, and it is not simple either. Aharon’s sons were lofty souls, and that is the meaning of the verse, “Through those who are close to Me, I will be sanctified.” When it happened, Moshe Rabbeinu said, “This is what Hashem spoke, saying: ‘Through those who are close to Me, I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be honored.’” They were among those close to Him and honored by Him. As Rashi says, “Now I see that they are greater than you and me.” Moshe Rabbeinu certainly meant that their path was on a lofty level. So what does it mean? They were lofty souls, with a powerful ratzo—a yearning to rise toward Hashem.

11:57 Their souls had a yearning for Hashem, a great thirst for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. They were on such a level that when there was an intense revelation of G-dliness on the eighth day of the inauguration, fire descended from heaven. What a tremendous thirst to be consumed in G-dliness, to become one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu and no longer remain in a body! And this was the sin of Aharon’s sons: they longed for attachment, delight, sweetness, and kisses, as the Ohr Hachaim describes it in all those terms. Yes, there was tremendous attachment, delight, sweetness, and closeness. What was missing? Their love was so great that it brought them to the point of the soul’s expiration. They were consumed like a candle, and their souls—this is the meaning of giving up their lives—departed from them and blazed toward G-dliness. That is something holy, but here lay the sin: “When they drew near before Hashem, they died.” The Ohr Hachaim says that the thirst and the drawing near themselves are great forms of avodah, a lofty level, the avodah of tzaddikim and great people. But the shortcoming, the sin, was “they died”: they were consumed to the point of the soul’s expiration. And that is not the intent. For Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not want a person to ascend and leave the world. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants him to be here below, to work with his body and his animal soul, and to make of his body, the world, and his own personal circumstances—

14:02 his body and his world—a dwelling for Him, blessed be He. That is the ultimate purpose. In their case there was “they died,” and that is no longer the intent. This helps us understand the example of Rabbi Akiva: “He entered in peace and emerged in peace.” The Gemara relates that “four entered the Pardes.” The Gemara in Chagigah says that four Tannaim entered the Pardes, and each entered lofty realms and levels of G-dliness, Kabbalah, the sefiros, and attachment to Hashem. Only one of them fulfilled the intent completely: Rabbi Akiva, who “entered in peace and emerged in peace.” He entered in the right way and also emerged from it. In other words, he had ratzo and shov together. Ratzo is the thirst: the heart, the soul, are drawn toward G-dliness. It is a very holy thing, a very important thing. A Jew needs to have this ratzo. But after the ratzo, after the thirst, one needs to know how to bring these things back down here, into the body. As Sefer Yetzirah says, “If your heart runs, return to the One,” or “return to the place”—there are two versions in Sefer Yetzirah. In simple terms, it means: “If your heart runs”—a Jew feels a stirring of ratzo, of thirst, of yearning,

15:18 the sensation, the feeling of thirst, of the soul longing to expire, the desire to be drawn to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “If your heart runs,” the heart is drawn toward G-dliness, but “return to the One.” That is a good thing, but “return to the One.” The “One” is Hashem’s oneness, “Hashem is One and His name is One”: the alef, ches, and daled—bringing the revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu into the seven heavens, the earth, and the four directions of the world, revealing His G-dliness in the world. And when “your heart runs,” a Jew needs to know: What does Hakadosh Boruch Hu want? I want to be absorbed in G-dliness, like a flame seeking to be absorbed in a great fire; I want to become one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But what does Hakadosh Boruch Hu want? Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants “a dwelling for Himself in the lower realms.” And that is what the verse tells us: “He must not enter the holy place at all times.” A Jew should not always be running toward holiness. There must be thirst, there must be attachment, but the result must be that he brings the revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu back down below and makes it into a dwelling for Him, blessed be He. Especially in the morning, at night—that is, in physical matters—to make of physicality, of the world, a dwelling for Him, blessed be He, a vessel for G-dliness. And that is the lesson. Incidentally, we are speaking here of loftier levels, but the lesson for every Jew involves both ends. Both are needed: the thirst for G-dliness. A Jew certainly needs to have the impulse of “when they drew near before Hashem,” the desire to draw close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. On the other hand, the other end must also remain: knowing

16:44 that Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s desire is for a dwelling in the lower realms. So one must take all that thirst, all that longing and attachment, and put it into physical matters, physical actions, Torah and mitzvos performed physically. One must work with the body, with a healthy body, and make of the world and the body a dwelling for Hakadosh Boruch Hu through the avodah of Torah and mitzvos, as explained in Shulchan Aruch, in Torah, and in the teachings of Chassidus, each approach to avodah and its particular role. But here a question arises that a person might ask himself: At first glance, how do these two things go together? If the Torah says not to become absorbed in thirst, but to remain connected to the physical world, in a state of shov—doing here in the world what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants, not climbing to heaven, not becoming absorbed in thirst or other matters; living in the world and doing what Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants—well, that is one approach. Can one fulfill both sides that way? Conversely, if we say there must only be ratzo, that a person must always be filled with thirst and love—that too is one approach. But it is much harder to live with both ends. On the one hand, we are told that there must be thirst, that there must be attachment. A Jew certainly needs the “when they drew near before Hashem.” He needs to be in a state of love and attachment, to awaken an inner thirst within himself, an inner avodah. That is, he needs to contemplate the greatness of

18:03 Hashem and awaken love for Hashem, “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” There certainly needs to be this aspect of “when they drew near before Hashem.” That is one side. On the other hand, we are told that we must return to shov, to reveal G-dliness here below. It is hard to live in practice with both ends at once. How do we serve Hashem this way? There is a very interesting teaching from Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, author of Kedushas Levi, in Parshas Acharei Mos. It gives us an explanation of the whole subject. The Kedushas Levi asks: Where is the idea that “they ruled on a matter of halachah in the presence of their teacher” hinted at? One of the views brought by the commentators, which Rashi also cites in Parshas Shemini, is that one of the sins of Aharon’s sons was that “they ruled on a matter of halachah in the presence of their teacher.” In other words, they lacked bittul, proper respect and deference to Moshe Rabbeinu, when they spoke about matters of halachah in his presence, as described in Parshas Shemini. The Berditchever asks: Where is that written in the words “when they drew near before Hashem”? He says that the verse means this: A Jew needs to know that when he wants to draw close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu—“when they drew near before Hashem”—when a person wants attachment, devotion, kisses, and, as we say, closeness and attachment to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, when he wants to rise, to become holy, and to draw close to G-dliness, the way to draw close to

19:39 Hakadosh Boruch Hu must pass through the Rebbe, through the tzaddik, through Moshe Rabbeinu. That is how Hakadosh Boruch Hu established the order of the world: there is an intermediary who connects, “I stand between Hashem and you to tell you the word of Hashem.” When a Jew wants to draw close to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the only way to do so properly is through the one who says “I stand between,” through Moshe Rabbeinu, who is the collective soul. He is the intermediary who connects the soul with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. As explained at length in Tanya, chapter 2, and as the Rebbe also explains at length through the analogy of how it must work: there are collective souls, the leaders of the thousands of Israel, who are the brain, and they connect all the limbs. Every Jew is like a limb; there are limbs in the head, limbs in the body, and limbs in the foot, down to the toenails. Every soul corresponds to one of the limbs, one of the parts of the body. All of them are connected to the brain, and the brain connects to [unclear]. And this is also the idea of hiskashrus: a Jew needs to know that all the branches—every Jew is like a branch—must be connected to the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life refers to the tzaddikim of the generation, the leaders of the Jewish people. And through the branches’ connection to the root, to the Tree of Life, to the tzaddik, he connects them to

21:06 Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And that was the sin of Aharon’s sons. Their sin was that they ruled on a matter of halachah in the presence of their teacher, in the sense that the holy [unclear] explains it: they wanted to “draw near before Hashem” without going through Moshe Rabbeinu. One must simply obey Moshe Rabbeinu and do as he teaches. They thought: We are holy people, holy souls, lofty souls—as Nadav and Avihu indeed were. We can do this ourselves; we do not need to come to the Rebbe. And because their “drawing near before Hashem” was without a Rebbe, “and they died” followed. This is the meaning of the verse: “and they died” came because they had ratzo without shov, a yearning to ascend without a return. They wanted to rush toward G-dliness, but they did not do it in the right way, because they did not want to obey Moshe Rabbeinu, who teaches and shows the path of divine service—how to connect the soul with the body as Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. And that is what the verse says. As the Rebbe explains the verses in the weekly parsha: “Hashem spoke to Moshe: Speak to Aharon”—before “after the death of Aharon’s two sons,” it first says, “Hashem spoke to Moshe: Speak to Aharon.” There is Moshe Rabbeinu, and Moshe Rabbeinu conveys Hashem’s word and tells Aharon the Kohen how he must conduct himself. For “after the death of Aharon’s two

22:26 sons,” we saw that they had a good desire, the desire to “draw near before Hashem,” the desire for closeness to Hashem—and that is indeed how it should be. But if one wants to do this without a Rebbe, then “and they died” follows: one can reach a state in which the soul expires, and that is not at all what was intended. It is a sin. Therefore, we connect ourselves to Moshe Rabbeinu, who gives us the manner and the path for our divine service, specifically the true path that Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants. When there is bittul to the tzaddik, to the nasi, of whom it is said, “I stand between Hashem and you to tell you Hashem’s word”—a tzaddik and nasi wholly devoted to G-d’s will—he can give the right judgment about how to temper the ratzo so that shov will follow. It must not lead, G-d forbid, to the separation of the soul from the body, but on the contrary, to greater vitality in the body and in serving Hashem: a healthy body and a healthy soul. And the shov, too, must not be such that, G-d forbid, this world pulls a person down into material and physical concerns and [unclear], into kelipah, the sitra achra, and the desires of this world. On the contrary, he must have proper control over the concerns of the body, so that the body

23:43 can attain closeness to G-dliness in the right way. And that is achieved specifically through this connection between a chossid and the Rebbe. That is what the verse tells us in the weekly parsha. So the lesson we learn from the parsha is a wonderful one, relevant to everyone’s divine service. It is the right balance that must be present in serving Hashem. On the one hand, a Jew is expected to have “drawing near before Hashem”—thirst and closeness. This comes through studying Chassidus, contemplating Hashem’s greatness, and the service of prayer. He contemplates G-dliness, and that contemplation awakens love of Hashem within him. And his love of Hashem is “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might,” even at the risk of going completely beyond his limits. At the same time, it is done in a healthy way. The point is not for it to bring him to a state of disconnection from the world. On the contrary, he learns how to [unclear], to be a soul in a healthy body and make the world a dwelling place for Him, blessed be He. And this right balance can be attained specifically when there is proper devotion to Moshe Rabbeinu. By Divine Providence, we always read this parsha during Sefiras HaOmer, whose whole theme is

25:02 precisely this. And so, by Divine Providence, we always study these ideas during Sefiras HaOmer. For in Sefiras HaOmer we see both of these elements. On the one hand, Sefiras HaOmer is a time of thirst, a time of longing. As is well known, the whole reason for counting the Omer, as cited in the name of the Ran, is that the Jewish people longed and thirsted for the revelation of Matan Torah. So they counted the days: When will we finally reach Matan Torah? That is the movement of thirst. At the same time, what is the work of Sefiras HaOmer? [unclear] The distinctive point is that Sefiras HaOmer is connected specifically with the body. The Omer is animal food, taken from barley, and the work is specifically to take the body and the animal soul, refine and purify them, and make them into vessels fit to receive the light of Torah. This is also connected with this period, as the Gemara says about Rabbi Akiva’s students. After all, the period of Sefiras HaOmer is connected with Rabbi Akiva’s students. What happened with Rabbi Akiva’s students—what does it mean? What was their sin? Chassidus explains the inner dimension of this: they had ratzo,

26:21 but they did not have shov. They had ratzo toward G-dliness, they had thirst, but it was not in the right way. That was the sin of Rabbi Akiva’s students: they “did not treat one another with respect.” Chassidus explains: What does “did not treat one another with respect” mean? They had a powerful thirst for G-dliness, a powerful love, a powerful ratzo and attraction to G-dliness, but each one’s thirst went together with his own [unclear]. So they could not connect with one another. When there is proper love, the right thing, [unclear], there is proper bittul, putting oneself aside in the right way. Then each person can see the other’s qualities and find a way to connect with him. But when a person is caught up in a movement of thirst and ratzo, he feels only his own delight, his own thirst, his own path, his own feelings, and his own way of serving Hashem. Then he cannot see the qualities of another Jew. That is how “they did not treat one another with respect” came about. And this is the correction: during Sefiras HaOmer, we learn from Rabbi Akiva’s students

27:39 that there must specifically be “love your fellow as yourself” in the right way, in a healthy way. There must be proper integration. Yes, an integration of ratzo with shov, of one Jew with another, an integration of the middos—chesed within gevurah, gevurah within chesed—as we say during Sefiras HaOmer. And this is possible specifically when there is genuine devotion, genuine bittul. This is what we say in Pirkei Avos during the weeks of Sefiras HaOmer. We begin with “Moshe received the Torah from Sinai.” A Jew must know that there is Moshe Rabbeinu—and, of course, the Moshe of every generation. And Moshe received the Torah from Sinai. [unclear] Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu received the Torah from Sinai, and Sinai represents humility. It is specifically through bittul that one can have the right approach, the right balance, so that the thirst takes a healthy form. This will bring—it will not diminish the reality of things, but will bring a revelation of G-dliness down into the world. There will be a healthy body with a healthy soul. [unclear] And the Rebbe says that this will give everyone the familiar wish: May you have a healthy summer [unclear]. May this truly be our freedom, the Geulah, even now. And may the month of Nissan set the tone for the entire year, so that it will be a year of Geulah. May it actually come soon: the true and complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu. And may it be speedily in our days, [unclear] the service of the Kohen Gadol in the Beis Hamikdash, in the third Beis Hamikdash, which will be built speedily in our days, amen.