Exodus 16,1 “after the death of two of Aaron’s son when ‎they came (too) near to the Presence of Hashem and died (as a ‎result).” There is a disagreement between Rabbi Eliezer ‎and Rabbi Joshua concerning the precise meaning of our verse. ‎Rabbi Eliezer holds that these two sons of Aaron were guilty of ‎giving halachic rulings in the presence of their teachers, i.e. ‎pre-empting them. Rabbi Joshua holds that their sin consisted in ‎entering sacred precincts in a state of drunkenness. (Compare ‎‎Vayikra Rabbah 20,7 and 9 respectively)‎‏ ‏We need to ‎understand how Rabbi Eliezer deduced that the sons of Aaron ‎issued a halachic ruling without consulting their teachers ‎from the words: ‎בקרבתם לפני ה' וימותו‎. If the reason they died was ‎that they had not asked permission from Moses or Aaron to enter ‎the sacred grounds, why did the Torah omit mentioning the most ‎important reason for their death? Rabbi Joshua’s claim that they ‎were drunk is also apparently unsupported by the text.‎ In order to better understand the opinion that these sons of ‎Aaron were guilty of bypassing their teachers in not asking ‎permission to enter the holy precincts of the Tabernacle, we must ‎first understand why a sin described as failing to ask permission ‎from their teachers should carry the death penalty at the hands ‎of G’d. After all, they had not given an erroneous ruling, so that ‎their sin would seem to have been only “bad manners.”‎ We must understand that when G’d created the world He also ‎created boundaries between different domains both on earth and ‎in the celestial regions. Any angel that enters a domain that is not ‎his without express permission to do so, is immediately burned ‎up. The chain of the domains in the universe begins (top) with ‎the domain of the angels known as Seraphim, the domain ‎containing G’d’s throne. The next lower domain is the domain of ‎the angels known as chayot. The next lower level in the ‎celestial domains is that known as ophanim. Starting with ‎the next “lower” domain we enter the world of tzimtzum, ‎described in the Kabbalistic texts as the 10 emanations, ‎ספירות‎. If ‎any angel enters a domain above the level he has been assigned, ‎he simply disappears into nothingness.‎ There is a similar system of varying domains among the ‎Jewish people. G’d had first condensed His brilliance so that Moses ‎could bear it. Moses in turn had to condense it further for the ‎protection of his brother Aaron when he spoke to him. This ‎process continued with Aaron’s sons followed by the elders, ‎followed again by the prophets, and thence eventually comprised ‎all the Israelites. We know this on the authority of the Talmud in ‎‎Eyruvin 54 in the paragraph commencing with the words: ‎כיצד סדר משנה?‏‎, “what was the order in which the Torah was ‎taught to the Israelite people originally?” The problem with ‎Aaron’s sons was that they wanted to skip a rank to a higher level ‎than that which had been assigned to them. They had not ‎bothered to ask either Moses or Aaron who belonged to a higher ‎domain permission to do so. They simply “presented themselves” ‎before G’d without having obtained the credentials that would ‎have made them welcome. As a result they were removed from ‎earth. What happened to them could equally have happened to ‎any other Israelite on a lower level who had presumed to ‎‎“promote” himself without the blessing of his spiritual mentors. ‎The principle known in the Talmud as ‎המורה הלכה בפני רבו‎, ‎‎“teaching halachic rulings in the presence of one’s ‎teachers” i.e. trying to jumpstart closer relations to Hashem ‎without their mentors’ approval is a severe enough sin to warrant ‎the death penalty at the hands of G’d.‎ ‎ [When Pinchas, almost 40 years later did something, ‎which on the face of it appeared as similar, this was not only not ‎punishable but deserved reward as he was fully aware that he ‎risked his life by doing so, but he did not do so from a feeling of ‎superiority to his mentors but to save the lives of many ‎thousands of Israelites who were already becoming victims of a ‎plague that raged in the camp. (Numbers 25,6-8) ‎Ed.] After this tragic occurrence, the Torah, in order ‎to make this point clear once and for all, legislates that even the ‎High Priest Aaron, an intimate of G’d, allowed to pronounce the ‎holy name of G’d, should know that even he could not arbitrarily ‎choose when to invoke this intimacy and that he could enter the ‎holy of Holies in the Tabernacle only when invited to do so, or ‎when the ritual prescribed by the Torah for certain days in the ‎calendar made this an annual event. (Compare 15,2)‎

Let us now explore what caused the scholars who claimed ‎that these two sons of Aaron were drunk on the occasion ‎mentioned in Leviticus 10,1-3, to arrive at that conclusion.. At ‎first glance one shudders how these scholars could accuse these ‎אצילי בני ישראל‎, “these noble souls” amongst the Israelites of ‎having been guilty of such conduct when the Torah had not ‎spelled it out! ? Had not the Torah in Leviticus 10,8-11 spelled ‎out that entry into the Tabernacle in a state of inebriety is a ‎capital sin? How could these sons of Aaron have ignored this?‎ I believe we can find the answer to this question by ‎examining the text in Leviticus 10 more closely.‎ The words: ‎זה הדבר אשר צוה ה' לעשות וירא אליכם כבוד ה'‏‎, “this is ‎the thing that you must do in order that the glory of ‎‎Hashem will appear to you,” in that paragraph appear to be ‎superfluous, or at least not connected to the subject under ‎discussion. (Leviticus 9,6)‎ ‎Rashi, in commenting on Leviticus 9,23 near the end of ‎this paragraph where the Torah writes: ‎ויצאו ויברכו את העם‎, “they ‎came out (Moses and Aaron from the Tabernacle) and blessed the ‎people,” writes that during the seven preceding days of the ‎consecration rites for the Tabernacle the Shechinah had not ‎manifested itself so that the people had complained why they had ‎gone to such lengths to build the Tabernacle if after all this G’d ‎had not seen fit to take up residence among them. Moses told ‎them what they must do in order to merit that the ‎‎Shechinah would manifest itself amongst them again as ‎proof that the sin of the golden calf had been forgiven. He ‎explained that seeing that his brother Aaron, who was the High ‎Priest was more worthy than he, until Aaron had presented ‎sacrifices in the Tabernacle, G’d’s glory would not become ‎manifest. This is why in verse 24 we are told that Aaron ‎performed his duties as a result of which the Shechinah ‎manifested itself in that heavenly fire consumed the portions of ‎the sacrifices on the altar. There does not appear to be an allusion ‎to all this in the text of the Torah, so where did Rashi take ‎his exegesis from?‎ When man serves his Creator he experiences a feeling of great ‎pleasure as he is aware that he thereby provides pleasure for his ‎Creator. This is the allegorical meaning of Proverbs 10,1 ‎בן חכם ‏ישמח אב‎, “that an intelligent son provides pleasure for his father.” ‎This pleasure or joy is not limited to one domain in the universe ‎but spreads throughout the universe. A call goes out in all parts ‎of the universe to honour the person who, through his devoted ‎service to his Creator, has provided so much pleasure in the ‎whole universe. There is no greater pleasure than this.‎ However, seeing that we are aware of this, this reduces our ‎service to the Lord to one that is tied to the expectation of ‎reward. Maimonides in his hilchot teshuvah chapter 10 goes ‎so far as calling such service of G’d as being ‎שלא לשמה‎, “keeping ‎Torah commandments for ulterior motives.” The principal ‎purpose of pure service of the Lord is that it is performed in ‎recognition of the greatness of the Creator Who provides all ‎forms of life in this universe and Who has endowed us with souls ‎that contain Divine qualities.‎ We may well ask why no mention is made in the Torah of any ‎reward for performance of the Torah’s commandments that ‎accrues to the doer in the world beyond death of the body. ‎Reward in the ‎עולם הבא‎, the world to come, while discussed at ‎length by our sages, is not dealt with in the written Torah at all. ‎‎[The conclusion of the author’s paragraph is ‎missing.]‎

Leviticus 18,4. “you shall observe My social laws and ‎My statutes you shall guard carefully;” the “statutes” are ‎the commandments in the Torah concerning which the Torah did ‎not reveal why the Creator has commanded that we observe ‎them, neither do they commend themselves to our intellect. We ‎must remember that the true test of a Jew’s belief in G’d is if and ‎how he observes these statutes. If he keeps these statutes ‎meticulously he thereby refines his character. If one chooses to ‎perform only those commandments for which the Torah has ‎either provided a rationale, or concerning which we think that ‎we understand what G’d had in mind when He decreed them, one ‎demonstrates thereby that he does not have any intellect at all, ‎i.e. he will not even understand the true reason behind ‎commandments that he has chosen to observe. This is the true ‎meaning of the line: ‎את חקותי תשמרו‎. The Torah promises that if ‎we observe the statutes without knowing their reason our reward ‎will be that we will truly understand the ‎משפטים‎, the rules that ‎appear first and foremost to address themselves to the relations ‎between man and his fellow man. When the Torah wrote (18,5) ‎אשר יעשה אתם האדם וחי בהם‎, “which man is to perform in order ‎that he may live through them,” it alludes to this effect of ‎performing those commandments that we cannot understand..‎

Levitcus 18,6. “none of you shall come near anyone of ‎his own flesh to uncover nakedness; I am the Lord.” I ‎first wish to explain what King Solomon said in Proverbs 3,6 ‎בכל ‏דרכיך דעהו‎, “in all your ways you are to acknowledge Him.” ‎Solomon means that all our activities should have as their ‎ultimate aim to provide our Creator with satisfaction and ‎pleasure. When man marries a woman this should not merely be a ‎legal means of satisfying his sexual urges, but should be ‎fulfillment of the first commandment in the Torah. When having ‎marital relations with one’s wife, the object should not be to ‎satisfy one’s libido. The words: ‎איש איש אל כל שאר בשרו‎ refer to his ‎wife as being ‎שאר בשרו‎. The words: ‎לא תקרבו לגלות ערוה‎, mean that ‎when you engage in intimate relations with your wife you are not ‎do so only for the purpose of satisfying your sexual urges. The ‎reason why the verse concludes with the words: ‎אני ה'‏‎, is a ‎reminder that even while engaging in the most physical act, one ‎not only legally condoned by G’d but commanded by Him, you ‎should never forget that you are doing so in order to fulfill one of ‎His commandments.‎