The Stories
Yesterday we read in shul the story of the death of Nadav and Avihu. Someone at my table on Friday evening mentioned that the story seemed very negative. Those words lodged in my mind until the next morning as I was reading the Haftorah for that week which talks about the return of the Aron (Ark) to Israel and the death of Uza when he reached out to the Aron. The story continues by showing us of the great blessing the Aron brought in the home of Oved Edom HaGiti as well as the celebration that followed when Dovid followed up on his plans to bring the Aron home. That part doesn't seem too negative.
What is really going on in these two stories? The fact that the story of Uza is chosen as the Haftorah shows us that there is a connection between the two stories. What is it?
Filtering of God's Light
One of the most significant processes of Creation was that of God's hiding his manifest presence. Had He not done so we would not have the ability to exist as independent entities. Only by filtering His Infinite Light an innumerable number of times is there room for us to exist. Those who delve into the deepest secrets of Kabbalah, if they are not properly prepared beforehand run the risk of lacking proper grounding. If they then peer behind the walls built around God's light and see more than they are capable of handling, they can find their souls sucked out of their bodies and reunited with God.
A classic example of this is the story of the four sages who entered the Pardes. Ben Azzai died, the others were severely injured. Only Rabbi Akiva who had sufficient grounding was capable of withstanding the experience.
The Sin at Sinai
At Mt. Sinai the Torah refers to those who ויחזו את האלוקים ויאכלו וישתו, and they saw God and they ate and drank. These people went beyond the boundaries established by God at Mt. Sinai and experienced God on a deeper level than they were meant to. in reality their souls should have left them, but God kept them whole for the time being. ואל אצילי בני ישראל לא שלח ידו And to the Great people in Israel God did not send out His hand. Our Sages understand that these people were Nadav and Avihu.
God bided his time until they repeated their error. At the dedication of the משכן (Tabernacle) they once again strayed deeper into the experience of God than that which they were qualified for. They came in with a strange fire, a desire that was foreign to where they were truly holding. our sages said that they were guilty of not consulting with Moshe as to how they should conduct themselves. Had they asked him, he would have warned them that they lacked the proper grounding for what they were attempting. They were שתויי יין, drunk in the literal sense. But יין is intimately connected to סוד (they share the same Gematria) and they allowed themselves to delve to deep into the Kabbalistic secrets. Their souls connected to the Infinity of God and left their physical bodies.
The Ark
This scene repeated itself 500 years later as the Ark was being carried and Uza walked along. most people assume that Uza stuck out his hand as the oxen stumbled and the Aron began to slip. But a careful reading of the verses shows that they don't say that. The verse says וישלח עזה אל ארון האלוקים, it doesn't have the word יד in the verse. I believe it is telling us that when Uza saw the Aron's ability to carry itself, that it had slipped itself off of the oxen and was carrying itself, he was drawn into this great manifestation of God's miracle. He was drawn into the Aron in a spiritual sense, and his soul left his body as well.
God was upset there because Uza had strayed beyond his zone of safety, but breaking the barriers of God's walls and peering into the Infinite Light can carry one's soul into that Light.
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