Parsha Sh'mini

[Hannamarie.Tribe]

My sister has a Torah book that is very cool, in the back of the book it has what the sages say about each weeks Toarh portion. This week it had something I thought was very interesting. I was reading the section about when Aharon's son were killed and it gave a few different reasons as to WHY they were killed. Here they are:

One explanation is that they drank to much wine at the celebration, and entered the Mishkan drunk.
Another explanation is that they decided to light the fire on their own, and didn't ask permission from Moshe or Aharon.
Yet others say that they entered the Holy of Holies, where only the High Priest may enter (and only once a year on Yom Kippur).
But most of the authorities agree that the brothers' sin was that they brought a fire with them into the Mishkan, instead of waiting for G-d to send a fire that would consume the insence. By doing so, they showed their lack of faith in G-d.

I thought that these were so interesting! What do you think??? (BTW my sister's bible is the The Jewish Children's Bible. They're so cool!)

[defajo]

i was a little confused with that part. guess i agree with most of the authorities...

[Cherev Hatorah]

I would have to say I lean towards the last one, as the incense altar was outside the Holy of Holies. The unauthorized fire would have been a fire that they started on their own, and not the "fire of YH-VH" which was on the bronze altar.
Something we were reading the other day is how, in the same way we can't bring man-made fire in to the mishkan, or kindling a fire on the Shabbat, we can't make our own way of worshiping YH-VH, we have to worship His way, on His terms. We can't kindle the flame inside us and bring it before Him, we have to come before Him and let Him kindle the flame in us.
~Trent~

[Hannamarie.Tribe]

I think you put it perfectly Trent! And also, did you notice that after they were killed they still had to get rid of their bodies? I had always thought they had been engulfed in the flames. According to my Mom's bible (Soncino Press Pentateuch & Haftorahs) neither their bodies or their clothes were burnt! I find that to be quite amazing.

[Cherev Hatorah]

They imploded with fire! haha.
It's interesting to note that the Cohenim couldn't leave the tabernacle during their time of anointing, even when his son's died. And it's amazing that Aharon "kept silent" through that, that would have taken a lot of self-restraint, to not cry out because of the loss of his two sons. And I wonder, if he didn't cry out until his anointing was over, because he was still in the tabernacle. That would have been hard.