Acharei

The sicha for Acharei is in Vol. III of Likkutei Sichos.

On the opening verse of the parsha, “after the death of the two sons of Aharon, when they approached G-d, and they died” the Rebbe says, we need to understand why the Torah repeats “and they died” when it had already said “after the death of the two sons”. We know already that they died, why does the verse repeat “and they died”?

The Midrash brings several reasons why they died: because they went into the Holy of Holies, because they went into the Mishkan without wearing the garments a kohen is required to wear, because they hadn’t had children yet, and therefore were not fit to do the avodah, and finally because they hadn’t married and a kohen has to have a wife in order to serve in the Mishkan.

However we need to understand how is that Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aharon, should commit such sins. The Sages tell us that Moshe Rabbeinu said to Aharon after they had died, that he knew that in the dedication of the Mishkan, the revelation of this great holiness would express itself in those who are closest to G-d. He thought that would be Aharon and hinself, but it was Aharon’s two sons, Nadav and Avihu. Now he knew that they are closer to G-d then Aharon and Moshe were.

So how could it be that they would commit such sins?

Chassidus explains, and we also find it in the Ohr HaChayim HaKodesh, that their sin was not a simple sin. It consisted of a longing and a race towards G-dliness that had no bounds. They wanted so much to get close to G-d that they held nothing back and as a result they died from that closeness. That is the meaning of “and they approached G-d and died”- they died from that approach, and not from a sin. However it is considered a sin because a person is supposed to serve in the physical – to do one’s avodah without shedding the physical condition, the body. Even at the highest  moment  of  ecstasy, where  there  is the  ratzo,  the  desire   for
G-dliness, there also has to be a shuv, a coming back into the body, and serving G-d as a soul in a body. The Gemarrah says, you have to live even against your will, which means you have to control the desire to leave the body to cleave to G-d, and settle back into the body. In order to fulfill the purpose of creation, which is a dira b’tachtonim, to make this world a dwelling place for G-d, a person have to stay in the world. And since Nadav and Avihu allowed their desire for G-dliness to overcome their physical existence, the ratzo didn’t contain a shuv and therefore it is considered a sin.

That is why the Torah repeats “and they died” to tell us that their death was not a simple sin, but rather came as a result of “and they approached G-d” - it was their closeness to G-d that killed them, that was the “and they died” – they died from their ecstasy.

The story the Rebbe brings here in a footnote that the two sons of Aharon died because of their longing for G-d which had no limit, and that this is not the kavanah for which G-d created the world, because He wants a dira b’tachtonim, is from a sicha concerning the Alter Rebbe. And he says that the Freidike Rebbe related the following:

The Alter Rebbe had a yeshiva of three grades, aleph, bais and gimmel, and in order to enter into the yeshiva, even into the lowest grade, the students had to know the entire Gemarrah and Shulchan Aruch, with Kabbalah. When the Alter Rebbe came back from his trip accompanying Reb Mendel Horodoker on his way to Israel, he found the students acting in a wild fashion. They had separated from the world and the Alter Rebbe said to them that they must know that the avodah is in the world - you should eat your bread by the sword, which means to affect the world, and with these few words the Alter Rebbe changed their conduct completely. After awhile, the Alter Rebbe said to them, you should eat your bread by the sword also means to eat up the sword.

The explanation for the two versions is that at first when a person tries to correct  the  world, and  the  world  resists  holiness, then  he  has  to bring
G-liness to the world in spite of it. This is called hiskafia, elevating the Divine sparks in the world even while the world resists. Elevating the sparks is called eating, because through eating one elevates the food. And this is done as a battle, waging war against the world in order to retrieve the Divine sparks and that means eating by the sword, elevating the world by fighting it. But as the result of this, one eventually gets to a higher level and that is a his’hapcha, where the world itself yields to holiness and there doesn’t have to be a war anymore. So then the second level is one eats up the sword, even the struggle itself is elevated to a higher level and is refined.

This is the preparation of making the world a vessel that is receptive to the geulah of Moshiach Tzidkeinu, whose name is Shalom. According to the Gemarrah, his name is peace because he will herald the true peace in all creation, so that the world will not be at war with holiness, and then the wolf will lie down with the lamb etc, with the coming of Moshiach.

With this we will also understand the details of the Midrash that gives us the reasons for the death of Aharon’s sons and the sins they committed. The common thread in all of them was that there was a ratzo without a shuv, a longing without a settling back into the world.

Firstly the Midrash says that they died because they went into the inner chamber. This implies that they went deeper and deeper into holiness, chamber within chamber, without any thought of settling back into the world and into the body.

The second reason for their death was that they weren’t wearing the appropriate garments. They were missing garments. Mitzvahs are also called garments, and most mitzvahs are connected with a physical object. So they were missing garments means they didn’t devote themselves to the fulfillment of mitzvahs in the physical, because they wanted to leave the physical and exist purely on a spiritual level.

The third reason was that they never married; they didn’t have wives and children. This means they didn’t devote themselves to creating another Jew and bringing G-dliness to another Jew, because they didn’t want to invest themselves in the physical world. And that goes against the whole purpose of creation, to make the world a dwelling place for G-d, they went in the opposite direction, away from the body, into pure ruchnius without concern for children.
Rashi says that the mitzvah that the kohen should not enter the Mishkan at any time carelessly, but he has to come with certain requirements, came right after the death of the sons of Aharon, to tell us that the avodah, the way that the sons of Aharon behaved was not acceptable. So we need to understand, according to what we said before, how does this mitzvah tell us that the avodah has to be with a shuv, with a commitment to elevating the physical, and not be purely spiritual?

So we will understand this by first explaining how is it possible for a person who is at the highest level of ecstasy, to experience the shuv, the self control to settle back into the physical. When a person is truly and sincerely in the level of ratzo, and he is experiencing a love for G-d that is not only b’chol l’vavcha, with all his heart and b’chol nafshecha, with all his soul, but b’chol me’odecha and me’od means very, without limit, in experiencing this extreme ecstasy to the point of b’chol me’odecha, with all one’s might, not holding back anything, how is it possible in such a condition to expect him to suddenly turn around and settle back into the limitations and the restrictions of the physical world?

So as is known, this ability to settle back, to have the shuv, comes before experiencing the ratzo. If a person approaches G-dliness with an abandon, because he is looking for experience and to enjoy the pleasure of that kind of a closeness to G-d, as it says, he experiences the personal pleasure, the personal benefit of being close to G-d, for such a person it would be very hard to find the shuv. But if he approaches the ratzo because this is what G-d wants, in order to fulfill the will of the Creator, and G-d said that you should experience a longing for G-d that is on the level of b’chol me’odecha, since he is pursuing the ratzo, out of devotion to G-d and is conscious of what G-d wants, knowing that G-d wants him to stay in the world, that He doesn’t want chaos, He wants the world inhabited, so the ratzo right from the start is based on what G-d wants and in that will there is the shuv, so even at the height of his ecstasy he doesn’t lose sight of the kavanah of what it is that G-d wants and settles back into the world.

With this we will understand the Gemarrah that tells the story of the four who went into the Pardes, into the secrets of Torah, and it was only Rabbi Akiva who entered whole and came out whole. So why does the Gemarrah have to tell us that he went in whole. Didn’t all of them go in whole, and just didn’t all make it out in good shape? Therefore all it should say about Rabbi Akiva is only that he came out complete, why does it say that he went in complete?

The answer is that before he went in, before he entered to experience the ratzo, he already accepted the shuv. He was already conscience that the whole purpose of the ratzo is to bring that desire and that ecstasy back into the body and into the world, and thereby create a dwelling place in the lower world for G-d. So before he went in to the secrets of Torah, he was already whole and that is why he was able to come out whole. The other three didn’t have the return because they didn’t go in the first place with the right resolve.

And this is what the Torah is saying when it commands that when the kohen goes in to the Bais HaMikdash, he has to come with a sacrifice in order to bring forgiveness for himself and his home, his family. That tells us without a family, without settling into the world, a person is not entering whole, and therefore will not come out whole. Without his wife he is not allowed to go into the Holy of Holies. So because the purpose, the goal of the ratzo, is that he should come back and settle back into the world, since this is the goal, it will guarantee that it happens. And so it was after the kohen gadol came out of the Holy of Holies, the same kohen gadol who experienced the ecstasy of going into the innermost chambers, he would say a prayer for parnassa in material things for all the Jewish people.

Every story in Torah is a lesson for us and since we don’t experience this kind of ecstasy, what is the Torah telling us?

The Rebbe says that by every Jew there are times when he experiences an inspiration. It can happen on Shabbos, on Yom Tov, Rosh Hashana, and particularly Yom Kippur. At that time the Jew in his inspiration is higher and different than he is ordinarily in the weekdays, and he feels closer to G-d than usual. So when a person experiences this inspiration, when the neshama feels closer to G-d, then he has to know that that feeling of closeness needs to be translated into a shuv, into a settling back into the world. Going into the holiness is for the purpose of coming back out.

Therefore the highest ecstasy, the highest inspiration of the holiest of days is for the purpose of affecting the day after Yom Kippur. He should go into Yom Kippur with the attitude that when he comes out of Yom Kippur into the weekday world, he sees in the weekday world the G-dliness that is there. And so he does everything l’shem shamayim, and b’chol drachecha d’aychu, he sees G-d in all things.

And so it is also when a person works in the physical world, he has to recognize that it is all coming from G-d, which is the awareness that he brings with him for having been in the Holy of Holies. He knows that all blessings come directly from G-d, as it is written, if you will keep My commandments, G-d says, I will bring the rain.

And this also tells us that we have to connect the entering into the Holy of Holies with the coming out of the Holy of Holies. Only when we enter with the kind of attitude of the kohen gadol when he went into the Holy of Holies, and came out to say of prayer for the gashmius of the people, only then can we be certain that our physical needs will be fulfilled in abundance.

As mentioned before, when the kohen gadol went into the Holy of Holies he was mindful of his family which means his wife and there is a hint here also for the wife. In order for the person to be able to go into the Holy of Holies properly and then be able to come out whole, come back into making the world holier, and elevating it into G-dliness, this is dependent to a great degree on the wife. The wife should see to it that the husband should find himself in the innermost chambers of holiness, in the Holy of Holies, and even then she is his wife, she goes with him into that holiness, instead of trying to hold him back.

So the obligation of the woman is to influence the husband and children that they connect their going into the Holy with their coming out. A Jewish woman should see to it that if her husband wants to daven an hour longer, or wants to learn an hour longer, and is afraid that this might cause him to lose money or not succeed in business and so on, his wife has to encourage him and tell him that this is not something he needs to worry about.

Also if the child wants to learn Torah all day, and the parents are worrying that maybe the child needs to go to secular studies and to prepare for his livelihood in the future and so on, on the contrary, the woman should explain that it is only by going in to the Holy of Holies that one can come out and bring a blessing in parnassa in the most physical and have the most abundant blessings.

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