In Parashat Sh’mini, two young priests, Aharon’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, bring אֵשׁ זָרָה, aish zarah, a “strange fire” before ה׳ and are instantly consumed by Divine flame. The Torah does not tell us exactly what their sin was, only that they acted in a way not commanded by God [1]. Their death is jarring, a moment of tragedy interrupting what was meant to be a day of joy, the inauguration of the Mishkan.
Across generations, our sages struggled to understand this story. Rashi quotes Rabi Ishmael suggesting they entered intoxicated [2]. Kohelet warns: “Do not be overly righteous… why destroy yourself?”[3]. Their sin, it seems, lay not in rebellion but in excess, in zeal untempered by discipline or humility.
In our time, Rabbi Donniel Hartman has written powerfully about what he calls “God-intoxication” – the idea that when religious people become so consumed with serving God that they forget their responsibilities to other human beings, faith turns from a source of goodness into a source of harm. He warns:
“For the God-Intoxicated person, the awareness of living in the presence of the one transcendent God demands an all-consuming attention that can exhaust one's ability to see the needs of other human beings. This religious personality is defined by strict non-indifference to God. The more we walk with God, the less room we have to be aware of the human condition in general, and consequently, our moral sensibilities become attenuated.” [4]
This Shabbat, as we read of Nadav and Avihu, the world also mourns the loss of Pope Francis, a man who spent his papacy challenging the assumption that religious leadership must come wrapped in certainty. Wikipedia+1 His courage lay not only in what he affirmed, but in what he dared to question. He opened space for dialogue where others closed doors. He sought holiness not in doctrinal purism, but in compassion, justice, and service.
In many ways, Francis embodied what Jewish tradition upholds as its ideal religious leader: one who walks humbly with God [5], who fears arrogance more than doubt, who sees every human being as b’tzelem Elohim, created in the image of God.
The death of Nadav and Avihu reminds us that religious zeal and certainty, when not grounded in humility and restraint, can lead to disaster. The life of Pope Francis reminds us that religious leadership, when imbued with empathy and doubt, can lead to healing. Together, they offer a stark moral contrast between the fire that consumes and the fire that illuminates.
As Jews, we do not turn away from passion in our service of God. But we are taught to balance zeal with discernment, certainty with inquiry. We light sacred fire, the fire of Shabbat candles, of Torah study, of protest against injustice, not to burn ourselves or others, but to bring light unto the world.
May the memory of Pope Francis be for a blessing. And may we, in our own traditions, continue to resist the dangers of fundamentalism, not by rejecting God, but by putting love, humility, and human dignity at the centre of our service.
Shabbat Shalom,
[1] Lev. 10:1
[2] Rashi on Lev. 10:2
[3] Ecclesiastes 7:16
[4] Donniel Hartman, Putting God Second: How to Save Religion from Itself, p. 46.
[5] Micah 6:8
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