Machshavot HaLev - Yeshivat Lev HaTorah

136
However.
The story is far more complex than that.
בלה תובשחמ
A close look at other sections of the parsha leads to the exact opposite conclusion.
In fact, there are two other episodes of “deviation from God’s command,” and in
each the “innovator” was clearly correct. Let’s explore the first of these deviations
(the second, Aharon’s refusal to eat his korban chatat is complex and deserves its
own treatment).
As the parsha begins, Moshe commands the final procedures Aharon must
perform to facilitate the Shechina’s descent to the mishkan. He precedes these
commands with the explanation, “This is what God has commanded that you
shall do, so that God’s Glory will appear to you” (9:6). The Torah then describes
Aharon diligently fulfilling the commands, and yet … nothing happens. Rashi
(9:23) describes Aharon’s panic as he realizes that his effort has not achieved the
desired results. What could be missing? Aharon has followed his instructions
precisely!
Aharon responds to this moment of crisis without guidance (see Ramban,
9:22). He turns to the nation and blesses them. He and Moshe then bless the
nation together, and immediately, God’s Shechina descends, and the Divine fire
consumes the korbanot. It seems that God deliberately neglected to command
the final, crucial step in readying the mishkan for His Shechina, and waited for
Aharon to intuit it on his own! The message implicit in this episode seems to be
that God wants us to be creative in our avodat Hashem, and leaves room for us to
“figure things out”. If so, these two episodes, that of Nadav and Avihu and that of
Aharon’s blessing of the nation, directly contradict each other!
The resolution to this mystery lies in the fundamental differences between these
two cases of innovation. Nadav and Avihu “made up” a new ritual as an act of
avodat Hashem, in the realm of bein adam la-Makom. Aharon, however, innovated
his spiritual act in response to sensitivities regarding his fellow Jews – bein adam
la-chaveiro. This distinction between relying on one’s own intuition and creativity
in a mitzvah bein adam la-Makom versus in a mitzvah bein adam la-chaveiro is
reflected in a fascinating halachic pattern. Rav Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg points
out that some mitzvot mysteriously lack a birkat ha-mitzva. While lulav, tzitzit,