TALK ABOUT ENTANGLEMENT. The simple narrative has Nadav and Avihu dying because they brought an \u201cunauthorized fire\u201d during the inauguration ceremony in this week\u2019s parsha. In Devarim, it mentions that they died because Aharon participated in the incident of the golden calf, even though he had all the right intentions. In Parashas Mishpatim, it says that Nadav and Avihu were already destined to be killed because, while on Har Sinai, they glanced at the Shechinah. How many times can someone be chaiv missa\u2014culpable of death?<\/p>\n
Even more confusing is how such great people could be worthy of death even once? True, the Gemora portrays them as being someone pompous, not at all like their great and humble father. But Moshe Rabbeinu called them great and holy people, and Kabbalah concurs. According to the Arizal, anyone who received their souls after their deaths gained the power of prophecy. Those are great souls.<\/p>\n
You find this a lot in Torah Judaism. Things taken by themselves are often simple and logical. But when the same things are taken with others, all of a sudden difficulties arise, even what appear like contradictions. It\u2019s why some prefer to live with the smaller picture, in order to avoid having to work out issues that arise with the bigger picture.<\/p>\n
Even the Gemara addresses the issue of conflicting mitzvos. Sometimes, a situation makes possible two mitzvos, but doing one makes it impossible to do the other. Which takes precedence? There are rules.<\/p>\n
Even Aharon HaKohen was faced with such a situation. On one hand, he wasn\u2019t allowed to be involved in the building of the golden calf, even his intentions were pure. On the other hand, had he refused the demands of the people and they killed him, the generation would not have been able to atone for itself and would have been destroyed, which he believed was unacceptable to God. Which issue mattered more to God?<\/p>\n
This year, the fourteenth of Nisan was also Shabbos. When it is not, disposing of chametz is easy and can even be done before the fourteenth. But we needed to have three bread meals for the honor of Shabbos on the fourteenth this year, after the house was already cleaned for Pesach. And we couldn\u2019t use Kosher L\u2019Pesach matzah because we cannot eat matzah the day before the Seder.<\/p>\n
This halachic quandary has solutions, each of which is a compromise of sorts. Some bakeries made crumbless little challos. Some people ate pitos out of plastic bags. Some had matzah ashirah (egg matzos). Each solution had its advantages and disadvantages.<\/p>\n
Whatever the solution, people had to think about it. The Rav of my shul printed pages that summarized many of the relevant halachos of that particular Shabbos HaGadol; many haven\u2019t forgotten what they did the previous time that fourteenth of Nisan fell on Shabbos. I bet you there were people who usually didn\u2019t do much about Seudas Shlishis the rest of the year who had one this year, because of the situation.<\/p>\n
The Gemara itself is full of machlokes\u2014disagreements. This is one of the reasons why you cannot decide a halacha based upon the Gemara, but from the Poskim who learned the Gemara and all the relevant commentaries since then. So many halachos today are simply the rabbis playing it safe, deciding like the more stringent opinion as to cover all bases. Thus is the reality of Torah as the exile deepens.<\/p>\n
Then of course there is eilu v\u2019eilu divrei Elokim chaim\u2014these and these are the words of the living God. It\u2019s when two opinions seem to contradict one another and yet are both true\u2014to God. It\u2019s like saying that, as much as they seem like a contradiction down here to us, higher up they work together beautifully.<\/p>\n
As a Torah Jew, you just go with it. As a student of Kabbalah, you get used to it. Everything becomes easier to deal with once you not only acknowledge you don\u2019t know enough to answer all the questions, you even understand how much more there is to know to answer even just most of the questions.<\/p>\n
Once, between Mincha and Ma\u2019ariv, I picked up the Pachad Yitzchak on Chanukah. The holiday was coming and I just felt like getting some deep insight I had never considered before. Among the few things I saw at that time, there was a ma\u2019amer on the disagreements in Shas (all of Gemora), and what Rav Hutner, zt\u201dl, pointed out blew me away.<\/p>\n
Yes, we don\u2019t like machlokes, he was basically saying. But think of all the Torah that has been brought to light because of it!<\/p>\n
So true. All of a sudden, what I had simply attributed to something bad, the loss of Torah clarity, I saw as indirect, seemingly deliberate means for increasing Torah in the world. I don\u2019t get them often, but that was one of those moments when you feel the beauty of an idea throughout your entire body. It didn\u2019t just alter my perspective on machlokes, but on adversity in general.<\/p>\n
The Torah promotes shalom bayis on all levels. It encourages the resolution of conflict, or the avoidance of it altogether. It paints a picture of a picture-perfect life, and promises one in the next world, even beginning with the Messianic Era. But God\u2019s route to all of that is often very different than the one we imagined, even harshly different.<\/p>\n
Even the episode with Nadav and Avihu at one of the holiest moments in human history makes this point. Human mistakes were made, but one has to wonder what God\u2019s role was in all of this. We didn\u2019t plan what happened and we certainly didn\u2019t like the outcome? But did God, given the longer term plan of history?<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll have to wait to answer those questions, but in the meantime, each of the pieces of the puzzle, even if they don\u2019t seem to fit together, teaches us something we need to know about life, God, and Torah. Because when it is all said and done, isn\u2019t that the one thing we can do something about?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TALK ABOUT ENTANGLEMENT. The simple narrative has Nadav and Avihu dying because they brought an \u201cunauthorized fire\u201d during the inauguration ceremony in this week\u2019s parsha. In Devarim, it mentions that they died because Aharon participated in the incident of the golden calf, even though he had all the right intentions. In Parashas Mishpatim, it says […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7070185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[231102,4121,231103,4319],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7070183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chaiv","tag-death","tag-missaculpable","tag-times"],"yoast_head":"\n
How many times can someone be chaiv missa\u2014culpable of death? - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How many times can someone be chaiv missa\u2014culpable of death? - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"TALK ABOUT ENTANGLEMENT. The simple narrative has Nadav and Avihu dying because they brought an \u201cunauthorized fire\u201d during the inauguration ceremony in this week\u2019s parsha. In Devarim, it mentions that they died because Aharon participated in the incident of the golden calf, even though he had all the right intentions. In Parashas Mishpatim, it says […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-30T14:04:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Pinchas-winston20-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"446\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"290\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"How many times can someone be chaiv missa\u2014culpable of death?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-30T14:04:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183\"},\"wordCount\":1055,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Pinchas-winston20-2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"chaiv\",\"Death\",\"missaculpable\",\"Times\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183\",\"name\":\"How many times can someone be chaiv missa\u2014culpable of death? - Som2ny Network\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Pinchas-winston20-2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-30T14:04:04+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Pinchas-winston20-2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Pinchas-winston20-2.jpg\",\"width\":446,\"height\":290},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How many times can someone be chaiv missa\u2014culpable of death?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"description\":\"Daily Deals\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Som2ny Network\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How many times can someone be chaiv missa\u2014culpable of death? - Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How many times can someone be chaiv missa\u2014culpable of death? - Som2ny Network","og_description":"TALK ABOUT ENTANGLEMENT. The simple narrative has Nadav and Avihu dying because they brought an \u201cunauthorized fire\u201d during the inauguration ceremony in this week\u2019s parsha. In Devarim, it mentions that they died because Aharon participated in the incident of the golden calf, even though he had all the right intentions. In Parashas Mishpatim, it says […]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183","og_site_name":"Som2ny Network","article_published_time":"2026-09-30T14:04:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":446,"height":290,"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Pinchas-winston20-2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371"},"headline":"How many times can someone be chaiv missa\u2014culpable of death?","datePublished":"2026-09-30T14:04:04+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183"},"wordCount":1055,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Pinchas-winston20-2.jpg","keywords":["chaiv","Death","missaculpable","Times"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183","name":"How many times can someone be chaiv missa\u2014culpable of death? - Som2ny Network","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Pinchas-winston20-2.jpg","datePublished":"2026-09-30T14:04:04+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Pinchas-winston20-2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Pinchas-winston20-2.jpg","width":446,"height":290},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070183#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How many times can someone be chaiv missa\u2014culpable of death?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","name":"Som2ny Network","description":"Daily Deals","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization","name":"Som2ny Network","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","width":300,"height":86,"caption":"Som2ny Network"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/fivemor.com"],"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7070183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7070183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7070183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7070185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7070183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7070183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7070183"},{"taxonomy":"dealstore","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fdealstore&post=7070183"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fofferexpiration&post=7070183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}