In the Torah portion of Shemini, we read about the sin and subsequent deaths of Nadav and Avihu, the two oldest sons of Aharon, as the verse says, “And Aharon’s sons, Nadav and Avihu, each took his pan, put fire in it, and placed incense upon it, and they brought before the L-rd foreign fire, which He had not commanded them.  And fire went forth from before the L-rd and consumed them, and they died before the L-rd.”[1]

There are many opinions as to what sin they actually committed. Here are some of them:

The rest of this article will focus on the kohanim gedolim of the Second Bait Hamikdash, many of whom died because they were unworthy of entering the Holy of Holies.

The first Mishna in Tractate Yoma refers to the chamber of the Kohen Gadol as the room of the Parhedrin. The Talmud[15] explains that this name refers to the fact that during the era of the Second Bait HaMikdash, the position of the Kohen Gadol would frequently change hands because the Kohanim Gedolim were wicked people who would die shortly after taking the position. (Parhedrin was the name of a government position which would be switched every 12 months.) The Talmud goes on to explain that during the period of the second Bait Hamikdash there were more than 300 kohanim gedolim, only a handful of whom were righteous and served for many years and the rest of whom were wicked people who would pass away before completing one year in that office.

The Talmud enumerates the righteous Kohanim Gedolim:

Since the second Bait HaMikdash stood for 420 years, there would have been about 300 kohanim gedolim for the remaining 290 (or 279) years. Clearly, on average, each of these lasted for less than a year.

It is noteworthy that, according to the Jerusalem Talmud,[18] there were between 80 and 85 kohanim gedolim in the second Bait HaMikdash which would mean that each one served for, on average, approximately three years. This is still a far cry from the first Bait HaMikdash, where each kohen gadol served for approximately 34 years.

There are other sources which indicate that, in addition to those listed above, there were several other righteous kohanim gedolim in the second Bait HaMikdash.[19]

With one exception, we do not find that the Kohanim Gedolim would die inside the Holy of Holies. Rather, after entering the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, they would pass away at some point within the coming year. It was understood that this was a punishment for being unworthy of entering the Holy of Holies.

The one exception to the above was a Kohen Gadol who was a Saducee. He the Ketoret service in accordance with the Saduceean interpretation of the verses. (They would put the incense on the coals while outside the Holy of Holies and only enter when the room was already filled with smoke.)  According to one opinion, as he was leaving the Holy of Holies, an angel stomped on him and killed him. They found him with a hoof print between his shoulder blades as this angel had feet like those of an ox.[25]

Rabbi Yochanan ben Torta[26] explained[27] that the position of kohen gadol was available for hire from the Greek, Hasmonean, and (later) the Roman authorities. Unscrupulous people would therefore buy the position but would therefore die within the year of assuming the position. As an example, he cites that Marta, the daughter of Baytus, paid King Yannai two Kav[28] of dinarin to have her husband, Yehoshua ben Gamla, installed as the Kohen Gadol.

The Jerusalem Talmud brings the following story regarding these bribes: A kohen once brought the king two heaping[29] measures of silver to buy the position of kohen gadol. Meanwhile, another kohen brought two of the same measures of gold. The king accepted the latter one’s bribe and gave him the position. He proclaimed that the young horse (the newer bribe of gold) had overturned the lamp (the earlier bribe of silver).[30]

The Ritva[31] points out that elsewhere the Talmud[32] praises Yehoshua ben Gamla for establishing a school system to ensure that every Jewish child receive a Torah education, and, if not for him, the Torah, would have been forgotten from the Jewish people. In addition, the Mishna praises him for providing golden lots for the Yom Kippur service.[33] Yet, here he is considered wicked. He offers three explanations:

The Tashbetz[34] accepts the last answer and takes it further. As explained, Yehoshua ben Gamla was generally a righteous man but was simply not the most appropriate candidate for the position. His wife therefore bribed his way into the position. For this sin alone he died, as only the most exemplary of tzadikkim are worthy to enter the Holy of Holies. Similarly, all of the other kohanim gedolim of that era were generally tzadikim who however were not the best person for the position and thus had to bribe their way in. In some cases they may have even been considered a worthy candidate, but they should have allowed the son of the previous Kohen Gadol to assume the position of his father. For this sin alone they perished since, as explained, to enter the Holy of Holies, one must be extremely holy.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe takes this one step further. He explains[35] that, even if we take the Talmud at face value, that these were unworthy men, they still had great merit. After all, they must have known that their unworthy predecessors died soon after assuming the position. Yet they bribed their way into the position, realizing that they too were placing themselves at great peril by going into the Holy of Holies as they were also unworthy. Nevertheless, they took their chances because they recognized that entering into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur would allow them to experience an intense revelation of the Shechinah. They were willing to lose their lives just so that they could experience this unique Divine revelation.

---