When to Break Boundaries - Acharei Mot - Mythic Torah

Welcome back to Mythic Torah, my regular article investigating monsters, heroes and gods in the weekly Torah reading. This week's reading is Acharei Mot, the 6th reading of the book of Leviticus, that deals with the ritual of the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, as well as laws of forbidden sexual relationships.

The Death of Nadav and Avihu

When I started this Mythic Torah project back in January, I knew that some weeks would be easier to deal with than others. I knew that Genesis would be plain-sailing, and could finish off my year of Mythic Torah with a bang. Exodus felt pretty comfortable, and I was pretty sure I had a lot to say about most of Numbers and quite a few parashiot of Deuteronomy.

It was Leviticus that really scared me.

How was I going to find something mythological to write about every week when the theme, over and over again, is sacrifices, purity and the priesthood?

While I've managed to find something to say so far, there was always a beacon of hope, one story that I knew I'd be able to write about - the death of Nadav and Avihu, two of Aaron's sons.

But when Shemini rolled around 3 weeks ago, that relates how they died, I found I had another idea altogether, and so held off the discussion of their deaths until this week's parasha of Acharei Mot, which literally means after the death and tells about the first Yom Kippur ritual designed to cleanse the sanctuary.

What I find fascinating is that this week's parasha seems to disagree with Shemini about the cause of their death.

In Lev 10, we read that Nadav and Avihu came into the Tabernacle to offer 'strange fire', fire that was unauthorised somehow (though exactly what the problem was is a little unclear). In this week's reading of Acharei Mot we get a rather different take (Lev 16):