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- Title
Nadab, Abihu, and the Second Passover.
- Authors
Maged, Shimon
- Abstract
This article explores the theory, first advanced by R. Akiva, that the anonymous men who petitioned Moses for a “Second Passover” are to be identified as Mishal and Elzaphan, the cousins of Nadab and Abihu. Support for this theory can be adduced from several textual details, including the chronology of the key events: if Nadab and Abihu died on the eighth of Nissan, then Mishael and Elzaphan, who transported their corpses, would have been ineligible to participate in the Passover offering at its appointed time one week later—precisely the quandary posed by the petitioners for a Second Passover. After considering support for this theory, we also examine its implications. Among the related textual interconnections examined in this regard are those between the inauguration of the Tabernacle and the law of the red heifer; between the inauguration of the Tabernacle and the original Passover offering; between the deaths of Nadab and Abihu and the plague of the firstborn; and between the response by Aaron to the death of Nadab and Abihu, as compared to the response of Mishael and Elzaphan, the purported petitioners of the Second Passover. In this last comparison, we suggest, may lie a model for responding to tragedy from a religious perspective that is especially pertinent to the presentperiod.
- Subjects
PASSOVER; DEATH; TABERNACLE; CONTENT analysis; CHRONOLOGY
- Publication
Megadim: Biblical Journal, 2022, Vol 61, p5
- ISSN
0334-8814
- Publication type
Article