The Danger of Playing with Alien Fire—Parshat Shemini

The Danger of Playing with Alien Fire—Parshat Shemini
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl

This week’s Torah portion finds us in a very dark chapter.
Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron the High Priest,
trained in the proper rules of ritual sacrifice, instead, come before God
offering an aish zarah, an “alien fire,” which they were not authorized to do.
In response, God immediately immolates them.

Now, if you come to our bnei mitzvah services tomorrow,
you will hear astute 13-year-olds assert
that God’s punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crime.

And most rabbinic commentators over the centuries would agree,
so by way of explanation, they ascribe the worst motives to Nadab and Abihu.
One Midrash explains that they were overly ambitious –
trying to usurp their father’s High Priest role.
Sforno said they acted out of extreme arrogance and lack of respect for God.
Rashi cites evidence that they may have been drunk.

But some rabbis were willing to give Nadab and Abihu the benefit of the doubt. The Ramban says they fell prey to overenthusiasm –
they desired too much to be near God –
and this aish zarah was an offering of extreme passion.
But even with the best intentions, Ramban said it was
“a flame that could not be contained,” and it ultimately consumed them.

Aish zarah stands in stark contrast to the aish tamid- the “eternal fire,”
described in last week’s Torah portion–
the fire the priests are instructed to keep burning on the altar at all times.
The aish tamid is the foundation of divine service –without
consistent vigilance to keep the flame lit, our work in the Temple is impossible.

I see a parallel to this modern moment:
One of our most sacred, secular Temples today is the University–
a Temple of Learning.
and the aish tamid, the eternal fire that has sustained its mission
has been vigilance to core principles of academic freedom,
protection of free speech, and the absolute pursuit of truth.

In recent years, many Americans, be it on the right or on the left –
feel these values have been compromised,
and there has been a precipitous decline in trust in Higher Education.
Gallup polls show that ten years ago, 57% of Americans
had high confidence in Universities;
today that number has dropped to just 36%.
Decline in trust is most extreme among Republicans, whose confidence dropped from 56% ten years ago, virtually the same as all Americans, to just 20%.

Stated reasons for the decline included skyrocketing costs, lack of access,
and misplaced educational focus. But the main driver for loss of trust
is the perception of political bias. And it’s not just perception:
A 2023 Harvard Crimson survey of faculty showed that less than 3%
identified as “conservative.”
A 2024 Buckley Institute survey at Yale showed that 3% of the faculty was registered as Republican vs 77% registered as Democrats.

Now, this imbalance of political perspectives on campuses is not new –
but the belief that this disparity has led to a harmful ideological capture is.
In the past, these temples of learning
have been safeguarded by tending the eternal fire,
by doggedly protecting free speech, academic inquiry, and pursuit of truth.
But we’ve seen universities compromise these values,
Introducing an aish zarah–alien fire:
by prohibiting certain texts or speech to create ‘safe spaces,’
cancelling speakers to limit exposure to offensive ideas,
changing standards to ensure more equitable outcomes.
Even when ascribing the best of intentions, we have seen the danger
and overreach of this alien fire in higher education.

Universities must recommit to their aish tamid,
the liberal and democratic principles that have made universities
exceptional engines of American progress and growth,
and created the conditions for the most vibrant, flourishing
and a safe Jewish community in the history of the Jewish diaspora.

But since October 7th,
more and more Jews are questioning if our community is still safe,
And in particular, if it is still safe to be Jewish on college campuses.
In the past 18 months, universities have witnessed an eruption of antisemitic ugliness; harassment, intimidation, ostracization, cancelling,
And sometimes even violence.
We saw university presidents too slow to respond,
And many unable to offer simple condemnations of calls for genocide.
In the face of this, some in our community
breathed a sigh of relief and even celebrated the recent executive orders
aimed at universities such as Columbia, Harvard, Cornell, Northwestern, terminating billions of dollars of federal grants on the grounds
that these universities failed to address antisemitism on their campuses.

Some of you may believe the government’s motivation behind these executive orders is entirely cynical and opportunistic;
some of you may believe the Government is entirely sincere;
and some of you may see it somewhere in the middle.
But regardless of motivation, I fear these executive orders are an aish zarah,
an alien fire that has been unleashed by our government–
one which will ultimately burn the Jewish community, not protect us.

At Columbia, for example, the termination of $400 million in grants
was explicitly tied to Columbia’s (quote) “inaction
in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
But the cutting of these grants does not directly fight antisemitism.
Instead, almost all of these cuts were to medical research and training.
Our past president, Dr Shonni Silverberg, explained that in her Department alone, over 130 grants were terminated, including funding of the Cancer Center
and the 15-year-long Diabetes Prevention Program.
Additionally, ALL NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship Training Grants
have been terminated– the training of all subspecialists –
endocrinologists, cardiologists, oncologists –stopped dead.
This is not how we protect Jews.

When we see undercover ICE agents
snatch Pro-Palestinian protestors from their campuses,
you may feel: finally someone is standing up for us.
But when America starts deporting people for protected speech –however ugly– without any due process–this is not how we protect Jews.

When the government threatens to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars
of funding unless they are able to oversee a school’s curriculum,
as they are trying to do at Harvard,
we may cheer some of the demanded reforms.
But this government control is a breach of academic freedom,
and this is not how we protect Jews.

While it may be that an aish zara, an alien fire of ideological capture
contributed to a culture that harbored, excused, and even stoked Jew hatred,
we don’t fight alien fire with more alien fire.
It is a flame that cannot be contained.

We must uphold the aish tamid– the traditional values
that have actually protected Jews for generations:
Freedom of Speech. Due process. Academic freedom.
I know Free speech is hard to defend when the ideas expressed are hateful to us or toward us. And there should be consequences for inciting violence, harassing, or excluding Jews on any campus.
But upholding basic principles of liberty have safeguarded us for centuries
and made universities an engine for learning, innovation, scientific discovery
and propelling the American dream.

The aish tamid– like DEMOCRACY –
is not just a concept.
It is a live flame.
It requires constant tending.
Keeping it burning cannot just be the work of leaders,
or university presidents. It is on all of us.

We must tend the Aish Tamid, the eternal fire, because these bedrock values give us a greater good–an ability to live according to higher principles
of democracy, fairness, opportunity, and justice-
not just for ourselves or our family,
or our religious group,
But for all citizens. And for humanity.