Shemot 24:11 (Mishpatim) - Eating in conjunction with a vision of G-d?

שמות כד:יא - ואל אצילי בני ישראל לא שלח ידו ויחזו את האלקים ויאכלו וישתו.

Shemot 24:9-11 record that Moshe, Aharon, Nadav, Avihu and the 70 elders went up, most likely a little bit up on Mount Sinai, had a vision of G-d and ate and drank. R. Lamm (2013, p. 117) writes, “The juxtaposition of these two activities (the vision of G-d and eating), so disjointed and antithetical, so inappropriate to each other, presents us with what is probably the most painful paradox in all the Torah.” Was it wrong for Moshe, Aharon, Nadav, Avihu and the elders to have eaten at that time?

Onkelos views Moshe’s, Aharon’s, Nadav’s, Avihu’s and the 70 elders’ behavior very positively. He writes “that they be held G-d’s glory and rejoiced in their offerings which were accepted as though they were eating and drinking.” This means that he thinks that they did not eat. The Talmud (Berakhot 17a) gives similar explanation and learns from this sentence what the life in the afterlife will be like. This implies that these people at this time had a comparable status in this world to the righteous in the next world. However, this approach does not accord with the simple understanding of the text that Moshe, Aharon, Nadav and Avihu and the 70 elders ate and drank.

Rashi (on 24:11) and the Rambam (Moreh 1:5, see Levine, 2002-03) view the eating as real and they both write that Nadav, Avihu and the 70 elders should have been punished for their actions. Yet, the fact that they were not punished immediately would seem to indicate that their eating should be viewed positively. Also, why should Moshe and Aharon have been different from Nadav, Avihu and the 70 elders that they were not punished?

A third approach is that Moshe, Aharon, Nadav, Avihu and the 70 elders ate and it was a positive experience. The Ramban (on 24:11, also see Seforno on 24:11) writes that Moshe, Aharon, Nadav, Avihu and the 70 elders ate the sacrifices referred to in 24:6 and their eating and drinking was because they made a holiday to celebrate receiving the Torah. Similarly, Luzzatto (on 24:8,11) views the eating in a positive fashion. He writes that the eating was the meal that typically accompanies the establishment of the covenant, and he believes (also Cassuto, 1967, p. 315) that they ate after they had their vision when they came down from the mountain. A minor proof for this idea that the people ate after they had come down from the mountain is that the following verse, 24:12, records that G-d told Moshe to go up on Mount Sinai, which implies that he had come down from the mountain at some point. With this approach, the juxtaposition of seeing the great vision of G-d and eating was not a paradox.

Bibliography:
Cassuto, Umberto (1883-1951), 1967, A commentary on the book of Exodus, Jerusalem: The Magnes Press.

Lamm, Norman, 2013, Derashot Ledorot, A commentary for the Ages: Exodus, Edited by Stuart W. Halpern, Jerusalem: Maggid Books and New York: OU Press.

Levine, Michelle, 2002-03, Maimonides’ philosophical exegesis of the nobles’ vision (Exodus 24:10): A guide for the pursuit of knowledge, The Torah u-Madda Journal, 11, pp. 61-106.