Aaron's Almond Staff and the Burning of Nadav and Avihu

"And the LORD spoke to Moses after the death" (Leviticus 16:1). This is what Scripture says: "At this also my heart trembles" (Job 37:1). [Who spoke this verse? Elihu spoke it.] Elihu was watching how the sons of Aaron would enter to offer sacrifice and come out burned, and he was astonished and said, "At this also my heart trembles and leaps from its place." What did he see that made him say this? Rather, at the time when the priesthood was weakened (that is, made feeble) in the hand of Aaron, what is written there? "And Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and all their princes gave him a staff, one staff for each prince" and so on (Numbers 17:21). And he wrote the name of each and every tribe upon its staff, and the name of Aaron he wrote upon the staff of Levi, and he placed it in the middle. Moses said: So that the children of Israel will not say it caught a scent from the Divine Presence and produced fruit. [Moses said: Behold, I place it in the middle so as not to give any opening for argument, as it is said, "and the staff of Aaron was in the midst of their staffs" (Numbers 17:21).] What is written there? "And Moses laid up the staffs" and so on, "and it came to pass on the next day" and so on, "and behold, the staff of Aaron had sprouted" and so on, "and it yielded almonds" (Numbers 17:22-23). Scripture lacked nothing. What is "and it yielded (gamal) almonds (shekedim)"? It requited (gamal) everyone who was intent (shoked) on evil against the tribe of Levi. And if dry pieces of wood caught a scent in the life of the world [and blossomed] and came out alive [and produced fruit], yet the sons of Aaron, who entered there alive, came out burned. And Elihu was looking at these and at those, and he said, "At this also my heart trembles" and so on. When? "And the LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron."