Pick up the fire-pans from the fire (and throw away the flame), for they have become holy…and make from them hammered-out sheets as a covering for the Altar.^[2]

This does not go down easily! The incense brought by the 250 would-be kohanim was neither positive, nor even neutral. It was, after all, a “foreign offering.” It was something not commanded by Hashem, and therefore not appreciated by Him. If anything, we should view those offerings as a desecration of the Mishkan! Why did Hashem instruct us to enshrine their moment of rebellion as an addition to the Altar itself?

So asks Ramban. We might answer his question by first looking at a gemara^[3] about the descendants of Sisera, the commander of Yavin of Chatzor’s army. He was not one of our favorite characters in the book of Shoftim. After leading what everyone thought would be a successful military campaign against us, he experienced at the hands of Yael a kind of tent-pitching experience not part of Boy Scout training. We would be more than happy to learn that we, and history, are done with him.

The gemara, however, says that this is not so. His descendants merited to teach Torah to children! What was the spiritual calculus that allowed that to happen?

The explanation is that Sisera’s miraculous defeat created a great kiddush Hashem. It was not exactly his intention, but not every evildoer becomes Hashem’s instrument in bringing awareness of His Name to large numbers of people. Only certain evildoers. Why a particular rasha merits this ability, we cannot say. But a source of merit, assuredly it is.

We can say the same about the 250. The were the vehicles for a moment of needed clarity in our early history. Through them, a kiddush Hashem came about. Therefore, they merited to continue that kiddush Hashem. Their fire-pans would serve as a constant reminder to all that unauthorized incense should never be placed on the Altar.

Alternatively, we can find an explanation in this passage. “The three mighty men broke into the camp of the Pelishtim and drew water…and brought it to Dovid. He refused to drink it…He said, ‘Far be it from me…Is this not tantamount to the blood of the men who risked their lives to go?’”

Hashem cherishes human life – far more than we can know. When a person loses his life for something, we dare not treat the object of his sacrifice casually. This is true even if that object cannot be seen as something properly consecrated to Hashem. The 250 lost their lives through these fire-pans; they remain off-limits to us. We are forbidden to make use of them. They cannot shake off their association with the loss of human life.

The Torah instructs that they become permanently hekdesh. As a covering of the surface of the mizbeach, they remind us in perpetuity of how dear to Hashem is the life of any individual.

1. Adapted from Divrei Shaul, by Rav Yosef Shaul Nathanson, the Sho’el U-Meshiv ↑
2. Bamidbar 17:2-3 ↑
3. Gittin 57b ↑