In this week's Torah reading, Aaron and all subsequent High Priests are warned to only enter the Temple's Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. This is preceded by the statement that this caution followed the deaths of Aaron's two sons, Nadab and Abihu, who entered the Tabernacle and the Holy of Holies, "and drew close to G‑d and died."
Death is the separation of soul and body. As such, on a deeper level we are being warned that coming close to G‑d cannot involve the separation of body and soul.
Closeness to G‑d cannot involve the separation of body and soulIf while praying or when involved in any other holy experience we feel uplifted, but only the soul makes the trip while the body remains behind, we are making the same holy error as the children of Aaron.
Practically speaking this means that after the spiritual experience our bodies' desires and weaknesses should not remain the same. Our practical, everyday lives should be more virtuous and ethical than before our "drawing close to G‑d." If this is not the case, then the whole experience is "dead"—it adds no life and holiness to our world as we live in it.
And the entire purpose of Judaism is to make the Divine a normative presence in the context of our ordinary, everyday, frames of reference.
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