“Simon, wait for us!” David and Nathan were rushing to catch up with their classmate as he headed down the school corridor. Simon did not turn around, but continued walking as if he hadn”t heard them. That boy is so unsociable, Nathan huffed as they closed in on their friend.

“Hey Simon!” said David, standing in front of Simon to get his attention. “Hi” replied Simon. “What do you want from me?” he asked, looking annoyed at being held up.

“I thought we were going to do the class project together,” said David, “you, me and Nathan.” Simon laughed. “Ha! I would prefer to do the project on my own. I don’t need either of you to help.” And he turned to walk away.

“Do you really think you are so much better than us?” shouted Nathan angrily; he could not believe Simon was so rude.

“Nah – don’t get angry with him," said David. “It won’t help. I’ll try speak to him.” “Humph!” Nathan grunted unhappily. David ran to catch up with Simon.

“I want to ask you a question,” he said to Simon when he’d caught back up with him. “Go on then,” replied Simon.

“We were learning in class about the two sons of Aaron, how they went into the Holy of Holies in the Sanctuary and as a result they were...”

“They were killed,” interrupted Simon. “What is your point?” he asked impatiently.

“Why were they killed?” asked David, “Do you know?”

“There are many explanations,” said Simon, “the main one is that they went into the Sanctuary when they were drunk. Others explain that they wanted to be on a very high spiritual level. So they wanted to go into the Holy of Holies and be close to G‑d. Actually they should have kept their feet on the ground, and kept together with other people, going into the Holy of Holies only at the right time - like the High Priest on Yom Kippur.”

“Exactly.” Said David. “So the moral of the story for us might be that one should not try to act on a higher level than one really is, otherwise you end up falling down really bad. Right?”

“Yeh, I suppose so,” said Simon, looking at David suspiciously. “What does all this have to do with me?” he asked defensively. He actually did know why David was telling him this. He knew that he acted badly towards his friends, but he did it because he wanted to concentrate on his studies.

“Look, Simon, all I’m asking is that we do this project together - it won’t take away from anything else you need to do,” David said coaxingly.

“Okay, we’ll do it together,” said Simon, agreeing. He felt bad about the way he had behaved earlier.

“I’m sorry about before, for being so rude.”

“It’s okay,” replied David. “It’s not okay,” said Simon. “In fact, you are right in what you were saying before about the two sons of Aaron. They thought they wanted to get away from the world and everyone else and just be close to holiness. You have to be able to relate to other people—especially when it comes to two friends like you and Nathan, so I want to apologize. In future we’ll be together!”