King Uziyahu Offers the Ketores

King Uziyahu entered the Heichal to offer Ketores. He did so despite the fact that there is a clear pasuk in the Torah indicating that a non-kohen may not offer the Ketores, under penalty of death. King Uziyahu reasoned that this did not apply to him, since he was a king.

King Uziyahu was a tzaddik. The navi says, “And he did what was proper in the eyes of Hashem.” The Ralbag described him as a wise man who understands the fear of Hashem. The Metzudos Dovid says he was a ba’al binah, understanding amazing things in prophetic visions that come from Hashem. Yet he still made the erroneous assumption that it was permitted for him to offer the Ketores. Such a wise and righteous individual made a terrible miscalculation.

What could have saved him? He should have looked at the earlier generations. Did Dovid HaMelech offer the Ketores? Did Shlomo HaMelech, who was wiser than any other mortal, offer the Ketores? They did not, despite the fact that they were kings. Any reasons that King Uziyahu concluded would permit kings to offer Ketores had certainly already been thought of by the earlier saintly kings. Yet they rejected those reasons. If only King Uziyahu had learned from them, he would have saved himself from sin. In the end, as a punishment for attempting an offering of Ketores, he was stricken with tzara’as and had to live out the last 25 years of his life in seclusion.