I. "And you, bring near to you Aharon your brother"
And you, bring near [hakrev] to you Aharon your brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that they may serve Me as priests. (Shemot 28:1)
The wording of the verse, in which Moshe is commanded to "crown" Aharon as a priest, requires clarification: What is the meaning of the directive hakrev, translated here as "bring near"?
The Aramaic translations use the same root of k/r/v, "closeness" – that is to say, that Moshe was to bring Aharon near him. But why would Aharon need to be brought near Moshe? Moreover, why would this closeness be necessary specifically at the time of Aharon's coronation as a priest? How did it help him enter his new office?
We find several answers to these questions among the commentators. The Ibn Ezra (see both his long and his short commentaries) says Moshe was initially the dean of the priests, kohen ha-kohanim, and was instructed to bring Aharon near to him so that Aharon could properly learn the priestly service. There was a kind of overlap between Moshe and Aharon, while Aharon was stepping into Moshe's shoes.
The Kli Yakar takes the term hakrava in a different direction:
Because of the incident of the golden calf, Aharon was distanced, just as the firstborns of Israel were disqualified, and Moshe brought him near through his prayer. (Kli Yakar, Shemot 28:1)
A dark shadow had been cast on Aharon in the wake of his role in the sin of the golden calf, but Moshe, through the power of his prayer, brought Aharon back and thus enabled selection as priest.
Ostensibly, the term hakrev here indeed denotes physical closeness, but it seems that to no small extent, this root is also the basis of the term korban, "sacrifice," as stated in Sefer Ha-Bahir:[1]
And why is it called a korban? Because it brings close [mekarev] the holy forces. (Sefer Ha-Bahir 109)
A sacrifice is a way for a person to bring himself closer to God after having distanced from Him by sinning.
The play on words between korban, sacrifice, and kirva, closeness, together with a fascinating midrash, underlie the Or Ha-Chaim's interpretation of this verse in particular and of the selection of Aharon to serve as priest in general:
The reason it says "you," and uses the term hakrava, bringing near, and also says "to you," can be explained in light of what Chazal said (Shemot Rabba 3), that God's original plan was to appoint Moshe as High Priest. But due to Moshe's repeated refusal to accept the role assigned to him by God, God became angry with him, and removed him from the High Priesthood, as it is stated: "Is there not Aharon your brother the Levite" (Shemot 4:14), that is, that he had been a Levite, and now he was made a priest. Thus far the midrash. Therefore, God said to Moshe when the time came: "And you," that is, not only because I command you, but you on your own, bring Aharon near, in your place, and do it as if this is your desire, for this will stand for you in place of a sacrifice to atone for your having been insolent to God. And it says "to you" – for your atonement; when you bring Aharon near and give him his greatness, there is no greater sacrifice than that. (Or Ha-Chaim 28:1)
The midrash cited by the Or Ha-Chaim is critical of Moshe:
From where [can it be derived] that Aharon was prophesying? For it is stated: "And there came a man of God to Eli, and said to him: Thus says the Lord: Did I indeed reveal Myself to the house of your father, when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh's house? And choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest…" (I Shmuel 2:27-28). Moshe said: Will I now encroach upon my brother and cause him distress? For that reason, he did not wish to go. Immediately, "And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moshe" (Shemot 4:14).
What kindled anger was there? [At that moment,] the priesthood was taken from Moshe and given to Aharon. Our Rabbis said: "Is there not Aharon your brother the Levite?" – from the fact that He said "your brother," do I not know that he is a Levite? Rather, He said to him: You were fit to be the priest, and he a Levite. But because you refused to fulfill My words, you will be a Levite, and he, the priest. (Shemot Rabba 3,17)
The verse in Shmuel indicates that, Aharon was chosen as priest already in Egypt, and the midrash points to the incident of the burning bush as the time of his selection. When Moshe resisted God's mission to lead Israel out of Egypt, God punished him and transferred the role of the priesthood, also known as "the messengers of the Merciful" (Kiddushin 23), to Aharon. The wording of the verse describing God's anger accords precisely with this understanding:
And he said: O Lord, send I pray You, by the hand of him whom You will send. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moshe, and He said: Is there not Aharon your brother the Levite? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he comes forth to meet you; and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. (Shemot 4:13-14)
First of all, God's kindled anger follows Moshe's statement: "Send I pray You, by the hand of him whom you will send." Furthermore, as alluded to in the midrash above, the description of Aharon as a Levite suggests there is something happening with their respective roles here. This inference is also found in another midrash, cited by Rashi:
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha said: Every instance of "kindled anger" in the Torah leaves an impression [= mentions a punishment], but here there is no impression, and we do not find that a punishment came in the wake of this anger. Rabbi Yose said to him: Here too there is an impression: "Is there not Aharon your brother the Levite" – he was supposed to be a Levite and not a priest, and the priesthood was supposed to issue from you. But now it will not be that way, but rather he will be the priest, and you a Levite, as it is stated (I Divrei Ha-Yamim 23:14): "But as for Moshe, the man of God, his sons are named among the tribe of Levi." (Rashi, Shemot 4:14)
II. What was Moshe's sin, and what was his atonement?
There is, however, a difference between the words of the Or Ha-Chaim and the midrash he cites. According to the plain sense of the midrash, it was God who removed the priesthood from Moshe and gave it to Aharon. But when the Or Ha-Chaim comes to interpret our verse, he understands that it was actually Moshe who had to do this. Bringing Aharon near the Shekhina to serve as God's agent brought atonement to Moshe for his sin (through which he had distanced himself). The Or Ha-Chaim sees in this verse God's command to Moshe to bear the consequences of his actions at the burning bush.
This interpretation is very interesting, for it would be easy to interpret Moshe's actions at the burning bush as noble, in that he was prepared to renounce his own honor and greatness in order not to embarrass his brother Aharon. Indeed, this is implied at the beginning of the midrash cited above:
"And he said: O Lord [bi A-donai], send I pray You, by the hand of him whom You will send." Rabbi Chiya the Great said: He said before Him: Master of the universe, through me [bi], You seek to deliver the descendants of Avraham, who established You as the lord [adon] over all Your creations? Send I pray You, by the hand of him whom You will send. He said before Him: Who is dearer to a person, his nephew or his grandson? One must say, it is his grandson. When You sought to rescue Lot, Avraham's nephew, You sent angels to rescue him. Avraham's descendants [grandchildren], who are six hundred thousand, you are sending me to rescue them? Send the angels whom You are accustomed to send!
Another explanation: For Hagar the Egyptian, You sent five angels to her; to six hundred thousand descendants of Sara, it is me You are sending to rescue them?
The Rabbis say: Did you suppose that Moshe was refusing to go? That is not the case. Rather, as deference to Aharon, as Moshe was saying: Before I arose, Aharon my brother was prophesying for them in Egypt for eighty years. That is what is written: "And I made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt" (Yechezkel 20:5). (Shemot Rabba 3, 16)
In the first part of the midrash, Moshe is concerned about Israel's honor and wants them to be redeemed in the finest manner, by faithful agents such as angels. In the third explanation, he is worried about Aharon. Has Moshe sinned with these concerns, such that he should require atonement? The commentators had difficulty understanding why God became angry with Moshe at the burning bush.
The Pesikta Zutarta (Shemot 4:14) explains that God's anger was kindled by Moshe's stalling: instead of opening with the main argument of "Send I pray You, by the hand of him whom You will send," Moshe opens with other arguments, and only gets to the main point at the end.
It seems that another explanation can be offered. Despite all the good reasons Moshe had for rejecting God's mission, if God chose Moshe and wanted him, he should not have refused. In matters of holiness, a person must roll up his sleeves and run to perform them, in the spirit of: "When a mitzva comes to your hand, do not procrastinate" (Mekhilta, Shemot 12:17). This idea is also stated as a halakhic principle in the Talmud: "One must not pass over [the opportunity to perform any of] the mitzvot" (Pesachim 64b).
If we understand this as the reason God's anger was kindled against Moshe, then we can also better understand the reparation. Serving God and the people of Israel is possible only by one who volunteers and who runs to perform mitzva acts – as did Aharon, about whom God testifies: "And also, behold, he comes forth to meet you; and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart" (Shemot 4:14).
III. A Person is Obligated to Bless God for the Evil
The Or Ha-Chaim adds another layer to the meaning of the word "hakrev" in our verse:
The words, "And bring you near to you," further allude that when a person sins, the branch of his soul that corresponds to the branch with which he sinned becomes detached from its great root. By repeatedly objecting to God's mission, Moshe caused one of the branches of his soul to become detached from its root. Even though God punished him for this, nevertheless, as long as he did not receive the punishment, the flaw remained in place and the distant [element] remained detached. Therefore, He informed him that in this way, the distant will be brought near. (Or Ha-Chaim, Shemot 28:1)
Here the Or Ha-Chaim follows the approach of the Sefer Ha-Bahir: The purpose of a sacrifice is bring a person back to his roots, to his Creator. This idea is also alluded to by the name of the sin-offering, chatat, which denotes cleansing. The Ramban (Vayikra 5:15) explains that the term for a guilt-offering, asham, derives from the shemama, desolation, the person would deserve – if not for his sacrifice, which brings him back to civilization. The repeated appeals that God made to Moshe distanced Moshe from Him; therefore, he is instructed in our parasha to come back by renouncing his honor and his position. It is by bringing Aharon near that Moshe himself returns:
This is the meaning of "you, bring near to you" – bring you near to yourself, to your state, which is distant because of that sin. God meant to inform him that this is his repair. (Or Ha-Chaim, ibid.)
The "sacrifice" that Moshe offers here is not a sacrifice in the plain meaning of the word, but a spiritual sacrifice. He is the one who was supposed to have served Israel, but in actuality, he is instructed to hand over this right to his brother.
Based on this understanding, that suffering and sorrow can bring a person closer to the Shekhina, the Or Ha-Chaim states that he has reached a new understanding of the mishna in Berakhot 9:5 that obligates a person to bless God for the evil in the same way that he blesses Him for the good. At first glance, this demand is exceedingly strange – after all, good is good and evil is evil; should one then recite a blessing over each of them, employing the same wording and the same enthusiasm?
From this I understand what they said at the end of Berakhot (54a), that a person is obligated to bless God for the evil in the same way that he blesses Him for the good. And the Gemara explains (60b) that a person must accept the evil with joy just as he welcomes the good with joy. I have always found this demand a bit difficult. But according to what has been stated, it is afflictions that bring near the branches of the soul that had become detached from their root. For there is nothing as evil and bitter as being estranged from God, and by way of afflictions, the distant will be brought near – and about this, the heart of the enlightened will rejoice. (Or Ha-Chaim, ibid.)
In many cases, afflictions are superficially bad, but on a deeper level, they are actually beneficial and bring a person closer to God. This point can be explained by way of various metaphors: Sometimes a person must, God forbid, undergo a complicated operation or amputate a certain limb that threatens his entire body. A medical procedure of this sort clearly involves great suffering, but at the same time, it is clear and obvious that its purpose is for the good. The same can be said about moral rebuke. It is almost always unpleasant and uncomfortable for a person to hear about his weaknesses and the areas that he needs to strengthen, but often it is precisely this kind of conversation that advances the person. No student likes to receive a poor grade on his report card, but sometimes that is what wakes him up and motivates him to work.
The same is true in the spiritual world; the afflictions that torment us, in the form of illnesses and other calamities in this world, may be directed at bringing us closer to God.
Chazal recognized a concept of "afflictions of love," whose whole purpose is like this, but even "ordinary" afflictions involve a certain purification from and erasure of sin. The Ramban writes about the sin-offering (chatat) that all of its associated rites correspond to the "punishments" that a person would have needed to accept upon himself in the wake of his sin:
It is far more fitting to accept the reason given for [the offerings], namely, that since man's deeds are accomplished through thought, speech, and action, therefore God commanded that when man sins, he should bring an offering, and lay his hands upon it, against the [evil] deed [committed]. He should confess his sin verbally, against his [evil] speech, and he should burn the inwards and the kidneys [of the offering] in fire because they are the instruments of thought and desire in the human being. He should burn the legs [of the offering] since they correspond to the hands and feet of a person, which do all his work. He should sprinkle the blood upon the altar, corresponding to his life-blood. All these acts are performed in order that when they are done, a person should realize that he has sinned against his God with his body and his soul, and that his blood should really be spilled and his body burned, were it not for the lovingkindness of the Creator, who took from him a substitute and a ransom, namely this offering, so that its blood should be in place of his blood, its life in place of his life, and the chief limbs of the offering in place of the chief parts of his body. The portions [given from the sin-offering to the priests], are in order to support the teachers of the Torah, so that they should pray on his behalf. (Ramban, Vayikra 1:9)
IV. The Priestly Garments
The Or Ha-Chaim concludes his commentary on our verse with his eyes looking forward. The verses that follow deal with the priestly garments, and the Or Ha-Chaim explains how it is that Moshe's fashioning of these garments also repaired his sin at the burning bush:
And it says: "And you shall make holy garments [for Aharon your brother,] for splendor and for beauty" (Shemot 28:2). These garments are an expression of joy, that will demonstrate that Moshe wanted Aharon to appear robed in splendor. A person who only carries out a directive under duress would hate to do this. Although these garments were obligatory for the person wearing them, God wanted to allow Moshe to accumulate merit for himself by performing this commandment with affection and joy for his brother. This represented a connection between the souls of Moshe and Aharon. (Or Ha-Chaim, Shemot 28:1)
The priestly garments are part of the priest's identity – "when their garments are on them, their priesthood is on them; when their garments are not on them, their priesthood is not on them" (Zevachim 17b). Therefore, the coronation of Aharon and his sons as priests includes the fashioning of their garments. The Or Ha-Chaim points out that the garments are primarily for splendor and for beauty, the same things Moshe denied at the time of the incident of the burning bush. Moshe at the burning bush was concerned about harming Aharon and his honor – and indeed, only when God promised him that Aharon would see him and be glad in his heart did Moshe agree to go on God's mission, in such a way that Aharon's honor would not be impaired.
Chazal draw a connection between the incident of the burning bush and the priestly garments:
Rabbi Melai said: As a reward for: "And when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart," he merited to wear the breastplate of judgment on his heart. (Shabbat 139a)
It seems that this connection is strengthened in the wake of the Or Ha-Chaim's insight that it was specifically Moshe who was commanded to fashion the garments, in order to repair what was done at the burning bush. Indeed, we see in Aharon's priesthood a mirror image of what happened at the burning bush: At the bush, it was Moshe who took center stage, with Aharon acting of his own free will, going out to greet Moshe and doing so with joy. But God gives Moshe an opportunity to repay Aharon measure for measure. In our parasha, it is Moshe who takes the initiative and acts, and shows honor to Aharon.
The Or Ha-Chaim emphasizes that fashioning the garments also expresses joy. When a person does something under coercion, he does not invest himself in it. The fact that Moshe fashioned Aharon's garments, and not merely as someone who was forced to do so, reinforces the fact that he was happy about Aharon's appointment.
The Or Ha-Chaim even suggests that Moshe was not obligated to make the garments, because the priestly garments come from communal funds, but that he "volunteered" on his own to do so:
Perhaps God meant to say to him that he should fashion the garments of his own money. Even though we learned (Yoma 3:7) that the priestly garments come from communal funds, they said that an individual can donate them and hand them over to the public, and this is what God commanded him to do. (Or Ha-Chaim, Shemot 28:1)
Returning to the beginning of our remarks – the closeness here is from all sides: Aharon draws closer to God through his priesthood, and Moshe draws closer to Him by atoning for his lack of alacrity. As we have seen, Aharon and Moshe also draw closer to each other, with the special emotional bond that exists between two brothers who elevate each other and rejoice in the other's happiness.
(Translated by David Strauss)
[1] A midrash attributed to the Tanna Rabbi Nechunya ben Ha-Kana.
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