Parasha: Tzav · Aliyah: Fourth (Netzach)

קח את אהרון, "take Aaron, etc." This paragraph was revealed to Moses before the Tabernacle was erected, and the reason it was not recorded up until now is to tell us that all the laws pertaining to the various sacrifices were revealed before the details of the consecration rites were revealed. Aaron and his sons had to become priests in order to perform any of the other services in the Tabernacle; this did not happen until Moses had taught him all the details about the various sacrifices and he had undertaken to perform every rite in accordance with what the Torah demanded. Only after he undertook to do this did G'd tell Moses to anoint him and his sons as priests. If this had not been the case, some Israelite might have decided to offer a sacrifice to G'd on the altar in front of the Tabernacle and he would not have known how to proceed.

והקהל העדה, the community was assembled, etc. Perhaps when the people saw Moses taking Aaron, his sons, and the priestly garments, they assembled spontaneously. It is also possible that the verse tells us that G'd ordered the people to assemble around the entrance to the Tabernacle as explained by Vayikra Rabbah 10,9 on the word הקהל in verse 3 and that our verse reports that the people did so.

ויאמר משה …זה הדבר, Moses said:…"this is the word, etc." Moses informed the people of what G'd had said so that they would not register a protest at a later date claiming he had made all these appointments of his own accord. Seeing that the Torah reported here that everything was done at the command of G'd, Korach had no basis for the claim that he had acted inadvertently when he challenged Aaron's position seeing he had been present at this time and had not challenged Moses when the latter presented these appointments as having been made at the direct command of G'd.

It is also possible to explain this verse along the lines of Shemot Rabbah 2,6 and Zevachim 102 that Moses' position was equivalent to that of a king seeing the Torah wrote in Deut. 33,5: "He was king in Yeshurun." We have learned in Ketuvot 17 that even if a king is willing to waive the honour due him he is not allowed to do so. We observe that Moses did things (waived his claim to honour) which even a Jewish servant is not allowed to perform for his master, such as bathing him, etc. In our paragraph Moses is bidden to wash the entire body of Aaron and his sons. There is no more demeaning task that anyone can be asked to perform. This is why the Torah had to introduce this paragraph with the words: "G'd said to Moses to say." Moses explained to the people that if he was seen to perform such a demeaning task it was because G'd had told him to; it did not mean that by doing so he relinquished his claim to the position of king. This was the only demeaning task ever performed by Moses as all others were forbidden to him by his very status. Only G'd who was the One who had appointed Moses as king was in a position to ask him to perform a service not in keeping with a king's dignity.

Furthermore, we may understand what happened in terms of a comment by Torat Kohanim on verse 6: "he washed them in water." They say that the High Priest (and the ordinary priests when required) acquired the merit accompanied by ritual immersion and his washing his hands and feet before each act of service in the Temple on the Day of Atonement. The words זה הדבר אשר צוה ה׳ לעשות, "this is the thing which G'd has commanded to be done," means that these rites were to be performed also in the future, seeing performance of this command granted them the privilege of ritual immersion in the future. [According to ראב׳ד quoted by Malbim the ritual immersion referred to is the the ritual baths the High Priest underwent during the seven days he prepared himself for the Day of Atonement. Ed.]

וימשח את המשכן, He anointed the Tabernacle, etc. Why did the Torah interrupt the report of clothing Aaron in the priestly garments and his being anointed with the report of the Tabernacle being anointed? The reason is presumably that the Torah had reported that Moses was commanded to anoint the Tabernacle before it reported that he had been commanded to anoint Aaron (compare Exodus 40,9). You may argue that it would have been appropriate then for the Torah to report the anointing of the Tabernacle before reporting the dressing of the priests in their garments in order to conform with the order in which the Torah reported the commands as being issued by G'd. The reason Moses did not do so may be found in a detail in verse 2 where G'd had said to Moses: "take Aaron, his sons, the garments, and the oil of anointing." If the anointing of the Tabernacle had been intended to precede the sons of Aaron being dressed in their priestly garments, the Torah should have written as follows: "take the oil of anointing, etc." seeing the Torah wanted the first command to be carried out first. If the Torah had written verse 2 in that order we could not possibly have mistaken its intention. Seeing the Torah first mentioned Aaron, it is clear he was to be anointed first before he was to put on the priestly garments. It was not possible to misinterpret what G'd wanted because the Torah had already said in Exodus 28,41: "dress your brother Aaron and his sons in them and anoint them." It is clear therefore that the Torah intended to have the priests put on the priestly garments prior to anointing the Tabernacle with the oil of anointing. Why is it then that in פרשת פקודי the Torah reported the anointing of the Tabernacle before it reported Aaron being dressed in his priestly garments? We may answer that seeing the Torah did not want to interrupt between the act of Aaron's' getting dressed and being anointed, it wrote all the laws pertaining to Aaron consecutively; this did not mean however, that the anointing of the Tabernacle was to be preceded by anything but the anointment of Aaron himself. This is the point we learn from the sequence of the Torah's report in our chapter.