Illustration Credit: Rivka Tsinman
Commentary פַּרְשָׁנוּת
Aharon and his sons are told to supervise the members of the Kehat family and make sure they all knew exactly what their jobs were:
אַל תַּכְרִיתוּ אֶת שֵׁבֶט מִשְׁפְּחֹת הַקְּהָתִי מִתּוֹךְ הַלְוִיִּם׃
וְזֹאת עֲשׂוּ לָהֶם וְחָיוּ וְלֹא יָמֻתוּ בְּגִשְׁתָּם אֶת קֹדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים
אַהֲרֹן וּבָנָיו יָבֹאוּ וְשָׂמוּ אוֹתָם אִישׁ אִישׁ עַל עֲבֹדָתוֹ וְאֶל מַשָּׂאוֹ׃
Don’t let the Kehat family be cut off from the Levi’im.
Do this for them, so they may live and not die when they approach the most holy things:
Aharon and his sons should go in and assign each of them to their work and what they should carry.
It sounds like the supervision was meant to prevent the Kehat family from being “cut off,” or dying. But why was the Kehat family in danger?
A midrash presents two views.
אָמַר רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן פְּדָת בְּשֵׁם רַבִּי יוֹסֵי בֶּן זִמְרָא מִתּוֹךְ שֶׁהָיְתָה הָאֵשׁ יוֹצֵאת וְשָׁפָה בְּטוֹעֲנֵי הָאָרוֹן הָיוּ מִתְמַעֲטִין. וְהָיוּ כָּל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד רָצִין, זֶה נוֹטֵל אֶת הַשֻּׁלְחָן וְזֶה נוֹטֵל אֶת הַמְּנוֹרָה וְזֶה נוֹטֵל אֶת הַמִּזְבְּחוֹת, וּבוֹרְחִים מִן הָאָרוֹן מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהָיָה מַזִּיקָן. וְהָיָה הָאָרוֹן כְּאִלּוּ מִתְבַּזֶּה, וְהָיָה הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא כּוֹעֵס עֲלֵיהֶם וְשׁוּב הָיוּ מִתְכַּלִּין.
אָמַר לָהֶם הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְמשֶׁה וּלְאַהֲרֹן עֲשׂוּ לָהֶם תַּקָּנָה לִבְנֵי קְהָת כְּדֵי שֶׁלֹא יִכָּרְתוּ מִן הָעוֹלָם…אֶלָּא יָבוֹא אַהֲרֹן וּבָנָיו "וְשָׂמוּ אוֹתָם אִישׁ אִישׁ עַל עֲבֹדָתוֹ וְאֶל מַשָֹּׂאוֹ" (במדבר ד:יט) – כְּדֵי שֶׁלֹא יוּכְלוּ לְהִתְחַלֵּף מֵעֲבוֹדָה לַעֲבוֹדָה וּמִמַּשָֹּׂא לְמַשָֹּׂא.
R. Elazar ben Pedat said in the name of R. Yosei ben Zimra: Fire would come out and burn the people carrying the aron, and some of them would die. So they would all run to grab the shulhan (table) and menorah and mizbehot (altars), and they would run away from the aron because they thought it might harm them. This was like “offending” the aron, and it made God angry at them, and then even more of them would die.
So the Holy Blessed One said to Moshe and Aharon: Make this precaution for Kehat so they don’t get cut off from the world… Have Aharon and his sons come, “and assign each of them to their work and what they should carry” (Bemidbar 4:19) – so that they couldn’t swap jobs and burdens.
According to R. Elazar ben Pedat, carrying the aron was a dangerous job, but running away from it was even more dangerous. God did not want the Kehat family to be completely wiped out, so Aharon was told to make sure people knew their assignments and were not allowed to switch. That way, they couldn’t shirk their responsibilities and run away from the aron.
R. Shmuel has an opposite view:
רַבִּי שְׁמוּאֵל בַּר נַחְמָן אָמַר… אֶלָּא מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהָיוּ יוֹדְעִין שֶׁכָּל מִי שֶׁטּוֹעֵן בָּאָרוֹן שְׂכָרוֹ מְרֻבָּה וְהָיוּ מַנִּיחִין אֶת הַשֻּׁלְחָן וְהַמְּנוֹרָה וְהַמִּזְבְּחוֹת וְכֻלָּן רָצִין לָאָרוֹן לִטֹּל שָׂכָר.
R. Shmuel bar Nahman said: …the problem was actually that they all knew that whoever carried the aron would get the biggest reward. So they would avoid the shulhan and menorah and mizbehot and all run to the aron, in order to collect reward.
- How are these two explanations similar? How are they different?
- What are jobs you have that you would never want to avoid? What are jobs that you’d be happy to skip?
- Why is it so important to keep responsibilities, especially when they’re the ones we least want to do?
- What do you think R. Elazar and R. Shmuel want us to learn about doing jobs that are hard, or jobs that don’t get much recognition?
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