Comentario sobre Números 17:15

ותעצר המגפה. Not a single Israelite was struck by the pestilence from that moment on.

וישב אהרן…והמגפה נעצרה. Aaron returned and the plague had been arrested. The reason the Torah repeats once more that the plague had been arrested is to inform us that even after the cloud of smoke from the incense had dissipated the plague did not break out again. We should not think that the effect of Aaron's offering was limited to while he was in the process of offering incense. We might have thought so in view of what the Torah told us in Exodus 17,11 that Israel's army prevailed over Amalek only while Moses managed to keep his hands raised heavenwards.

וישב אהרן אל משה אל פסח אהל מועד והמגפה נעצרה, “Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and the plague had been arrested.” Seeing that the Torah had already reported in verse 13 that as soon as Aaron put incense in his censer and stood between the living and the dead the plague stopped, why did the Torah have to repeat the fact that the plague had been arrested? The Torah teaches us here that Aaron forced the angel to come to the entrance of the Tabernacle where Moses stood. This is part of what is described in Tanchuma Tetzaveh 15, excerpts of which we have quoted already. When the angel had challenged Aaron’s interference saying that he was an agent of G’d, Aaron had countered that he was an agent of Moses. The angel ridiculed this saying that Aaron was only the messenger of a mortal human being whereas he was the messenger of eternal G’d. Aaron challenged the angel to accompany him to the entrance of the Tabernacle where both G’d and Moses could be found. The angel refused to accompany Aaron until the latter took hold of his loins and dragged him along. The Torah alludes to all this when it reports about Moses’ last day on earth in Deut. 33,11 when he blesses each of the tribes and writes ברך ה' חילו ופועל ידיו תרצה, “may the Lord bless his (Aaron’s) resources and may the work of his hands be pleasing (in the eyes of the Almighty).” This was a veiled reference to Aaron’s performance in our paragraph. Moses wished that future High Priests from the tribe of Levi be similarly successful in their efforts to intercede on behalf of the Jewish people when the need would arise to do so. The whole passage teaches how beloved the offering of incense is in the eyes of the Lord.

We may also understand this repetition in light of the Midrash Tanchuma on that verse who claims that the angel of death refused to take orders from Aaron until Aaron brought him to the entrance of the Tabernacle where he heard from the voice of G'd that he was to desist. The meaning of the word והמגפה would then be a reference to the angel of death who is defined as "the plague." At this juncture the angel of death agreed to become inactive, i.e. to stop killing the people of Israel. Whereas in the previous verse the Torah wrote ותעצר המגפה, in this instance the Torah wrote והמגפה נעצרה. In the previous verse the Torah refers to Aaron's role in stopping the plague although the angel of death had not agreed yet; in this verse the Torah describes that the cause of the plague, i.e. the angel of death himself agreed to desist.