Commentaire sur Le Lévitique 9:6

זה הדבר אשר צוה ה' חעשו, to place the weight of your body with your hands on the sin offering as well as on the burnt offering intended on behalf of the congregation.

זה הדבר אשר צוה ה׳ תעשו, "This is the thing G'd commanded you should do." What precisely does the Torah refer to by the word הדבר? Rashi explains that the reference is to Aaron's offering. [our editions of Rashi on the Torah do not have a commentary by Rashi on this verse. Ed.] This is not the plain meaning of the verse seeing that it addresses the Israelites, i.e. תעשו, (pl) and not Aaron. Perhaps Rashi referred to words in the previous verse: ויקרבו כל העדה ויעמדו לפני השם, that "the whole congregation drew near and stood in the presence of G'd." The Torah was careful there to write in the "presence of G'd," instead of "in front of the Tent of Meeting." The words were altogether superfluous seeing the Torah mentions that all this occured in front of the Tent of Meeting. We may therefore assume that in verse 5 the Torah describes the spiritual preparations made by the people to appear in the presence of the Lord. They achieved a spiritual niveau which made them fit to be in the presence of G'd. When Moses observed this, he added of his own accord in verse 6: "this is the thing which G'd commanded you should do;" Moses told the people that they should always remain on such a spiritual plane that they would be fit to be in G'd's presence. David spoke about this in Psalms 16,8: שויתי ה׳ לנגדי תמיד, "I am ever mindful of the Lord's presence." When doing this he could be assured of what is written in the second half of that verse: כי מימיני בל־אמוט, "so that He (i.e. Torah) is at my right hand and I (David) will never be shaken." The reward for such a spiritual preparation is "the glory of the Lord may appear to you." Another general meaning of the term לפני השם is that there should not be a curtain or barrier between Israel and G'd; Isaiah perceives of the sins of the Jewish people as constituting such a barrier (compare Isaiah 59,2). Accordingly, our verse reports that the Israelites were at peace with their G'd at that time enabling them to appear in the presence of the Lord.

זה הדבר, “this is the thing;” the sacrifices of which we spoke.

'וירא אליכם כבוד ה, in addition to the manifestation of G’d’s presence already experienced by the Presence of G’d filling the Tabernacle. (compare verse 23)

After I had written this I found a comment in Bamidbar Rabbah 12,8 on this verse which goes as follows: "What is the meaning of זה הדבר? It refers to circumcision. The same expression occurs in Joshua 5,4 when it describes the fact that Joshua circumcised all the Jewish males who had been born in the desert immediately after the people crossed the river Jordan." Thus far the Midrash. Actually, what do the two events have in common? After all Moses did not circumcise anyone on the day Aaron assumed the office of High Priest!

I believe we must distinguish between circumcising the foreskin of the body and removing the "foreskin" of the heart, the קליפה, the peel, which makes us unreceptive to G'd's commands. Moses commanded the people to rid themselves of that foreskin in order to qualify for being in the presence of the Lord. If they were to do this the glory of G'd would appear to them.

I have seen yet another Midrash quoted in Torat Kohanim on our verse which goes as follows: The words זה הדבר refer to Moses urging the Jewish people to remove the evil urge from their hearts so that all of them would be of a single purpose and share the same sense of reverence for G'd as a result of which they would merit to serve in the presence of the Lord. Moses promised the people that their service of the Lord would be something unique as it is written "and you shall circumcise the foreskin of your hearts (Deut. 10,16), etc." Moses added: "when you do this, the verse 'the glory of G'd will appear to you' will be fulfilled."