Commentaire sur Les Nombres 28:6

העשיה בהר סיני WHICH WAS OFFERED BY MOUNT SINAI — i.e., like those continual burnt offerings which were offered during the days of the installation ceremony (which took place whilst the people were encamped by Mount Sinai). — Another explanation of העשיה בהר סיני is: It compares the continual burnt offering to the burnt offering of Mount Sinai — to that which was offered on the fifth day of the third month, before the Giving of the Torah (see Rashi on Exodus 19:11), of which it is written, (Exodus 24:6) “And he put it (the blood) in basins”: this teaches, therefore, that it (the continual burnt-offering) requires a vessel for the reception of the blood (Sifra, Tzav, Chapter 18 8).

עולת תמיד העשויה בהר סיני, before the sin of the golden calf when there was not yet a need to accompany this sacrifice with libations.

העשויה בהר סיני, “which was instituted at Mount Sinai.” This is a reference to the offerings brought daily during the inaugural procedures of the Tabernacle (Exodus 29). This was a period prior to the attribute of כבוד moving from the top of the mountain to the top of the Tabernacle. The wording here seems to suggest that after their stay around Mount Sinai the Israelites did not continue to offer these burnt-offerings in the desert at all. In Chagigah 6 Rabbi Eleazar understands the words עולת תמיד העשויה בהר סיני as meaning that the relevant procedures were taught at Mount Sinai whereas the offerings were not offered there at all. Rabbi Akiva, however, understood the verse to mean that this procedure was first introduced at Mount Sinai. [Presumably prior to the building of the Tabernacle, as the Tabernacle was not built till nine months after the sin of the golden calf. A better explanation is that of Tosafot that the disqualification of the Israelites was the sin of the spies. This leaves other problems. Ed.] and never again interrupted. This poses the problem of a verse in Amos 5,25: “the meat-offerings and gift-offerings which you offered to Me during the forty years in the desert.” Why did the prophet not mention the burnt-offerings offered during that period? The answer given is that during those 40 years the daily-burnt-offering represented only the tribe of Levi who had not been guilty of the sin of the golden calf and who therefore were not out of grace. This teaches that even according to the view of Rabbi Akiva who holds that once introduced this procedure was not abandoned even temporarily, the meaning of the offering was different.

Like those which were done during the days of inauguration. Meaning that when the Torah wrote, העשויה בהר סיני [lit. "that was offered at Mount Sinai"] it implied that these had already been offered at Mount Sinai. So why then was it necessary to offer it here? Rashi answers that it was “like those…” meaning that he ‘amends’ the verse as if it had said כהעשויה ["as was done"] with a [letter] kaf indicating comparison.

V. 6. עולת תמיד וגו׳. Wir haben Schmot 29, 40 mit Hinblick auf die Tatsache, dass der Altar in Ezechiel הראל "Gottesberg" genannt wird, und auf den Vers Ps. 68 ד׳ בם סיני בקדש, die Vermutung geäußert, dass auch hier der Altar geradezu: הר סיני genannt werde und der Altar mit dem Altarfeuer den Sinai mit dem אש אוכלה auf seinem Gipfel im Gesetzesheiligtum vergegenwärtige. Aufs innigste würde dies mit der Tendenz dieser wiederholten Tamidlehre übereinstimmen. Es wird damit das Tamidopfer zu einem sich ewig fortsetzenden, täglich sich erneuernden נעשה ונשמע-Gelöbnis, mit welchem die Nation der Gesetzesoffenbarung am Sinai begegnete לggg und zuerst in den Bund des Gesetzes eintrat. Ist doch das עולה in der Tat nichts. anderes, als die Gelobung ewigen Fortschrittes in Erfüllung und Erkenntnis. Diese stets erneute Hingebung an das אש אוכלה בהר סיני vollzieht sich aber nur in der Hingebung des עולה und מנחה an das אש על המזבח, nicht aber in dem נסוך היין, der in den Altargrund gegossen wird. Daher fasst hier das עולת תמיד eben nur עולה ומנחה zusammen, es als das עולת תמיד העשויה בהר סיני zu kennzeichnen, und folgt dann erst im folgenden Vers ונסכו usw.

עולת תמיד העשויה בהר סיני, “it is a continual burnt offering which was offered at Mount Sinai. In other words, this practice began when the Jewish people were encamped around Mount Sinai, as we know from Exodus 24,5: וישלח את נערי בני ישראל ויעלו עולות, “Moses sent forth the young men of the Children of Israel and they offered burnt offerings. He intended that this practice should remain in use forever.