פירוש על במדבר 7:10

ויקריבו הנשאים את חנכת המזבח AND THE PRINCES OFFERED FOR DEDICATING THE ALTAR — After they had presented the waggons and the oxen for carrying the Tabernacle, their heart prompted them to present offerings for the altar, in order to dedicate it (Here, ויקריבו denotes: they offered sacrifice).

ויקריבו הנשיאים את חנכת המזבח, they sanctified it.

ויקריבו הנשאים את חנוכת המזבח, The princes brought the dedication-offering for the altar. It appears that all the princes wanted to offer their gifts on the first day on which the altar was being inaugurated, as they all wanted to be part of this inauguration together. G'd, however, said that only one prince per day could offer his respective offering. This is why the Torah added that the period of inauguration extended for the entire twelve days during which the princes offered their gifts (compare wording in verse 11 where the word לחנוכת המזבח appears once more). In this instance G'd did not have to tell Moses "accept it from them!." This means that Moses did not need to obtain G'd's permission to accept these gifts. He had no doubt about G'd's willingness to accept the princes' offerings including the gold and the silver vessels. The only reason that G'd had to involve Himself was that all the princes wanted to bring all their gifts on the same day. I have seen the following comment by Sifri on our verse: "The verse reveals that just as the princes had made free-willed contributions to the materials from which the Tabernacle was constructed so they now contributed for the inauguration of the altar; Moses did not want to accept this from them until he had been instructed to do so by G'd Himself, and that is why the Torah wrote: 'they shall offer their offerings for the inauguration of the altar.'" The author of the Sifri derived this from the apparently superfluous words יקריבו את קרבנם, which he interpreted as permission for Moses to accept the offerings. We must examine why Moses refused to accept these offerings until G'd had given permission for them to be accepted. Perhaps Moses was not sure whether the inauguration of the altar was the province of Aaron and himself or that of the princes. This was especially so seeing the list of princes did not include a representative of the tribe of Levi. Please read what we have written in this connection at the beginning of Parshat Beha-alotcha.

ויקריבו הנשיאים, “the princes brought the offerings, etc.” The נשיאים referred to here are the respective tribal leaders. When the Torah repeats the same words again in the same verse they refer to the celestial counterparts of these tribal heads. You will note that the first time the word נשיאים appears in our verse it has the letter י to show that the word is in the plural, whereas the second time this letter י denoting the plural of the subject is absent. The allegorical message is that the effect of the sacrifice is unifying making a single unit of what had been diverse. This is because the sacrifice was addressed to the One and indivisible Hashem. When we try and reinforce the image of G’d throughout His universe, He in turn demonstrates His unifying power on earth.

Moshe did not accept [the gift] from their hands until… Because if this were not so, what would be meant by “before the altar” and “Hashem said to Moshe…” which comes afterwards (v. 11)? This implies that if Hashem had not said this to him he would not have accepted them. When Hashem said to him “one leader each day…” Even though we do not find that Moshe was uncertain about this, as Rashi explained only (v. 11) “whether in order of their birth…” Nevertheless Hashem Himself answered, without Moshe’s question, lest he err and say that all should bring their offerings on one day. Since all of them had brought forward their offerings together, and they were all zealous in performing the mitzvah, it would have been correct for them to be equal in bringing them, thus Hashem had to say “one leader each day”. Re’m writes that he was also uncertain whether they should all would bring their offerings on one day or each one on his individual day. Immediately Hashem answered him “one leader each day.” See his question and answer there. However, since it was not needed for the explanation I have been brief and not quoted it. Re’m writes that one might wonder how Moshe could have been uncertain as to the order of those offering, whether it was in order of their birth or in the order of the traveling. Surely the order of the traveling was not established until the first of Iyar, as is explained in Parshas Bamidbar (1:1). One answer is that from the time that Moshe was at Mount Sinai for the second set of forty days Hashem informed him that the firstborn were replaced by the Levites and the division of the banners and the order of the traveling of the camps. It appears to me Moshe knew the order of the traveling and the division of the banners from Yaakov, as Rashi explains in Parshas Bamidbar on the verse “each man at his own banner with the insignia…” (2:2) “by the sign their forefather [Yaakov] gave them …” It stands to reason that with the traveling it was also so, because there is no reason for the travels to be different from the banners.

V. 10. ויקריבו הנשאים darauf brachten sie, nicht als נשיאי ישראל als die Häupter der Gesamtheit, sondern als ראשי בית אבתם und נשיאי המטות, als die Stammesfürsten, חנכת המזבח. Wir haben bereits zu Bereschit 14, 14 den Begriff חנך als das Einführen eines Objektes in seine Bestimmung erläutert. Wir haben dort bemerkt, wie diesem Begriffe ein negatives und ein positives Merkmal innewohnt. Es ist eine verneinende und eben dadurch eine um so intensivere Aktivität gewährende Begrenzung. — (Passivität ist dort zu berichtigender Druckfehler. Ebenso das Zitat am Schlusse Kap. 9, 9 soll heißen: 2, 18.) — Die verneinende, den Altar von jeder anderen Bestimmung sondernde Heiligung war bereits durch משיחה ausgedrückt und das Positive seiner Bestimmung zugleich nur durch die würzigen Bestandteile des שמן המשחה (siehe Schmot 30, 25) angedeutet. In die Betätigung dieses positiven Inhalts seiner Bestimmung wollten die Fürsten der Stämme Israels sofort nach seiner משיחה den Altar einführen. Das auf dem Altar als אש אוכלה leuchtende אש דת-Feuer ist ja eine Aufforderung an jeden, sich mit allem, was dieses sein "Ich" umfasst, der Macht des göttlichen Gesetzes zur "Nahrung" des Göttlichen auf Erden und zur Gestaltung alles Irdischen zum "göttlichen Wohlgefallen" hinzugegeben. Dieser stillschweigenden mit dem Moment der vollendeten משיחה ergehenden Aufforderung fühlten sich die Fürsten der Stämme Israels gedrungen sofort zu entsprechen und damit zugleich zu bekunden, wie sie diese mit der משיחה des Altars inmitten der Nation beginnende Wirksamkeit des Heiligtums in der Nation verstünden und beherzigten. Daher uיקריבו הנשאים את קרבנם לפני המזבח, und sie brachten es gleichzeitig und zusammen, die Gleichheit der von ihnen vertretenen Stämme und die Einmütigkeit ihrer Gesinnung dem Gesetzesheiligtum gegenüber damit bezeugend.

ויקריבו הנשיאם את קרבנם לפני המזבח AND THE PRINCES BROUGHT THEIR OFFERING BEFORE THE ALTAR, because Moses would not accept them at their hands until he was so bidden by the mouth of the Almighty (Sifrei Bamidbar 47).

ויקריבו הנשיאים את קרבנם לפני המזבח, after they had sanctified it as a sacrifice the brought it before the altar.

ויקריבו הנשאים, the princes offered, etc. The reason the Torah repeats this expression once more is to tell us that the princes went to the trouble to bring the entire gift up to the entrance of the Tabernacle personally, although this might have been considered below their dignity seeing they were "princes." Another reason why the Torah repeated this expression is that instead of handing their sacrifice over to the priest who was to present (part of) it on the altar, they themselves placed it at the entrance of the Tabernacle close to the altar. They hinted by their action that they wished their respective offerings to be the first to be presented on the altar on that day. When the Torah writes in a similar vein in verse 3 that the princes brought the wagons to the Tabernacle, this also means that they wished their gifts to be the first ones to be accepted by the Temple -treasury on that day.