פירוש על ויקרא 10:4

דד אהרן THE UNCLE OF AARON — Uzziel was Amram’s brother, as it is said (Exodus 6:18) “And the sons of Kehath were [Amram …. and Uzziel]”.

AND MOSES CALLED MISHAEL AND ELZAPHAN, THE SONS OF UZZIEL THE UNCLE OF AARON, AND SAID UNTO THEM: DRAW NEAR, CARRY YOUR BRETHREN FROM BEFORE THE SANCTUARY OUT OF THE CAMP. I have found written in the Torath Kohanim in the section of the consecration:⁷³Torath Kohanim, beginning of Shemini 38. “Rabbi Eliezer says: the sons of Aaron died outside [the Sanctuary], in a place where the Levites [Mishael and Elzaphan] were permitted to enter, as it is said, So they drew near, and carried them in their tunics.⁷⁴Verse 5. If so, why then does it say, and they died before the Eternal?⁷⁵Verse 2. It was an angel who smote them [Nadab and Abihu] and thrust them out of the Sanctuary [and they did not die until they were outside it]. Rabbi Akiba says: they died inside the Sanctuary, as it is said, and they died before the Eternal.⁷⁵Verse 2. If so, why does it say, So they drew near, and carried them in their tunics⁷⁴Verse 5. [since Levites are not permitted to enter the Sanctuary]? They put iron hooks on them, and dragged them and brought them out of the Sanctuary.” Thus far is the text of the Beraitha,⁵¹See Seder Vayikra Note 65. and the meaning thereof is as follows: Even though priests are also forbidden to enter the Sanctuary except at the time of Service,⁷⁶In other words, there is basically no difference between the priests and the Levites as far as the prohibition against a needless entry into the Sanctuary is concerned. If there is a need for it, such as removing an impure object from it, both are permitted [as explained further on in the text] to enter at any time. And if so, why the opinion of Rabbi Akiba that Mishael and Elzaphan put iron hooks on the bodies of Nadab and Abihu in order to remove them from the Sanctuary when they could have gone in directly and remove them? See “The Commandments,” Vol. II, pp. 66-67. this prohibition applies only if they enter it needlessly. But one may enter the Sanctuary in order to remove an uncleanness, or to make Temple repairs. For thus we were taught in the Torath Kohanim:⁷⁷Torath Kohanim, Emor 3:11. “I might think one is not permitted to enter the Sanctuary to make the beaten plates [for a covering of the golden altar, or for the Holy of Holies]; Scripture therefore says, ‘Only’ he shall not go in unto the Veil⁷⁸Further, 21:23. [the word ‘only’ denoting an exception to the general law]; such is their command: priests may go in there [at any time to make the above repairs]. If there are no priests present, Levites may enter. If there are no [ritually] pure ones [priests or Levites], impure ones may go in. If there are no unblemished ones, blemished ones may enter there.” Now on that day [when Nadab and Abihu died] there were no priests present [who could remove them from the Sanctuary where they had died], since [Aaron and his two remaining sons] were expressly commanded that they should not defile themselves for them.⁷⁹Verse 7. — So the question appears: Why did Mishael and Elzaphan have to resort to the use of iron hooks when they could have entered the Sanctuary? The answer is: since it was possible etc. But since it was possible to do it through dragging them out with iron hooks, [Mishael and Elzaphan] were not permitted to enter there. [Such is the opinion of Rabbi Akiba.] But Rabbi Eliezer, who is of the opinion [that an angel thrust Nadab and Abihu out of the Sanctuary, and they died outside, thinks] that since Scripture states of Mishael and Elzaphan, so they drew near,⁷⁴Verse 5. it was outside the Sanctuary [that they died], and therefore he does not say [as does Rabbi Akiba] that they dragged them outside in their tunics. The meaning of the expression in their tunics⁷⁴Verse 5. is that Nadab and Abihu were then dressed in the priestly garments. Moses thus commanded that they carry them out of the camp,⁷⁴Verse 5. and there they should strip them of their priestly garments, and clothe them in burial shrouds, and bury them, as was their custom with other people who died in the desert. After that they purified the sacred garments and they were used by the other priests.

ויקרא משה אל מישאל ואל אלצפן, “Moses called upon Mishael and Eltzafan, etc.“ Torat Kohanim derives from here that priests are forbidden to defile themselves ritually on dead bodies, seeing that neither Ittamar nor Eleazar, the brothers of the deceased, were allowed to perform burial rites on them. This statement raises questions seeing that the Torah specifically permitted priests who are brothers of the deceased to defile themselves, compare Leviticus In view of this, why were Eleazar and Ittamar not permitted to defile themselves here? We need to answer this by saying that even an ordinary priest, on the day when he has been consecrated, is treated as if he were a High Priest who is not allowed to defile himself for the sake of next of kin, except if a deceased has no one else who can attend to his interment, and this tragic death occurred on the very day that Eleazar and Ittamar had been anointed as priests. In light of this, we can now also understand why the Torah (verse 6) here commands both Aaron, Elezar, and Ittamar must not leave the hair of their head unshorn nor rend their garments as a sign of mourning even though elsewhere we do not know of such a restriction applying to ordinary priests. Nachmanides writes that what took place on that occasion was dictated by extraordinary circumstances. There is no question that the High Priest is enjoined not to leave the hair of his head unshorn and not to rend his clothing as a sign of mourning, as he is not allowed to leave the precincts of the Temple during a period when he is supposed to perform his duties in the Temple, in order to attend the funeral of his next of kin. By doing so, he would desecrate the sanctity of the Temple. The reason is that his appointment, i.e. appointment to his position as High Priest, is a round the clock position seven days a week, and this is demonstrated by the Torah demanding that even when in a state of aninut, the period between the death of a near relative and the burial of that relative, a period when performance of the מצוות, commandments is temporarily suspended, he must not abandon his post in the Temple. Ordinary priests, by contrast, are not allowed to perform their duties in the Temple when in such a state of pre-burial mourning for their relatives, the state we call aninut. Seeing that their duties in the Temple are temporarily suspended, they are obligated to attend to the needs of the relative about to be buried. This, obviously, requires that they defile themselves ritually in the process of attending to the needs of the deceased. In this special situation the Torah instructed more distant relatives, uncles, to perform these rites for Nadav and Avihu, This is the meaning of verse 6:ואחיכם כל בית ישראל יבכו את השרפה, “your brethren the whole house of Israel are to weep for the conflagration which Hashem has ignited.” Moses warned Eleazar and Ittamar concerning their ritual status on this exceptional occasion. The dominating consideration on this day was to maximise the joy over G’d’s Shechinah finally having become manifest again among the camp, for the first time since the sin of the golden calf. The sons of Aaron therefore were forbidden to take a leave of absence from their duties in the Tabernacle on pain of death. It is possible that Moses received a direct command from G’d for this special occasion, and did not improvise, even though the Torah did not see fit to record this in our text, which, after all, contains only material the relevance of which transcends time and space. He may also have learned what to do from the more general statement in Leviticus 8,35: ושמרתם את משמרת ה' ולא תמותו, “you shall observe the ordinances of the Lord so that you will not die.” It was clear to Moses that what are referred to there as משמרת ה' also applied to this eighth day of the inaugural offerings. Clearly, it had not been a secret for G’d that the day would come during these eight days when two sons of Aaron would be in the state of aninut, for their two older brothers. In spite of having anticipated this, G’d had formulated at this time already a statute according to which these sons of Aaron were not to leave the holy precincts, even temporarily, were not to observe the rites appropriate for brothers who are in such a state of aninut. They were not to observe any rite that reflected to the outside that they were in a state of mourning. At this particular time, on this special date, they were subject to the same rules as was the High Priest himself. It is even possible that during all the years when Eleazar and Ittamar performed their duties as priests, before they became physically too weak to do so, they conducted themselves exactly as if they had both been Hugh Priests, a good reason being the fact that they had both been anointed with the special oil, just as had their father, but not like their sons who were priests from birth and did not need anointing.