Tafsiran yang Mengutip untuk Maleakhi 2:7

Just as the covenant of circumcision serves two distinct purposes [Genesis 17:1; Genesis 17:11], so it is possible for a single commandment to serve many different purposes — like the commandments of the burnt-offering and other sacrifices: 1) In offering up the appropriate portion at the appropriate time, we who have a portion in the world to come are apportioned proportionately. Thus the word “to atone” literally means “to ransom” (this is evidenced in the beginning of the parasha of Ki Tis̀s̀a [Exodus 30:12], and it explains the phrase “lest he strike us with pestilence” [Exodus 5:3]). 2) The burnt offerings also contain profound allusions to natural history. 3) By studying each sacrifice, one may come fundamentally to understand the nature of sin, and the nature of our obligations to sustain the teachers of the Torah. God called to Moshe Since Scripture has already stated that “Moshe was not allowed…” [Exodus 40:35], God must have called him from within the Tent of Assembly, telling him to enter therein, where He would speak to him. Moshe used to go behind the Partition, where the Glory resided (for so it is written [Exodus 25:22]). The reason for mentioning the sacrifices before the other commandments is that the Divine Presence would depart if they did not keep the law of the daily burnt-offering (which eventually happened). Perish the thought that God should need a burnt-offering! As it is written: “If I were hungry, I would not tell you” [Psalms 50:12]. The subject is admittedly too profound to explain easily.

לאמור אליהם, to say to them. Torat Kohanim on our verse explains the word אליהם, "to them," as a reference to Eleazar and Ittamar. The idea is that these two sons of Aaron were to be acquainted with this legislation before it was to be taught to the entire people. This is based on Eyruvin 54. Perhaps the Torah had in mind to emphasize a point made by the prophet in Maleachi 2,6 that the lips of the priests are to preserve knowledge and that people seek to obtain knowledge of Torah from the priests. The words לאמור אליהם may also reflect what I have explained in connection with Exodus 20,1 that the reason for the word לאמור is that the word emanates from the Supreme G'd and that G'd made an angel out of it and that it was that angel who spoke to Moses. [The concept is that the "word" is something in between a totally abstract concept and something which has at least a semblance of something physical about it. The absolute abstract, i.e. the Essence of G'd, cannot communicate with a human being who is part body by means of something entirely abstract. G'd therefore created an intermediary called an "angel" to accomplish communication by word of "mouth." Ed.] The word לאמור refers to that angel who would communicate with Moses and Aaron. This explanation is not at variance with what our sages said in Torat Kohanim at the beginning of the Book of Leviticus that G'd communicated verbally from the inside of the Tabernacle only with Moses, not with Aaron. What it means is simply that the angel who addressed Moses used the plural form דברו! when addressing him instead of saying to him דבר! (singular). Moses relayed the words to Aaron before he spoke to anyone else.

Seeing that man shares common features with the essence of vegetation as well as with the essence of the mobility of the animals, he had to be equipped with an abstract intelligence in order for him to represent a higher stage of development than the stages of physical phenomena which preceded him. Even though all these facts are something we observe daily with our own eyes, Scripture nonetheless confirmed these facts. This is why we read in Job 35,11: “who gives us more knowledge than the beasts of the earth, makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?” By means of this additional intellect man proceeds to examine both his physical dimension as well as his spiritual dimension. He evaluates their respective worth. When man succeeds in making his spirituality his dominating feature he is likened to מלאך ה' צבאות, “an angel of the Lord G’d of Hosts” (Malachi 2,7), whereas when he allows his physicality to dominate him, placing his intellect into the service of his body, he is compared to the beasts as we know from Psalms 49,21 נמשל כבהמות נדמו, “he is like the beasts that perish (have no afterlife).”
David is at pains to warn man not to allow this to happen when he says (Psalms 32,8) “Let me enlighten you and show you which way to go; let me offer you counsel; my eye is on you.” He warns man further not to follow his “nature,” i.e. physicality, saying in verse nine of the same psalm: “be not like a senseless horse or mule whose movement must be curbed by bit and bridle; far be it from you!”...