Commento su Levitico 16:2

יבא‎ ויאמר ה׳ אל משה דבר אל אהרן אחיך ואל AND THE LORD SPOKE UNTO MOSES, SPEAK UNTO AARON THY BROTHER THAT HE COME NOT [AT ALL TIMES INTO THE HOLY PLACE]! THAT HE DIE NOT as his sons have died (Sifra, Acharei Mot, Section 1 4).

SPEAK UNTO AARON THY BROTHER. The meaning of the epithet thy brother is that “you are to warn him because he is your brother, for even though you are not under this prohibition against coming [into the holy place at all times, thus you might think that Aaron, too, is not subject to this restriction, since he is your brother, nonetheless] Aaron, your brother, is under the prohibition against coming [into the holy place at all times].”
Now Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra commented that this Scriptural section indicates that Aaron’s sons [died because they] brought the fire of incense into the innermost part of the Sanctuary.¹²I.e., the Holy of Holies. This explains, according to Ibn Ezra, why He mentioned here the death of Aaron’s sons, and then followed it up with the admonition against the priests entering at all times into the holy place within the Veil (M’kor Chayim). But in my opinion this is not correct. For the verses which mention their sin always say, when they offered ‘strange’ fire before the Eternal.¹³Numbers 3:4. Ibid., 26:61. And if [you accept as] proof that they entered into the innermost part of the Sanctuary, the prohibition with which G-d warned Moses concerning their father [i.e., Aaron], so that he die not [as Ibn Ezra said], then [you should] certainly accept as proof [that they died because] they entered the Sanctuary whilst intoxicated by wine, the prohibition that was said to Aaron himself immediately after their death, [Drink no wine nor strong drink etc.]!¹Above, 10:9. Moreover, how could it have occurred to them to enter on that day the [innermost] part [of the Sanctuary] which [even] their father did not enter, for Aaron burnt the incense on the “inner” altar [which stood in the Sanctuary proper], and why should they bring in their incense to a place further inside [the Sanctuary] than their father! Now I have already hinted at the nature of their sin,¹⁴Above, 10:2. and the language of the verses point thereto. But the expression ‘b’korvatham’ (when they approached) [does not mean, as Ibn Ezra interpreted it, “when they approached by entering the innermost part of the holy place”, but] according to its plain meaning is like the expression ‘uv’korvatham’ (and when they come near) to the altar¹⁵Exodus 40:32. to minister.¹⁶Or when they come near to the altar to minister (ibid., 30:20). Thus the verse here is stating that Aaron’s sons died when they ministered before G-d. If so, [the sense of the warning here] is that He warned Aaron that he should only minister in the place which He commands [that it be done], and at the time He specifies for it.
It is possible that the sense of the verse is similar to that which our Rabbis have said,¹⁷Mechilta, Beshalach Vayasa 6. See also Rashi, Numbers 17:13. that the people were speaking perversely of the incense, saying, “Through it Nadab and Abihu [Aaron’s sons] died etc.” Therefore Scripture stated that after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Eternal with the incense, He said to Aaron that he should come even nearer before the Eternal than they did, and with incense, for if he comes into the holy place [i.e., the Holy of Holies] without the incense, he will die, for with it he shall enter there first, just as He said, and he shall bring it within the Veil … and the cloud of the incense will cover the ark-cover that is upon the testimony, that he die not.¹⁸Further, Verses 12-13. According to tradition the High Priest first entered the Holy of Holies, and then put the incense upon the censer containing the coals of fire from the altar that stood in the outside Court. This Service, as will be explained further on, was done only on the Day of Atonement. This then is the meaning of the phrase [here in Verse 2 before us], for I will appear in the cloud upon the ark-cover, meaning that he [Aaron now, and the High Priest in succeeding generations] is only to enter there with the incense whose cloud rises up there [upon the ark-cover], even as He said, and the cloud of the incense will cover the ark-cover.¹⁹Verse 13. Thus it will be shown that it is not the incense which brings death, for here Aaron went into the Sanctuary even further than his sons did, and he was protected by the incense. People will thus conclude that it is sin that brings death, and not the incense. This is clearly the trend of Ramban’s thought.

ויאמר ה׳ אל משה, G'd said to Moses, etc. The Torah employs the "soft" language usually associated with the word אמור, although the subject matter is a dire warning according to Rabbi Eleazar ben Azaryah. The very warning was a demonstration of G'd's loving concern for Aaron, just as the physician who warned the patient of the consequences of not following his advice did so out of concern for the life of his patient.

כי בענן אראה על הכפורת. According to the plain meaning of the text, we are told that G’d would become manifest by means of the cloud which hovers over the spot where the lid of the Holy Ark is situated within the Tabernacle. Compare Exodus 25,22 where G’d told Moses: “I will speak with you from above the כפורת from the area between the two cherubs.” If the priest would see this area with his own eyes he would die. Therefore, when he would enter the Tabernacle (Holy of Holies) on the Day of Atonement to burn the incense and sprinkle the blood of the bull and ram of the sin offering on the dividing curtain, the cloud would first wrap the entire Tabernacle into darkness so that he would not be able to see what he was not allowed to see.

ויאמר ה' אל משה, “Hashem said to Moses,” I am greatly perturbed by this apparent repetition. We have already been told that G’d spoke to Moses, without hearing what He said to him. Our verse appears as if G’d is rephrasing the tenor of what He was about to say without having said anything as yet. We do not know if G’d had interrupted Himself by speaking on some other subject first, the details of which have been withheld from us. Is the word ויאמר merely indicative of G’d taking up the broken thread of a previous conversation? Some commentators claim that the subject of G’d’s message in verse one was the legislation about the red heifer, the ashes of which would be used to purify the people who had been involved in the burial of Nadav and Avihu who had become ritually impure through their handling the corpses. According to that version, the message contained as part of verse one was delivered still on the same day these sons died, i.e. the first of Nissan, whereas in verse two we deal with what G’d told Moses on the second day of Nissan. According to that, the remains of the red heifer were burned on the second day of Nissan, and the Torah now instructs Moses that the ashes would be used to purify people who had become ritually polluted through contact with dead bodies. In order to make this clear, the Torah refers once more to the death of the two sons of Aaron, to indicate that the ashes of the red heifer are used in purifying those who had become impure through their participation in the burial of these two people.

דבר אל אהרן אחיך ואל יבא בכל עת אל הקדש, “speak to your brother Aaron -he shall not come at all times to the Sanctuary, etc.” The additional words: “so that he shall not die,” are an implied warning that what happened to his sons might otherwise happen to him. Our sages illustrated this by a parable, saying the matter is similar to a physician who enters the room of the patient telling him not to eat cold food and not to lie down on wet ground. A second physician comes and gives the patient similar instructions, adding: “so that you will not die like another patient who ignored this warning and died.” The second physician’s warning is more likely to be effective than that of the first.

For if he enters, he dies. Rashi needs to say this. Because according to his explanation that the verses are a parable of two doctors, and that the second doctor gave a greater warning — so that you do not die in the way so and so died, you might ask that the verse only writes “that he not die,” and does not write that if he comes in he will die. Instead [it writes] that if he does not come in he will not die, which implies, the way his sons did not come in and did not die. Rashi answers that the words “that he not die” also hint that if he comes in he will die, because from the negative you infer the positive.

Speak to your brother Aharon. This was already interpreted in Toras Kohanim that the same thing applies to his sons; regular kohanim are included in this warning. If so, why does it say “to Aharon” and not “to Aharon and his sons”? It must be that this section was said solely to Aharon, as it says in the Midrash Rabbah on this section: Aharon was permitted to enter into the Holy of Holies every day. However, it had to be with this preparation. This is derived from here because Yom Kippur was not mentioned in all this matter until afterwards. His sons, on the other hand, were only permitted to enter on Yom Kippur.

ויאמר ה' אל משה דבר אל אהרן אחיך ואל יבא בכל עת אל . the Lord said to Moses: “tell your brother Aaron not to enter the Holy of Holies at any time of your choosing, etc;”This paragraph, even though it deals with the laws of the Day of Atonement, was told to Moses on the day the Tabernacle had been erected , because on that very day the two sons of Aaron had died already because they had entered the Holy of Holies unnecessarily, and unbidden. As a result, the Torah warned Aaron, and of course everyone else. You might well ask why this paragraph had not been appended to the paragraph in Parshat Sh’mini, where we have been told what happened to these two sons of Aaron and what they had done? (Leviticus 10,11) The reason may be that even after learning about all the laws of impurity that disqualify a person in many instances from remaining within the camp of the Israelites, much less that of the priests and the Temple, we had not yet heard if these sons of Aaron had sinned deliberately or had committed merely an error, albeit with the best of intentions. Nor had we been told what manner of atonement would be appropriate for people who commit such a sin inadvertently. This is why the Torah continues here in verse 16: וכפר על הקודש, “he shall make atonement (the High Priest) for the holy place.”'בקרבתם לפני ה, “when they had approached the face of the Lord and died as a result.” (verse 1) They had deposited their incense on the golden altar inside the Sanctuary, illegally.

ולא ימות THAT HE DIE NOT — for if he comes into the Holy of Holies at any time other than Yom-Kippur he will die (Sifra, Acharei Mot, Section 1 4).

THAT HE COME NOT AT ALL TIMES INTO THE HOLY PLACE WITHIN THE VEIL. The meaning of the expression at all times is that since He had already mentioned the Day of Atonement, saying, And Aaron shall make atonement upon the horns of it [i.e., the golden altar which stood within the Sanctuary] once in the year,²⁰Exodus 30:10. therefore He stated here that Aaron is not to come at any time into the holy place [within the Veil], except with this²¹Verse 3 here. [procedure], that is to say, on the day that he brings these offerings to effect atonement. Later on in this section He explains with what Aaron shall enter, just as He said, and he shall bring it within the Veil,²²Verse 12. and then He specifies the day, that it be in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month,²³Verse 29. and then He states again that it be [only] once in the year.²⁴Verse 34.

דבר אל אהרן אחיך, “speak to your brother Aaron.” Nachmanides writes that the reason G’d mentioned that Aaron was Moses’ brother, [something that all of us have been aware of for a long time, Ed.] was that G’d meant to emphasise that although Moses was not included in the injunction not to enter the Tabernacle at any time, Aaron was subject to such constraints.

כי בענן אראה על הכפורת, “for in a cloud I will appear above the kapporet.” The Torah was careful not to write: כי אראה בענן על הכפורת. Had the Torah written these words in that order the meaning would have been that G’d appears inside the cloud. If that were so, what distinction did the High Priest enjoy over the rest of the people of Israel? They all witnessed a Presence of the Lord within the cloud on a year-round basis, or at least every time the Torah wrote והנה כבוד ה' נראה בענן, “and here the glory of the Lord had appeared within the cloud.” This was an appearance visible to all the people. They did not have to enter any Sanctuary in order to become aware of it. There are several other instances where all the people witnessed such a manifestation of G’d’s glory (Exodus 33,10). In our verse the meaning of the words is that after Aaron enters the Sanctuary [Holy of Holies] in a cloud of incense the glory of G’d previously encased in the cloud will leave that cloud and take up its position on top of the kapporet. In order for us to understand this clearly, the Torah wrote the words אראה על הכפורת as a single sequence without interposing the word בענן. Actually, in that Holy of Holies the glory of G’d would be situated on top of the kapporet on the other days of the year also; only Aaron, or anybody else, were not allowed to enter that Inner Sanctuary except on Yom Kippur. The cloud of incense (which normally was offered in the Outer Sanctuary, daily,) was needed in order to ensure that Aaron would not behold that glory with fatal consequences for himself.
Our sages (in Yuma 53) understand the words כי בענן אראה על הכפורת to mean that G’d’s glory would appear within the cloud of the incense. As a result of such considerations the incense had to be offered in the Holy of Holies (the site of the kapporet) The High Priest was not to make the entire incense ready before he entered. [the view of the Sadducees, whose High Priests were so scared that their mentors could have been wrong that they declined to perform this service on the Day of Atonement for fear of dying. Ed].
In fact, the wording of verse 13 in our chapter, “the cloud of the incense shall cover the kapporet over the testimony” (the Holy Ark) will ensure that the High Priest will not die. It is stated clearly in the verse previous that the High Priest enter beyond the dividing curtain into the Inner Sanctuary before placing the incense on the fire. This is the reason why the Talmud, according to Rava, understands why this legislation was repeated. The first time the Torah had to issue the instructions not to enter at will. The second time was the warning that unless he performed in accordance with these instructions the High Priest would die.

For I constantly appear. According to this explanation, כי is a reason for the above, the cause why the person who comes into the Holy dies. Thus the word כי here means “because,” like every כי in Scripture. And בענן means an actual cloud. Rashi explains further “For I constantly appear,” because the word אראה is [usually] in the future tense. Therefore Rashi explains אראה [here] as meaning “I appear” which is a present participle, since Hashem’s appearing in the future would not cause someone to die.

Alternatively, G'd demonstrated how much He valued Moses by showing that even when His message concerned primarily Aaron He did not address Aaron with that message but Moses. We may understand the very words ויאמר ה׳ אל משה in a way similar to Deut. 26,18: וה׳ האמירך היום, "and G'd achieved by speaking to you this day, etc." Bamidbar Rabbah 14,21 comments on this that even where we find the Torah reporting that G'd "spoke to Moses and Aaron," the meaning is that Moses was to tell Aaron what G'd had said to him. Our verse then is proof of that statement seeing that G'd addressed Moses even when the commandment He wanted to communicate was addressed exclusively to Aaron.

אל פני הכפורת אשר על הארון, “before the cover of the Holy Ark;” why did the Torah have to write that the lid was on the Holy Ark, when we have all been familiar with this? The reason is that we read in connection with the curtain dividing the Sanctuary from the Holy of holies [in which the Holy Ark and this cover stood, Ed.] וסכות על הארון, “you shall screen the Ark with the veil.” (Exodus 40,3) This could have confused us into thinking that the dividing curtain was considered as a cover for the Holy Ark [seeing it screened it from all human eyes except once a year on the Day of Atonement. Ed.] We have therefore been taught that it was not the function of the dividing curtain to serve as a cover for the Holy Ark. ולא ימות, “so that he will not die as a result.” Now that we have heard the penalty for this sin, where do we find the warning not to commit this sin? It is part of the words: כי בענן אראה על הכפורת, “for I am capable of being seen above the lid.” [And we know that G-d had told Moses that no human being while connected to its body is granted the privilege to have a visual image of G-d’s essence. (Exodus 33,20) Ed.] כי בענן אראה על הכפורת, “for I will only appear screened by a cloud above the lid.” We have another verse explaining the same in Kings I 8,12: ה' אמר לשכון בערפל, “the Lord has said (of Himself) that He resides within a thick cloud.”

כי בענן אראה means, for I constantly show Myself there with My pillar of cloud, and because the revelation of My Shechinah takes place there he should take care not to make it his habit to come there. This is the literal meaning of the verse. The Halachic explanation is: He shall not come into the Holy of Holies except with (i.e. on the occasion when he is going to raise) a cloud of incense on the Day of Atonement (Yoma 53a).

He had already been told to enter the Holy of Holies only once a year on the Day of Atonement, as we know from Exodus 30,10 וכפר אהרן על קרנותיו אחת בשנה, “he is to secure atonement on its corners once a year by the sin offering of atonement, etc. This is what has been referred to in our verse here.

Except with the cloud of incense [on Yom Kippur]. According to the explanation of our Rabbis [the Midrash], it seems that כי here means “except,” i.e., he shall not come to the Holy except with the cloud of incense on Yom Kippur, and [the verse calls it a cloud] because the smoke of the incense is like a cloud. This differs from the previous explanation where Rashi said it meant “a pillar of cloud,” i.e., that the Divine Presence rests inside. Rashi does not mean that he comes in from outside with the cloud of incense, as this is the opinion of the Sadducees. He is only excluding his earlier interpretation where he said it was the cloud where the Divine Presence resides. Regarding Rashi saying “on Yom Kippur,” Rashi himself soon explains that the whole section is talking about Yom Kippur.

ואל יבא, and that he must not enter, etc. In addition to the reason we offered previously for the unusual letter ו at the beginning of a message, we may say that inasmuch as Moses had told Aaron on the very first day of his anointment as High Priest to go ahead and offer his sin-offering on the outer altar (Leviticus 9,7) the meaning was that it was only the altar situated in the courtyard which Aaron had unrestricted access to. Our sages derive this from the principle called לאו הבא מכלל עשה, that the wording of a positive commandment contains within it a negative commandment which was not spelled out by the Torah specifically. The letter ו in the word ואל provides the clue to that negative commandment.

בכל עת, at all times. The implication is that there are times when Aaron would be permitted to enter the Holy of Holies. Details of this are mentioned later beginning with the words בזאת יבא אהרון אל הקודש. Once every year Aaron was to enter the Holy of Holies. The reason the Torah had to introduce this information by the negative commandment that Aaron was not to enter the Holy of Holies before mentioning the exception, was to tell him that if he refrained from entering the Holy of Holies during the rest of the year he would merit entering the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. If, however, he were to enter the Holy of Holies during any other period he would forfeit the opportunity of entering it on the Day of Atonement at a time when permission had been granted. The Torah chose the expression בכל עת, so as to prohibit entering the Holy of Holies even on the Day of Atonement except in order to perform certain regulated activities, i.e. to burn incense and to splash blood of two sacrifices onto the dividing curtain. When we keep this in mind we derive another meaning from the letter ו at the beginning of the words ואל יבא. The letter relates to an additional warning. Aaron was not only not to enter the Holy of Holies except on the Day of Atonement, but even on that day he was to enter it only for the purpose designated in our chapter. In Torat Kohanim they derive the prohibition of entering the Holy of Holies on the other days from the words אל הקודש. The reason is that the Torah could have written merely the words מבית לפרוכת and I would have known what was meant. The additional words אל הקודש therefore became available for exegesis. Do not concern yourself with the letter ו at the beginning of the word ואל. It is not unusual for the Torah to write such a letter in such a context. We have proved this at length on other occasions.

כי בענן אראה על הכפורת, "for I will appear in a cloud above the ark-cover." Seeing the Torah had reported G'd's cloud of glory as becoming visible to the entire people in Leviticus 9,23, the Torah had to tell us that there was an even greater proof of G'd's presence in the form of a light of a celestial source above the ark-cover.