민수기 27:21의 주석

ולפני אלעזר הכהן יעמד AND HE SHALL STAND BEFORE ELEAZAR THE PRIEST — Here you have the request that you have made: that this honour should not depart from your father’s house, for Joshua, too, will need Eleazar (Midrash Tanchuma, Pinchas 11).

על פיו יצאו, "at his command they will go out (to war), etc." This was a reference to Moses having said that a leader must be capable of commanding the people to follow him, i.e. ואשר יוציאם. All of this would occur after Eleazar had obtained G'd's approval through consulting the Urim VeTumim, the breastplate of the High Priest whose letters would flash in answer to questions posed to G'd.

ושאל לו במשפט האורים, “He will inquire on his behalf of the Judgment of the Urim.” It is remarkable that the Tumim have not been mentioned here. This appears to prove that the Urim were the principal carriers of the holy names of G’d and that they illuminated the letters on the breastplate of the High Priest from which the latter received the answer to his inquiries from the Lord. The Tumim, apparently only contained the matching letters needed to complete certain words so that the High Priest could make heads or tails of them. Nonetheless, the fact is that the Urim and Tumim always work in tandem. Basically, the two are two sides of the same coin and they reposed inside the folds of the breastplate.
Our sages in Yuma 83 derive from this verse that whereas a decree which issued forth from the mouth of a prophet is reversible, a decree communicated by means of the Urim and Tumim is not reversible. They base this on the expression משפט used in our verse in connection with the Urim. Just as משפט, judgment, is something which cannot be reversed, so an answer provided by means of the Urim and Tumim cannot be reversed.
In our verse G’d tells Moses that Joshua will be in his place and that he and all of Israel shall go out (to war) at his command, i.e. as communicated through the High Priest Eleazar. It is an assurance to Moses that the final authority will not depart from his tribe.

Here is [the reply] to your request. That is to say, how was this matter relevant here, for what relevance did Elozor have to [the appointment of] Yehoshua? (Gur Aryeh) For if not so, why did He command Moshe, He should have commanded Yehoshua directly.

V. 21. ולפני אלעזר הכהן יעמד. Er wird aber nicht als Autokrat eingesetzt, vielmehr hat er in allen Angelegenheiten des nationalen Gesamtinteresses, wo es sich nicht um nach dem geoffenbarten Gesetz zu entscheidendes Recht und Unrecht, sondern um Zweckmäßigkeit oder Zweckwidrigkeit eines allgemeinen Vorhabens handelt, den Gottesausspruch durch die auf der Brust des nationalen Repräsentanten des Gesetzesheiligtums, des כהן גדול, ruhenden Urim zu erfragen und zu befolgen. ולפני וגו׳ יעמוד (siehe zu V. 19) ושאל לו. Elasar erfragt für ihn die Entscheidung der Urim vor Gott (siehe Schmot Kap. 28, Ende). — שאל ב־ gewöhnlicher Ausdruck für: das Erbitten einer Entscheidung durch Gott hinsichtlich eines Unternehmens. So: Richter 20, 18 f.; Sam. I. 10. 23; Sam. I. 22, 10; 23, 2; 28, 6; 30, 8 1 etc. ושאל לו כד׳ ,וישאלו באלקי Daher auch: עמי בעצו ישאל (Hosea 4, 12). Da der nachgesuchte Ausspruch nicht direkt von Gott, auch nicht direkt von den Urim an den Anfragenden gelangt, so scheint dieses ב den Begriff der Vermittlung, Veranlassung, durch zu bedeuten. Der Anfragende erbittet sich durch Gott, d. h. durch seine Veranlassung Antwort. Die Frage ist an Gott gerichtet und Gott veranlasst die Antwort durch die Urim und Elasar. Nicht aber ist Elasar der Veranlasser der Antwort. Er ist selbst nur passives Organ. — על פיו: nach Elasars Ausspruch. וכל העדה, nachdem bereits כל בני ישראל genannt sind, kann hier העדה nur das ב׳׳ד הגדול bezeichnen, wie Kap. 25, 6 u.7 und Wajikra 4, 13.

ולפני אלעזר הכהן יעמוד, “and he will stand in the presence of the High Priest Elazar;” so that he will not consider himself as superior to him and become boastful.

ושאל לו AND HE SHALL ASK OF HIM, whenever he finds it necessary to go forth to war (cf. Targum Jonathan on).

הוא וכל בני ישראל אתו וכל העדה, “he and all the Children of Israel with him and the whole congregation.” Seeing that the “congregation” is part of the term “the Children of Israel,” what is the point of appending this word? It teaches that even Israelites who disagree with Joshua as their new leader are not thereby excluded from the all-encompassing statement “all the Children of Israel.” This means that the dissidents are not free to opt out from the obligations which already devolved upon them as members of “the Children of Israel.”
Our sages in Yuma 73 understand the words וכל העדה to mean the Sanhedrin (Supreme Court), which acts as the eyes of the עדה, i.e. the “unique, special” people of the congregation. When the Torah commanded that just these people had to be presented before Eleazar the High Priest and before “the entire congregation,” this is proof that the sages in Yuma were correct in their interpretation of the words כל העדה in our verse, i.e. those who represented the entire congregation.

The Sanhedrin. [Rashi knows this] because right before [in this verse] it is written, “And all Yisroel with him.” Why then is it necessary to say “And the entire community”? Rather, this refers to the Sanhedrin.

על פיו AT HIS WORD [SHALL THEY GO FORTH] — at Eleazar’s.

וכל העדה AND ALL THE CONGREGATION — the Sanhedrin (Sanhedrin 16a).