Komentarz do Wyjścia 19:6

ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים AND YE SHALL BE UNTO ME A KINGDOM OF כהנים — i. e. princes, just as you say, (II Samuel 8:18) “And the sons of David were princes (כהנים)”, which cannot denote priests since his sons were of the tribe of Judah and not of Levi, the priestly tribe.

A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS. This means that you shall be a kingdom of My servants.

ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים, this will make you special for only you will be a kingdom of priests, by teaching and instructing all of mankind to call out in the name of G’d and for all to serve him together. This was to be a forerunner of what will happen in the distant future as predicted by the prophet Isaiah 61,6 “and you will be proclaimed ‘priests’ of the Lord.” This is also the true meaning of כי מציון תצא תורה, “the Torah emanates from Zion.” (Isaiah 2,3) [This statement is attributed to the nations of the world at that time.

ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים "And you shall be unto Me a nation of priests, etc." Why did the Torah have to write the word ואתם, seeing that it addresses the same people it has addressed in the preceding verse? Perhaps the Torah now addresses Moses and Aaron; whereas up to this point G'd spoke to the entire nation and made them into an עם סגולה, Moses and Aaron might well wonder how they themselves would be special after all of Israel had been elevated spiritually to such a high level. G'd tells them, therefore, i.e. ואתם, that Aaron and his sons would be a kingdom of priests, whereas Moses and his family would be גוי קדוש, a holy nation. The Torah has used similar language in Numbers 8,17-18.

ממלכת כהנים, princes; we find this term used in a similar sense when applied to the children of David who were not priests in the hereditary sense such as the sons of Aaron. Compare Samuel II 8,18 ובני דוד כהנים היו, “and the sons of David were ‘priests.’”

ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש, “a Kingdom of Priests, a holy nation.” Nachmanides understands the termממלכת כהנים as a kingdom that takes care and preserves intact My statutes, A nation that cleaves to the Holy G’d, as stipulated in Leviticus 19,2 “be holy, for I, the Lord, your G’d am holy.” This implies a promise by G’d to His people covering its existence both on earth and beyond.

(Ibid. 6) "And you shall be unto Me": I am not setting up any others over you, but only "Me." And thus is it written (Psalms 121:4) "He will not slumber and He will not sleep, the (sole) Keeper of Israel." "a kingdom of Cohanim": I do not crown kings from the peoples of the world, but only from you. And thus is it written (Song of Songs 6:9) "She is one, My dove, My perfect one, etc." R. Eliezer, the son of R. Yossi Haglili says: Whence is it derived that every one of Israel will have sons like those who left Egypt? From (Psalms 45:17) "In place of your fathers will be your sons." If "sons," I might think (even) the sick and the humble. It is, therefore, written (Ibid.) "You will make the princes." If "princes," I might think merchants. It is, therefore, written (here) "a kingdom." If a king, I might think that he reverts to being a conqueror. It is, therefore, written "Cohanim," "idlers" (from war), as in (II Samuel 8:18) "And the sons of David were Cohanim." Variantly: From here ("a kingdom of Cohanim") it is derived that all of Israel were fit to eat of the offerings — until they made the golden calf. Once they made the golden calf, it (i.e., the status of Cohanim) was taken from them and given to the (official) Cohanim, as it is written (Jeremiah 50:17) "A scattered sheep is Israel, harried by lions … first it was devoured by Nevuchadnezzar, king of Bavel, etc." It (Israel) is compared to a sheep. Just as a sheep, when one of its lambs is smitten, all of its lambs feel it, so, Israel, if one of them is smitten, all of them feel it. As opposed to the nations of the world. If one of them is killed, all of them rejoice in his downfall. "and a holy nation": They are called "a holy nation," as it is written (I Chronicles 17:21) "And who is like Your nation, Israel, one nation in the land," holy of holies, separate from the peoples of the world and from their abominations. "These are the things" — not less and not more; "that you shall speak to the children of Israel" — in this order.

V. 6. und gerade für diese Bestimmung der gesamten Erde sollt ihr mir ein ממלכת כהנים und ein גוי קדוש sein. ממלכת כהנים, jeder einzelne von euch soll dadurch, dass er sich in seinem ganzen Tun von mir "regieren" lässt, in Wahrheit עול מלכות שמים auf sich nimmt und verwirklicht, ein כהן, ein Priester sein, der durch sein Wort und Beispiel die Erkenntnis und Huldigung Gottes verbreitet, wie es Jesaias 61, 6 ausgesprochen ist: "Ihr aber werdet Priester Gottes genannt werden, Diener unseres Gottes wird man euch nennen;" und גוי קדוש, und, wie priesterlich in jedem einzelnen, so soll eure Gesamterscheinung nach außen eine Gott heilige sein; ein einziges Volk unter den Völkern, das nicht dem eigenen Ruhm, der eigenen Größe, der eigenen Verherrlichung, sondern der Begründung und Verherrlichung des Reiches Gottes auf Erden angehört; und auch dieses wieder eben dadurch, daß es seine Größe nicht in der Macht, sondern in der absoluten Herrschaft des göttlichen Sittengesetzes sucht; denn das eben heißt לא פחות ולא יותר ,אלה הדברים וגו׳ — .קדושה, wie die Weisen erläutern, nicht weniger und nicht mehr. Ein Minderes genügt nicht für eure Zukunft, und eines Mehreren bedarf es nicht.

ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים “You are to become for Me, a kingdom of priests.” All this is the result of My fondness for you and My authority to do so since I own the universe.

אלה הדברים THESE ARE THE WORDS — these neither fewer nor more (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 19:6).

AND A HOLY NATION. I.e., to cleave unto the Holy G-d, just as He said, Ye shall be holy, for I the Eternal your G-d am Holy.¹⁶⁴Leviticus 19:2. Thus He has assured them [of life] in this world and in the World to Come.¹⁶⁵See Seder Beshalach, Note 346.

וגוי קדוש, never to disappear from the stage of history. You will continue forever to exist as one man, as it will be in the distant future of which the prophet Isaiah 4,3 said “those who survive in Zion and those who will be left over in Jerusalem, all those who are inscribed for life in Jerusalem- shall be called ‘holy’.” [the author is making the point that somebody called קדוש is by definition immortal. Ed.] Our sages in Sanhedrin 92 describe this concept in the following words: “just as He, the Holy One, is forever, so the Jewish people are forever.” It had been G’d’s intention to make the Jewish people immortal at the time of the revelation at Mount Sinai, giving them the status that Adam had enjoyed before he sinned. Alas, just as Adam had sinned and had become mortal in Gan Eden, the Jewish people sinned with the golden calf and suffered the same fate as first man. The disaster is documented in Exodus 33,6 “the Children of Israel had to divest themselves of their jewelry which had been given them at Mount Chorev.”

Another way of explaining this word is that it introduces a new reality; from this moment on Israel would be included in G'd's celestial retinue. In the celestial regions G'd has many servants who are all known as כהנים, priests. He also has a host which is described as קדוש, holy, as we know from Daniel 8,13. G'd is telling the Israelites that as of now He is substituting the Jewish people for these celestial servants known as ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש. We find proof of this when G'd instructs the Jewish people to build a terrestrial Sanctuary for Him in their midst. We find that G'd repeated this concept when He said to the Jewish people in Leviticus 11,44: "you will become holy." The word ואתם was designed to convince the Israelites that G'd did not speak about something which would occur at some time in the future when soul and body would be separated after death, but it would occur right now, i.e. ואתם, "to you" who are still body and soul combined. We have found that the righteous amongst Israel actually achieved this level, that they are called both "angels, and holy." Sanhedrin 93 teaches that man's ability to rise to lofty spiritual levels by means of the Torah is such that he can attain levels even superior to that of the celestial angels.

There is another aspect to the meaning of being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. We have explained in connection with the meaning of סגולה that there are sparks of holiness scattered throughout the globe and that it is the task of the Jewish people to attract these sparks and fuse them into a solid body of holiness. The Jewish people themselves have also been described as עם סגולה. The Torah wanted to be sure that we understand that the סגולה represented by the Jewish people, the "collectors of holy sparks" is greater than the סגולה of the sparks, i.e. the items to be collected. The Torah does this by conferring on the Jewish people the additional title "kingdom of priests and holy nation." Priesthood and Holiness are different degrees of sanctity; this is why the Torah refers to both these phenomena separately. The people who "collect" the sparks of sanctity which are scattered all over the earth qualify for the title "kingdom" just as Moses qualified for the title "king" as a result of his leading the people out of Egypt.

אלה הדברים אשר תדבר, "These are the words you are to say, etc." G'd tells Moses and Aaron that they should not think the words: "you will be for Me a kingdom of priests" were addressed only to them; Moses was to address these words to the whole people inasmuch as they had attained this lofty spiritual level. As for my alternate explanation that the words introduced by the word ואתם had indeed been directed only at Moses and Aaron, the meaning of אלה הדברים would then be that Moses and Aaron should not add any words of their own to what G'd had told them. Should you say that this is so obvious that the Torah did not need to mention it, the question is why did G'd find it necessary to issue such a warning only here and not elsewhere?

The meaning of אלה הדברים is for Moses to communicate these words to the people of Israel word for word without any commentary. The reason G'd was so concerned about this was because these words contained elements designed to evoke both fear of the Lord and love for G'd. We have already dealt with this dilemma in our commentary on verse three on the words כה תאמר. G'd was worried that Moses might add words of his own designed to make the Israelites love G'd more or to make them fear Him more. This is why He warned Moses not to add any words of his own at this stage. If Moses were to tell the people things which would make the people fear the Lord more, they would wind up accepting the Torah because of fear, whereas G'd had alluded to the element of fear only in the manner a chef adds seasoning to a dish which is excellent even on its own. G'd was only interested in sufficient fear to stop a person from ignoring certain minor aspects of מצוה fulfilment by consoling himself that G'd loved him so much that He would not mind a minor infraction.

G'd may also have intended to subject the Israelites to a kind of test by limiting Himself to the minimum number of words possible in urging the people to accept the Torah. Should these words prove insufficient for that purpose it would prove that the people were still far from ready to accept the Torah with a pure heart. Anything Moses would add to G'd's words, even if causing the Israelites to accept the Torah, would negate G'd's test of the people.